Culinary Historians: "Stir Fryings to the Sky's Edge," 9/25

Culinary Historians of Chicago presents:

“Stir Frying to the Sky’s Edge”
Lecture, cooking demo and book signing
Presented by:
Grace Young,
Hailed as the “Poet Laureate of the Wok”

Saturday, September 25, 2010
10 a.m. to Noon
at
Kendall College, School of Culinary Arts
900 N. North Branch Street, Chicago
(Located just north of W. Chicago Ave. and N. Halsted St.)
Free Parking

Sadly, while the term “stir-fry” is part of the American culinary vocabulary, the stir-fry technique remains misunderstood. Stir-fried dishes are often poorly prepared in restaurants and misrepresented in magazines and cookbooks. Grace Young, crowned the “Poet Laureate of the Wok” by her peers, has devoted her career to demystifying the art of stir-frying. Join us as Grace shares the odyssey of her culinary detective hunt and the research that went into writing Stir-Frying to the Sky’s Edge. She’ll explain how for centuries stir-frying has sustained the Chinese diaspora, reinventing itself from one immigrant culture to the next all across the globe; and reveal how chop suey the faux stir-fry enabled the Chinese to overcome racism in America. Grace will also share some of the extraordinary cooking interviews she conducted with Chinese home cooks from around the world.

Grace travels with her own personal carbon-steel wok, braving airport security so that audiences can see the beauty of a well-seasoned wok and experience the superior taste of a wok-cooked stir-fry. She will demonstrate recipes from her new book explaining the secrets for stir-fry mastery in the home kitchen. Following her talk and food tasting, Grace will sign copies of Stir-Frying to the Sky’s Edge, which recently won a major award from the International Association of Culinary Professionals (IACP).

Grace is also the author of The Breath of a Wok, and The Wisdom of the Chinese Kitchen, which both won the IACP’s Le Cordon Bleu International Cookbook Award. For many years, Grace was test kitchen director and director for food photography for Time-Life Books. Grace lives in New York City. Visit her website, www.graceyoung.com .

Grace will be assisted by Chef Rebecca Wheeler, who last year was awarded the Barbara Tropp Memorial Internship in Beijing, China, by Women Chefs and Restaurateurs. Chef “Becca” leads ethnic food tours in Chicago, and teaches cooking at Gallery 37 and The Wooden Spoon. Visit her website, www.rebeccawheeler.com .

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Cost of the lecture program is $5, $3 for students and no charge for CHC members or Kendall students and faculty. *To reserve, please call (847) 432-8255 or e-mail your reservation to: Culinary.Historians@gmail.com.

Interestingly enough, I was glancing through the Stir Frying piece in the May 2010 Saveur in my "library" this morning and I came across an article written about Grace Young showing the Saveur test kitchen how to adapt Chinese stir frying techniques to the American kitchen, where the lack of a blistering hot fire creates unique challenges to the stir fry cook.

Hi,

I saw that very same article in Saveur. When it gets a tad bit cooler, I want to work through the techniques/recipes outlined there.

Grace will be do a wok demo. At the moment, we are scheduled to be in the WoodMode auditorium. There is a considerable gas range there, where we can likely see the food fly to the sky's edge.

Regards,

An article featuring Saturday's speaker Grace Young:

Give your wok a 'facial'...Bill Daley chats with Grace Young, author of Stir-Frying to the Sky's Edge, about zen and the art of wok maintenance.

There is still room.

Regards,

WBEZ’s Chicago Amplified partners with Culinary Historians by recording our programs and making them available for broadcast on demand at their website or downloadable to an iPod. Our most recent program:

Stir Frying to the Sky's Edge with Grace Young
https://www.wbez.org/shows/wbez-news/st ... 49cd526354