Listen Now

The Biology and Evolution of Rust Fungi M. Catherine Aime, PhD In terms of species numbers the rust fungi (Pucciniales) are an incredibly successful lineage. Together, the more than 7000 described species form the largest known monophyletic group of plant pathogens. All are obligate parasites of vascular plants including agricultural, forest and ornamental crops resulting in billions of dollars of damage worldwide each year. An intriguing aspect of rust biology is that species display an alternation of generations, with many species also alternating hosts during development, termed heteroecious. Additionally, most rusts require five different developmental stages to complete their life cycle. Whether these unique characteristics are ancestral or derived within the rusts has never been satisfactorily resolved. Most classical treatments of rust phylogeny and classification were based on the hypothesis that “primitive” hosts (e.g., ferns) harbored “primitive” rusts (e.g., Uredinopsis, Hyalopsora) that alternate on members of the Pinaceae. However, alternative hypotheses of rust evolution have proposed various short-cycled primarily tropical rusts as ancestral, with the defining characteristic of heteroecism thus being derived within the group. Molecular studies based on rDNA genes have since disproved the fern rust hypothesis, but the second hypothesis has not been previously tested. This study analyzes loci from multiple genes and taxa selected from all known families to resolve the base of the rust fungi and infer ancestral characters including the origins of heteroecism, alternation of generations, and the five stage developmental cycle for the order. Implications for rust diversification are discussed. M. Catherine Aime, Professor of Mycology and Director of the Arthur and Kriebel Herbaria, Department of Botany & Plant Pathology, Purdue University. IllinoisMyco.org

The Taco Truck: How Mexican Street Food Is Transforming the American City Robert Lemon PhD Author, Geographer, Documentary Film Maker Icons of Mexican cultural identity and America’s melting pot ideal, taco trucks have transformed cityscapes from coast to coast. The taco truck radiates Mexican culture within non-Mexican spaces with a presence—sometimes desired, sometimes resented—that turns a public street corner into a bustling business. Drawing on interviews with taco truck workers and his own skills as a geographer, Robert Lemon illuminates new truths about foodways, community, and the unexpected places where ethnicity, class, and culture meet. Lemon focuses on the San Francisco Bay Area, Sacramento, and Columbus, Ohio, to show how the arrival of taco trucks challenge preconceived ideas of urban planning even as cities use them to reinvent whole neighborhoods. As Lemon charts the relationships between food practices and city spaces, he uncovers the many ways residents and politicians alike contest, celebrate, and influence not only where your favorite truck parks, but what’s on the menu. Robert Lemon is an urban and social researcher in the Department of Geography and the Environment at the University of Texas Austin, and an urban and social researcher and documentary filmmaker. His films include Transfusión. Recorded via Zoom on June 2, 2021 www,CulinaryHistorians.org

The Fungi Involved with Devil's Stovepipes at Mt. Baldy, Indiana Dunes National Park Peter Avis, PhD from University of Maine In 2013, a young boy fell in a hole at Mt. Baldy. Fortunately, he survived and the pursuit to understand the formation of these holes (aka Devil's Stovepipes) ensued. This presentation will cover an overview of the research colleagues and I have conducted to understand the role of fungi in the formation of these holes. The whole story is about the decomposition of wood conducted by fungi! Peter Avis, PhD recently moved to accept a position at the University of Maine. He formerly was at Indiana University Northwestfrom 2007 until 2020 and prior to that he had a post doctoral position with Greg Mueller at the Field Museum. His PhD is from Minnesota where he worked with Dave McLauglin, Ris Charvat and Trice Morrow. His research falls into three general categories: Fungal ecology and evolution, molecular methodology for the study of fungi, and ecological restoration monitoring. Recorded via Zoom on May 3, 2021 IllinoisMyco.org

Black Smoke: African Americans and the United States of Barbecue Presented by Adrian Miller Food Writer, Attorney, Certified Barbecue Judge Join us as James Beard Award-winning author Adrian Miller discusses the history of African American barbecue culture from his book, Black Smoke: African Americans and the United States of Barbecue. Black Smoke describes how African Americans inherited a type of cooking that fused Native American meat smoking and European grilling techniques that became known as “barbecue.” By the early 1800s, African Americans were firmly established as barbecue’s “go to” cooks. Black Smoke further explores different aspects of African American barbecue culture. You’ll find out how barbecue permeated plantation culture and spread with slavery. You’ll see the ways that African Americans made barbecue an essential part of social life in the rural South whether in religious life, politics, or special occasions. You’ll see how African Americans became barbecue’s most effective ambassadors by giving those outside the South a taste of southern barbecue as freelance caterers at special events and restaurant entrepreneurs who settled in new communities during “The Great Migration.” For generations, African Americans gave people of all types their first taste of barbecue. To accentuate this phenomenal history, Black Smoke profiles sixteen men and women who epitomized barbecue excellence. About Adrian Miller Adrian Miller is a food writer, James Beard Award winner, attorney, and certified barbecue judge who lives in Denver, Colorado. Bibliography Miller’s first book, Soul Food: The Surprising Story of an American Cuisine, One Plate at a Time won the James Beard Foundation Award for Scholarship and Reference in 2014. His second book, The President’s Kitchen Cabinet: The Story of the African Americans Who Have Fed Our First Families, From the Washingtons to the Obamas was published on President’s Day 2017. It was a finalist for a 2018 NAACP Image Award for “Outstanding Literary Work – Non-Fiction,” and the 2018 Colorado Book Award for History. Adrian’s third book, Black Smoke: African Americans and the United States of Barbecue, will be published Spring 2021. Awards In 2018, Adrian was awarded the Ruth Fertel “Keeper of the Flame Award” by the Southern Foodways Alliance, in recognition of his work on African American foodways. In 2019, Adrian received the Judge Henry N. and Helen T. Graven award from Wartburg College in Waverly, Iowa, for being “an outstanding layperson, whose life is nurtured and guided by a strong sense of Christian calling, and who is making a significant contribution to community, church, and our society.” Biography Adrian received an A.B in International Relations from Stanford University in 1991, and a J.D. from the Georgetown University Law Center in 1995. From 1999 to 2001, Miller served as a special assistant to President Bill Clinton with his Initiative for One America – the first free-standing office in the White House to address issues of racial, religious and ethnic reconciliation. Miller went on to serve as a senior policy analyst for Colorado Governor Bill Ritter Jr. From 2004 to 2010, he served on the board for the Southern Foodways Alliance. In June 2019, Adrian lectured in the Masters of Gastronomy program at the Università di Scienze Gastronomiche (nicknamed the “Slow Food University”) in Pollenzo, Italy. He is currently the executive director of the Colorado Council of Churches and, as such, is the first African American, and the first layperson, to hold that position. Social Media Facebook: Soul Food Scholar Page Instagram: @soulfoodscholar Twitter: @soulfoodscholar Recorded via Zoom on May 19, 2021 www.CulinaryHistorians.org

What's in a Name? Mycology Etymology Anna Henning Many scientific names for fungi (known as binomial nomenclature) are difficult enough to pronounce, let alone understand. Have you ever wondered what Craterellus means, or why turkey tails are in the genus Trametes? Knoweledge can be challenging to retain if we don't have a framework for understanding it, but this talk will make it fun and easy to remember! Have you ever struggled to remember the scientific names for mushrooms or felt confused when looking through your mycology guide? Often the clues to remembering and understanding binomials are hidden in plain sight, and after attending this talk I'll bet you will be surprised at how much more familiar these tricky names are to you than you thought! For word nerds, history buffs, and mycoenthusiasts alike. Anna Henning (they/them) is a self-taught mycoenthusiast and native New Englander currently living in Oregon. Lead by curiosity, Anna began learning about mushrooms in 2014, when they happened to be living in an incredibly diverse fungal region of central Massachusetts, and began sharing that knowledge online through Instagram under the name @Breakfast_of_champignonz in 2018. For the last year Anna has been sharing most Mondays about the etymological roots and meanings behind scientific mushroom names in an effort to make binomial nomenclature more accessible to the non-scientific community. An historically picky eater, Anna enjoys finding, photographing, and learning about mushrooms even more than eating them. Anna's favorite fungi to find are Grifola frondosa (Maitake/Hen of the Woods), Calostoma cinnabarinum (stalked puffball), Exsudoporus frostii, and Gyroporus cyanescans, and their life motto is, "Always be looking, always be learning!" Recorded via Zoom on May 17, 2021 IllinoisMyco.org

Pizzeria Uno and the Mysterious Origins of Deep-Dish Pizza Peter Regas, PizzaHistoryBook.com Who invented deep-dish pizza? Is there a more controversial question in Chicago food history? There’s little doubt the pizzeria at 29 East Ohio Street in Chicago- originally named “The Pizzeria” later renamed “Pizzeria Uno”- served the original deep-dish pizza. But despite decades of debate and speculation, no one has definitively identified who created the pizza style that now has a market niche worth hundreds of millions of dollars and that -rightly or wrongly- branded Chicago, as a deep-dish pizza town. Based on twelve years of archival research, this presentation will compare previously published claims with newly discovered archival primary sources to determine what’s true, false, and arguable. A brief overview of some of the archival sources used in the research: For these details, go to: https://culinaryhistorians.org/the-origins-of-deep-dish-pizza-whats-true-whats-false-and-whats-arguable/ Conclusions on previous claims: Some, including the current corporate owners of Pizzeria Uno, say Ike Sewell created deep-dish pizza. Sewell was a Texas-born college football star who came to Chicago in 1934 to work as a sales manager for a liquor company and was the owner of Pizzeria Uno when he died in 1990. But Sewell very likely had no direct or indirect ownership stake in the “The Pizzeria” at 29 East Ohio Street when it opened in December 1943. Sewell indirectly became a part-owner only after “The Pizzeria” opened (Sewell’s wife Florence signed the 1944 partnership agreement). Therefore, Sewell likely had no involvement with the initial creation of deep-dish pizza. Still, others insist it was Rudy Malnati Sr. the longtime manager of Pizzeria Uno and father of future pizzeria owners Lou Malnati and Rudy Malnati Jr., who created deep-dish pizza. But multiple primary sources show Rudy Malnati Sr. was the pizzeria’s third manager, not the first. Other than later statements made by Sewell and Malnati, there is no primary source evidence Rudy Malnati Sr. had any official involvement with the pizzeria in the 1940s. Interestingly, his son Lou Malnati was a bartender at Pizzeria Uno before Rudy Malnati Sr. was Pizzeria Uno’s manager. Finally, others say Ric Riccardo created deep-dish pizza. Riccardo, an Italian-American artist who came to Chicago in the late 1920s, eventually opened a popular restaurant on Rush Street, later opened “The Pizzeria” as the sole owner, and then partnered with Ike Sewell’s wife Florence until he died in 1954. Primary sources show Ric Riccardo lived with his family at an apartment at 29 E. Ohio St. from late 1942 until 1944. By November 1942, the previous owners of the basement tavern at 29 E. Ohio St. called “The Pelican” had closed their business. It’s likely that in the late summer/early fall of 1943, Riccardo got the idea to open up “The Pizzeria” and also, during that period, developed the initial deep-dish recipe. Is Riccardo’s original recipe the same deep-dish pizza we eat today? Probably not. It’s certainly possible the original dough recipe was later modified by Uno’s pizza cook Alice Mae Redmond when she was hired sometime in the mid to late 1940s. Additionally, for reasons not entirely clear, deep-dish pizza almost certainly got thicker sometime in the late 1950s to early 1960s period. Recorded via Zoom on May 13, 2021 www.CulinaryHistorians.org

Ravinia Music Under the Stars Around the World An Archives Access Project Courtesy of the Illinois Secretary of State Presented by Steve Gianni, Project Archivist for Ravinia Park Collections Nancy Webster, Archivist of the Highland Park Archives and Local History Collections at the library This project has been a journey of discovery through the basement, closets and file cabinets of an institution established in 1904. A hidden collection laid waiting for an archives program to claim it. We hope this is the beginning of a program that will fill in gaps in the Festival’s institutional memory and documentation. Thankfully, the Highland Park Historical Society had already begun the work with the Ravinia Park Collection, an important task of collecting of programs, posters, and other historical materials for each season. And, the Ravinia Association donated records to the Newberry Library, creating an additional resource. These materials and many stored on site at the Ravinia Festival have been digitized with a grant to the Highland Park Public Library from the Illinois Secretary of State, as have other materials documenting the festival housed at Ravinia, the Newberry Library, and other locations. A presentation of key images and documents will be presented to create a historical timeline of Ravinia Festival from this collaboration. Ravinia’s Steans Music Institute is also a part of this project. Since 1988, the institute has hosted musicians from around the globe in intimate performances and Master Classes with renowned musicians from the classical and jazz world. Luckily, these performances were all video recorded, and are being digitized and uploaded to the Illinois State Library and will be available to the world. Culled from over 1,000 videotapes of various formats from 1988 through 2013, plus over 150 digital video files from 2014 through 2019. This collection will represent the entire history of Ravinia’s Steans Music Institute, creating an invaluable educational and historical resource. About the Highland Park Historical Society: The mission of the Highland Park Historical Society is to preserve our community’s past, to inspire an appreciation of our history and culture, and to share with the community and scholars the rich history of Highland Park, Illinois. The Society is a 501(c)(3) charitable organization and is administered by a volunteer Board of Directors. The Archives and Research Collections are housed in the Highland Park Public Library. Recorded via Zoom on April 22, 2021 www.HighlandParkHistory.com

Linking DNA to the microscope Timothy James PhD In the past twenty years the field of mycology has been revolutionized by studies that use DNA detected in the environment to reveal a hidden diversity that exceeds the diversity that has been formally described. In other words, what is present in the pages of journals and cabinets of herbaria is only the tip of the iceberg of a vast fungal species diversity. Unfortunately knowing something is there can only tell one so much. Timothy James will discuss some of the approaches we can use to infer the biology of these hidden organisms using a Tree of Life paradigm and microscopy and cultivation methods. He will discuss in particular a project on the aquatic group known as chytrids which are mostly known as aquatic parasites of algae, zooplankton, or as water molds. These fascinating fungi are the only ones that spores that swim around, which is an adaptation for living in an aquatic habitat that has been maintained from before the blossoming of life on land. In this project we are using sequencing from single cells observed in the microscope to read out the evolutionary history and ecological toolkit that is written into the genome. Timothy James is a Professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at the University of Michigan and the Curator of Fungi at the University Herbarium. He received my BSc in Botany from the University of Georgia and PhD from Duke University. His research focuses on reconstructing the Fungal Tree of Life and using DNA sequencing to understand the mysterious ways that fungi reproduce and find food in the environment. His specific groups of interest include the chytrid fungi, a microscopic group that like animals has retained the ability to swim. He recently established a culture collection that maintains over 1000 strains of these fungi for distribution to the scientific community. He has been actively involved in the Mycological Society of America and served as Associate Editor for Mycologia. Additional service roles include Director of the department’s Frontiers Master’s Bridging Program, Co-Founder and Director of the Midwest American Mycological Information educational non-profit, and member of the DOE Joint Genome Institute’s Users Executive Committee. Recorded via Zoom on April 19, 2021 www.IllinoisMyco.org

The Making of James Beard, An American Legend Presented by John Birdsall, Author, The Man Who Ate Too Much Food of the past that comes to us through recipes and cookbooks can appear to be fixed evidence of what generations before us ate, their tastes and preferences. John Birdsall says that his research for The Man Who Ate Too Much: The Life of James Beard (Norton, 2020) challenged all his assumptions about that. The author found that letters between Beard and his agent and publishers revealed that the backstories about how some of the most influential cookbooks published last century included prejudice, messy personal feuds, persuasion, underhandedness, and compromise. In his talk, Mr. Birdsall will describe the making of three of James Beard’s iconic cookbooks: The Fireside Cook Book of 1949, Delights and Prejudices of 1964, and James Beard’s American Cookery of 1972. He’ll talk about the original pitches for the books, how those changed during the writing; he’ll look at how Beard’s editors shaped his words and his persona; how Beard himself struggled to find his voice and identity; his work with ghost writers and collaborators; and how the books were received by the press and the public. * * * * John Birdsall is a Tucson-based food and culture writer, author of The Man Who Ate Too Much: The Life of James Beard (Norton, 2020), and the recipient of two James Beard Awards for writing. He is the co-author, with chef James Syhabout, of Hawker Fare (Ecco Press, 2018). His articles have appeared in Food & Wine, Saveur, Bon Appétit, Los Angeles Times, and San Francisco Chronicle, @John_Birdsall Recorded via Zoom on April 14, 2021 www.CulinaryHistorians.org

Shooting Spores: Understand the Physics of the Most Amazing Apparatuses on Earth Presented by Anne Pringle, PhD Fungi use spores to move between habitats and spore dispersal is critical to their success. Fungi use an astonishing array of apparatuses and strategies to move their progeny: sacs filled with fluid that explode like water balloons, collapsing drops of liquid, and winds created by the cooperative release of hundreds of thousands of their spores. Fungi may even sense impending thunderstorms and use their updrafts to disperse longer distances. I’ll talk about all of this amazing biology and try and convince you that fungi actively manipulate the fates of their spores, a contrast to the perception of spore release as entirely passive. Anne Pringle was born in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, and spent her childhood traveling through Southeast Asia and West Africa. After being dragged along on one-too-many birding expeditions, she abandoned the birds for fungi. She was an undergraduate at the University of Chicago, and then completed a Ph.D. in Botany and Genetics at Duke University. After completing a Miller Institute for Basic Research in Science Fellowship at the University of California, Berkeley, she joined the faculty at Harvard University. She next moved to the University of Wisconsin, Madison, where she is now Vilas Distinguished Achievement Professor in the Departments of Botany and Bacteriology. She has been awarded the Alexopoulos Prize for a Distinguished Early Career Mycologist (2010), the Mendelsohn Excellence in Mentoring Award from the Harvard University Graduate Student Council (2011), the Fannie Cox Prize for Excellence in Science Teaching from Harvard University (2013), and a Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study Fellowship (2011-2012). IllinoisMyco.org Recorded via Zoom on April 5, 2021

How the Frugality of Rural Foodways Reshaped this Nationally Acclaimed Chef Presented by Vivian Howard Chef, Author, PBS Host Vivian Howard moved from New York back to her rural hometown to open a fine-dining restaurant that she hoped would reshape the palates of eastern North Carolina. But an encounter with collard kraut and a trip to “America’s largest pork display” ignited her interest in the traditional foods and culinary techniques unique to the Carolina coastal plain she calls home. So instead of changing the way her friends and neighbors eat, her community transformed Vivian’s culinary point of view and gave her cooking a singular voice. In this discussion Vivian talks about the food of the frugal farmer and how that approach to the kitchen reshaped the way she cooks in her restaurants and at home. “ * * * * Vivian Howard is an award-winning cookbook author, tv personality, chef and restaurateur. Her first cookbook, Deep Run Roots: Stories & Recipes from My Corner of the South (2016), is a New York Times bestseller and was named “Cookbook of the Year” by the International Association of Culinary Professionals. She created and stars in public television shows Somewhere South and A Chef’s Life, for which she has won Peabody, Emmy and James Beard awards. Vivian runs the restaurants Chef & the Farmer in Kinston, NC; Benny’s Big Time in Wilmington, NC; Handy & Hot and Lenoir in Charleston, SC. In October 2020, Vivian released her second cookbook, This Will Make It Taste Good: A New Path to Simple Cooking. Recorded via Zoom on March 24, 2021 www.CulinaryHistorians.org

Illuminating Fungi: the Science of Fungal Bioluminescence with Brian Perry PhD Fungal bioluminescence was first described by Aristotle (384-322 B.C.E.), and continues to fascinate and puzzle scientists today. While over 100 species of fungi are known to produce luminescent mushrooms or mycelium, the chemical and genetic basis of the light-producing reaction was only recently discovered, and the reason these fungi glow remains somewhat of a mystery. Come learn about our current understanding of the evolution, ecology and biochemistry of this phenomenon. And yes, there will be lots of pictures of glowing mushrooms! Bio: "Brian Perry is an Associate Professor of Biology at California State University, East Bay. He received his Master's Degree from San Francisco State University under the guidance of Dr. Dennis E. Desjardin, and his Ph.D. from Harvard University where he studied with Dr. Donald H. Pfister. Brian has been studying fungi since 1995, and has published over 45 papers in scientific journals. In addition to studying the evolution of fungal bioluminescence, he also conducts research on mushrooms and other fungi of Vanuatu, the assembly and biogeography of island fungal communities, endophytic fungi of Hawaiian plants, and the systematics of Mycena and allied genera. Brian teaches several mycology courses at Cal State East Bay and the Sierra Nevada Field Campus, and recently launched a Sierra Nevada Mycoflora project.” Recorded via zoom on March 1, 2021. IllinoisMyco.org

Swedish Pancakes for Breakfast? Presented by B. Marcus L. Cederström Folklorist Why do we eat the things we eat? And how do those things change due to migration? This talk explores what the foods we eat can tell us about immigration, identity, and Nordic-American life in the Upper Midwest, by focusing on coffee, lutefisk, and, of course, Swedish pancakes. Marcus Cederström earned his B.A. from the University of Oregon in Sports, Business, History, and Scandinavian Studies, and his M.A. and Ph.D. in Scandinavian Studies from the University of Wisconsin–Madison. It is there that he works in the Department of German, Nordic, and Slavic Studies as the community curator of Nordic-American folklore for the ‘Sustaining Scandinavian Folk Arts in the Upper Midwest’ project. Recorded via Zoom on March 4, 2021 www.CulinaryHistorians.org

The Rise: Black Cooks and the Soul of American Food An interview with Chef Marcus Samuelsson Conducted by culinary historian and food writer Donna Pierce Black cooking has always been more than “soul food,” with flavors tracing to the African continent, to the Caribbean, all over the United States, and beyond. Join us as internationally acclaimed chef Marcus Samuelsson highlights the diverse deliciousness of Black cooking today. Driven by a desire to fight against bias, reclaim Black culinary traditions, and energize a new generation of cooks, Chef Samuellson will share his own journey and that of other top chefs, writers, and activists. * * * * The Ethiopian-born, Swedish raised, Marcus Samuelsson is one of the most famous chefs in the world. He’s an entrepreneur, philanthropist and culinary star with a long list of TV and book credits as well as ownership of a namesake global hospitality group that includes more than a dozen restaurants. His most famous eatery, Red Rooster is in New York’s Harlem, where he lives. Chef Samuelsson’s latest book, The Rise, begins with a look to the future, exploring where Black food is heading, and then pays homage to cooks on whose shoulders Black chefs stand, and the migration stories that make the cuisine so diverse and rich. * * * * A fixture in Chicago’s culinary scene, Donna Pierce has worked as a test kitchen director and assistant food editor for the Chicago Tribune, an adjunct assistant professor at the University of Missouri School of Journalism and contributing editor for Upscale Magazine. Her syndicated column “Black America Cooks” has appeared in the Chicago Defender and other national Black publications. With a Nieman Foundation Visiting Fellowship at Harvard University, she researched black cookbooks and forgotten cooks at The Schlesinger Library for her upcoming book about Freda Deknight. http://www.CulinaryHistorians.com

Thoughts on the Origins of Pizzerias in America and Chicago with Peter Regas PizzaHistoryBook.com In the past, the historical consensus was the first licensed pizzeria in America was opened in 1905 at 53 Spring St. in New York City by a young Italian immigrant named Gennaro Lombardi. However, in 2019 at the U.S. Pizza Museum in Chicago, Peter Regas challenged that consensus with a talk titled “Filippo Milone and the Forgotten Pizza Makers of New York City.” Based on more than ten years of archival research, Regas makes the following claims. There’s no primary source evidence a then eighteen-year-old Gennaro Lombardi owned a pizzeria in 1905. Instead, sources show Lombardi briefly owned the 53 Spring St. pizzeria in 1908, re-purchased it from a relative in 1918, and continued to own it until his death in 1958. More significantly, when Lombardi bought the pizzeria in 1908 it had already been a pizzeria for several years. The now-famous pizzeria was probably established in 1898 by a previously forgotten but extremely significant pizza maker named Filippo Milone. It turns out, the Spring Street pizzeria was probably just one of at least six different New York City pizzerias established by Milone between the years 1894-1922. Born in Piano di Sorrento in 1862, Milone is one of several previously unknown New York City pizza makers of an earlier generation who decided to emigrate around the turn of the century from Italy’s Campania region. Which pizza maker of that earlier generation opened up the first pizzeria in America? Regas discovered Giovanni Albano, a former pizzeria owner from Naples, established the first currently verified pizzeria in 1894 at 59 ½ Mulberry St. in New York City. While there is evidence of earlier pizzerias the farther back in time one searches the more circumstantial the evidence becomes and the more one is forced to confront the distinction between a peddler, a bakery, and a dedicated pizzeria. In the upcoming presentation, Regas will also be presenting evidence of the first known pizzerias in Chicago. Tom Granato’s Pizzeria Napolitana established in 1924 at 907 W. Taylor St will be discussed along with many never-before-published Granato pizzeria photos. Long forgotten Chicago pizzerias in the 1930s and early 1940s will also be presented. Questions naturally flow when the historical record is revealed. Was there anyone before Granato? When did pizza become popular in Chicago? How and why was Chicago’s pizza history different than New York’s? Why were the taverns so dominant in Chicago’s pizza history? And finally what’s the deal with the tavern cut? Note, Regas will not be presenting his discoveries on the origins of Pizzeria Uno and Chicago deep-dish pizza in this talk. That subject is complicated enough to need a presentation dedicated exclusively to deep-dish pizza which is currently scheduled with the Chicago Foodways Roundtable for Thursday, May 13, 2021. Recorded on February 11, 2021 via ZOOM. CulinaryHistorians.com

Mushroom Preservation: How to preserve, store and enjoy your foraged bounty for year-round use with Trent and Kristen Blizzard When the rains come the mushrooms often come out in abundance. If you do not want all those fresh mushrooms to go to waste, what can you do with them? Learn tips & techniques to preserve your fresh mushrooms from Trent and Kristen. Once preserved, you can enjoy them in the coming year, or give them as gifts to friends and family. Self proclaimed “modern foragers” Trent and Kristen Blizzard reside in Glenwood Springs, Colorado. They have been trekking the forests of Colorado, the Midwest and the Pacific Northwest for years mostly with wild, edible mushrooms in mind. At first a hobby, the hunt for mushrooms quickly became nothing short of an obsession for these two mycophiles, both of whom are certified Wild Mushroom Identification Experts in their home state of Colorado. They are the authors of Wild Mushrooms: A Cookbook and Foraging Guide. Whether you are a seasoned forager or new to the wild and wonderful word of edible forest fungi, this book has something for you! You will find a wealth of tips and tricks for harvesting each mushroom, along with general cooking techniques and preservation methods. They endeavor to explore not only a selection of delicious cuisine and new methods of cooking these wild edibles, but the question of how to preserve and enjoy your harvests all year long. The book is also a celebration of people they have met over the years. Regardless of what mushroom they are after or where they are searching, Trent and Kristen often have their two crazy doodles (Benzie and Lulu) helping out. They also employ a wide range of technologies that bring a modern twist to an ancient practice. As modern foragers, they utilize digital mapping, social media, GPS, phone apps, and even satellite internet while on the road. You will find them blogging about their adventures Recorded via Zoom on February 1, 2021 IllinoisMyco.org

What's in a Name? Understanding nomenclature and name changes Presented by Patrick Leacock, PhD Our current system of naming started 267 years ago with Carl Linnaeus. He gave us Agaricus (gilled fungi) and Boletus (pored fungi) and nine other genus names for 89 species of fungi. Later Fries and Persoon and others published lots more scientific names. The proliferation of names got messy. So 177 years ago folks started developing rules for using names that became a code for nomenclature. Today we have about 100,000 species with more named every year. We will look at scientific names and the basic requirements for their publication. Examples will show the various reasons for names to change; splitting and lumping and splitting is common for genera and species. Patrick is a mycologist documenting the mushrooms of the Chicago Region. He teaches botany and mycology at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. He assists with forays and programs for the Illinois Mycological Association. He started his mushroom activities with the Minnesota Mycological Society before moving to Chicago. Patrick ran the Voucher Program for 20 years with the North American Mycological Association. Visit Patrick's website at www.mycoguide.com where he is trying to keep up with some of the name changes. Recorded via Zoom on January 18, 2021 IllinoisMyco.org

Gordon Sinclair, Live! An interview with the Chicago culinary icon conducted by award-winning food writer and publisher Michael Gebert The following information appeared in The Chicago Food Encyclopedia, University of Illinois Press, 2017, and was authored by Barbara Revsine. Gordon Sinclair was working in public relations when a psychic predicted he would become a famous restaurateur. After working part-time as a maître d’ to see whether he liked it, he opened his flagship restaurant Gordon in 1976. While Sinclair’s forte was the front of the house, he was a keen judge of culinary talent. Every chef who ever worked for him, beginning with Norman Van Aken and including Michael Kornick, Michael Foley, Carrie Nahabedian, and Charlie Trotter, turned in a bravura performance. His restaurant raised the standard for Chicago dining and became a showcase of contemporary American cuisine. Sinclair also was an urban pioneer. Choosing to open his first restaurant on the 500 block of North Clark Street when the area was littered with derelicts and seedy bars helped to jump-start the trend-setting neighborhood’s gentrification. Gordon’s clientele was a worldly as they were food savvy. They smiled at the salacious artwork in the restrooms, appreciated the avant-garde option of ordering half portions of select dishes, cheered the groundbreaking ban on cell phones, and displayed an endless appetite for the restaurant’s flourless chocolate cake and artichoke fritters. He closed the restaurant and retired in 1999. * * * * Michael Gebert is one of Chicago’s leading food writers and food media professionals. He is editor and publisher of Fooditor, which won a Peter Lisagor Award for Best Independent Blog in 2019, and has written for the Chicago Reader, Chicago magazine, Plate, First We Feast, and other publications. As video producer for the Reader’s Key Ingredient chef challenge series, he won a James Beard Award in 2011 and has been nominated two other times for his video work. He is currently working on an oral history of Chicago restaurants for Agate Publishing. Recorded via Zoom on January 13, 2021 www.CulinaryHistorians.org

An Onion in My Pocket, My Life with Vegetables Presented by Deborah Madison Thanks to her beloved cookbooks and groundbreaking work as the chef at Greens Restaurant in San Francisco, Deborah Madison, though not a vegetarian herself, has long been revered as this country’s leading authority on vegetables. She profoundly changed the way generations of Americans think about cooking with vegetables, helping to transform “vegetarian” from a dirty word into a mainstream way of eating. But before she became a household name, Madison spent almost twenty years as an ordained Buddhist priest, coming of age in the midst of counterculture San Francisco. In this charmingly intimate and refreshingly frank memoir, she tells her story–and with it the story of the vegetarian movement–for the very first time. From her childhood in Big Ag Northern California to working in the kitchen of the then-new Chez Panisse, and from the birth of food TV to the age of green markets everywhere, An Onion in My Pocket is as much the story of the evolution of American foodways as it is the memoir of the woman at the forefront. It is a deeply personal look at the rise of vegetable-forward cooking, and a manifesto for how to eat well. Recorded via Zoom on December 9, 2020. http://www.CulinaryHistorians.org

How Trader Joe’s Changed the Way America Eats Presented by Susie Wyshak Discover Trader Joe’s key role in introducing fun and unusual foods into the American diet decades ago, when the company was already encouraging the non-health food store shopper to try “better for you” versions of already-popular foods. Wyshak compares items featured in a 1982 flyer to how we eat now to show TJ’s importance in creating a nation of adventurous food lovers. This is not a “history of Trader Joe’s” but rather a fascinating snapshot of a turning point in American food history. At her interactive talk, we will be encouraged to share their own memories of TJ’s early days and food shopping today. Author Susie Wyshak has lived life seeking out, selling, promoting, and enjoying good food around the world. She wrote, Good Food, Great Business: How to Take Your Artisan Food Idea From Concept to Marketplace (Chronicle Books). Her self-published book, Chocolate Chip Cookie School helps kids learn critical thinking through cookies by deconstructing the history of the cookie and its ingredients, and then learning how to plan a cookie business or bake sale. Her latest book is, TJ’s Then & Now. Wyshak grew up in L.A. and now lives in Oakland, California where she consults with specialty food companies and recently did a stint as a concierge at a prominent specialty food store. She has happily shopped at more than fifty Trader Joe’s stores around the country. If you would like to obtain a copy of Susie's book TJ’s Then & Now, it is $15 including delivery. http://foodstarter.com/product/signed-tjs-then-now-book-by-susie-wyshak/ Recorded via Zoom on December 3, 2020. www.CulinaryHistorians.com