Chicago Foodways: The Early Years of Gourmet, Oct 22 @ 10 am

Chicago Foodways Roundtable

Beating the Nazis with Truffles and Tripe:
The Early Years of Gourmet:
‘The Magazine of Good Living’with David Strauss, PhD

Saturday, October 22, 2011 at 10 AM
Kendall College
900 North Branch Street, Chicago
(West of Halsted Street, North of Chicago Avenue)
Free Parking
Cost: $3 per person, free to Kendall students and faculty with ID.

As journalist Lucius Beebe remarked, it had taken “a stout heart and a sound stomach” to create a magazine of good living in 1941 as the Depression ended and Americans entered World War II. The success of Gourmet, however, depended even more on sound strategizing. Among potential readers, the staff targeted those who would replace the recipes of the ladies magazines, based mainly on processed food, with a mix of traditional American cooking and classical French cuisine. This reformulation of gourmet dining was timely in view of the Franco-American collaboration against the Nazis. And, it presented a great opportunity to staff and readers alike to devise a food regime based on un-rationed, mostly American, ingredients, which was far more patriotic than the government’s own rationing program.

David Strauss taught U.S. history, with an emphasis on cultural and diplomatic themes, from 1974 to 2002 at Kalamazoo College in Michigan. In addition to his most recent book, Setting the Table for Julia Child: Gourmet Dining in America, 1934-1961 David Strauss has also published Percival Lowell: The Culture and Science of a Boston Brahmin and Menace in the West: The Rise of French Anti-Americanism in Modern Times.

This program is hosted by the Chicago Foodways Roundtable. To reserve, please pm Cathy2, then leave your name, telephone number and how many people in your party or e-mail: chicago.foodways.roundtable@gmail.com

Hi,

A gentle reminder for this Saturday.

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:

Beating the Nazis with Truffles and Tripe: The Early Years of Gourmet: "The Magazine of Good Living" with David Strauss, PhD
http://www.wbez.org/story/beating-nazis ... ving-93839