Culinary Historians of Chicago
SPRING 2002
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NEWSLETTER OF THE Culinary Historians of Chicago |
SPRING 2002 |
Dear Fellow CHCers,
As a historian I can't resist the following. The name "Egypt" is likely related to food -- what isn't? The most cogent theory dates the origin to 1831 and a terrible drought in central Illinois. At the time, the state's population was about 40,000, most of it in the southern half. Kaskaskia and Shawnetown were the capitals and the most important settlements in the state. So bad was the food shortage that farmers and grain merchants traveled south where the drought had not struck. Loading wagons with grain, they returned, like the children of Israel, from the land of Egypt with sustenance for their hungry people. Or so one preacher, apparently in Vandalia, pictured the scene. In a culture steeped in the Bible, once coined the name spread from pulpit to pulpit, newspaper to newspaper, and it stuck. One might think that Cairo (pronounced Kay-ROW) came after this. The site actually preceded "Egypt." Entrepreneurs from Baltimore, thinking that the confluence of the two great arteries of commerce and settlement would be a natural place to set up a trading center, planned and named the proposed town Cairo in 1818. They compared the Ohio to the Nile River with Cairo as the storehouse of the valley's agricultural wealth -- grain and hogs (Cincinnati upriver would be called "Porkopolis"). Though the city never took off economically until the Civil War, the region around Cairo was already associated with that ancient kingdom, so it was probably natural to dub it "Egypt" in the 1830s. Today, Cairo is a virtually abandoned town, awaiting tourist development, but Egypt is still a serious agricultural region, filled with orchards (the best peaches I know of), grape arbors, and in the season at hand, wild mushrooms. Few restaurateurs have exploited this resource, with one notable exception.
Tom's Place is the place for haute cuisine in the region. Located on Hwy. 51 in DeSoto, a small town just north of Carbondale, it has been operated by Lasse and Mary Jane Sorensen for the past four years. He is a classically trained Danish chef who was on the culinary team that created the dishes for the great 1988 food movie, "Babette's Feast." He migrated to Los Angeles to work in major dining establishments and where he met his wife. She, an Egyptian native, persuaded him that the region needed a really good restaurant and so an old time restaurant building called Tom's Place was transformed into a fine dining establishment. I won't go into more details except to tell you this. The Boss and I went to dinner a while ago and she, ever the carnivore, ordered rack of lamb. Word came back from the kitchen that the dish would not be served because their purveyor had not sent good enough quality product. We discovered later from the owners that this was not just a fanciful tale: the chef is finicky about quality. Lasse uses lots of fresh local products in season for some superb dishes. Wild mushrooms such as morels, several kinds of chanterelles, and others appear on the menu in various preparations. For example, on April 24th Tom's will have its monthly wine-pairings dinner, this time with all the dishes having fresh local morel mushrooms in them. Now to "Babette's Feast." Lasse is laying on a re-creation of this great meal with the concordance of the film's producer (who may make an appearance the day before for a showing). This is a rare event because contractual obligations with the producer precludes the feast's re-creation. Lasse, however, has permission to do it. The cost is not cheap -- $180.00, but $100 of that is tax deductible as a donation to an educational institution: The Southern Illinois University, Carbondale, University Honors Program invites you to a special event, a fundraiser for the International Film Series, as Chef Lasse Sorensen re-creates the menu from the film "Babette's Feast." Monday, May 20, 2002. 6:30 p.m. reception and 7:00 p.m. dinner.
If you are interested -- in the wine-pairings dinner or "Babette's Feast" -- and want to trek down here, the restaurant's number is 618-867-3033.
Can you see the pharoahs of old sitting down to a multi-course "Babette's Feast," with wines to match? One of those courses being Blinis Demidoff with Russian Caviar. How about Rameses II, whose gigantic statues guard the entrance to the temple at Abu Simbel, but whose modern fame lives in the film image of Yul Brynner in the "Ten Commandments." Yes, slipping a Blini in his mouth, he might close his eyes and sigh; "Moses, Moses, Moses ... and you thought that Blintzes were good!"
Next time, stories of the Egg Lady, Frying and Las Vegas.
Bruce Kraig, April 2002, Carbondale, Illinois
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Nancy Ryan
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I had planned to devote this space to my recent trip to Las Vegas, Nevada and the food that I found in that quintessentially "American" city. But, interesting events occurring down here precipitate another letter from "Egypt." No, not the Pyramid Hotel in Las Vegas, but the region of Southern Illinois from about Carbondale south to the junction of the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers at Cairo. "Egypt" is widely used in these parts, from the Lake of Egypt recreational area to the Egyptian Power Cooperative, and the mascot of Southern Illinois University athletic teams, the Saluki. Basketball fans around the country who watched SIU's surprising run in the NCAA playoffs learned that the Saluki is a dog whose origins are in ancient Egypt (though, dog fanciers, I have yet to see one in the flesh here in the American Egypt).
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The deadline for the summer newsletter is May 31.
Nancy Ross Ryan
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