New food-related programming at the Chicago Public Library

Hi,

This is Scott W., I'm a librarian at the Harold Washington Library Center downtown. Since the section I'm in houses all the cookbooks and hospitality resources, we were thinking of putting a different spin on the standard book club by inviting local chefs, sous chefs and sommeliers to come and talk about the recipes and styles of cooking that inspired them. Instead of focusing on one book, it would be a way of highlighting many food-related works in our collection. The local foodie community would be the natural audience for this, so LTHForum was nice enough to invite me to start a thread so members could give feedback on the proposal. So what would bring you to State Street to talk about food and peruse the books? Because these resources are for you, professionals and diners alike.

Cheers,

SW

Love the idea. I'm part of a very informal "cooking the books" book club where we select a different cookbook every couple of months and meet to discuss the recipes, the writing, etc. While we usually bring dishes to this gathering, it might be interesting to hold a session at the library, particularly if an author that we are reading is in town or a chef could join us who was inspired by the author of the book we worked from that month. I see a lot of possibilities with this.

Looking forward to hearing what evolves from this idea!

Thanks B, I'm sure your local library would be happy to host your gathering, though the rules about food have gotten a lot stricter in the last few years. That's why we're planning on the chefs and cooks talking food instead of actually cooking, as we'd have them do back in the day. Glad to hear your group does cookbooks: if we can't serve food, at least we can inspire folks to make some.