Past Guest Speakers - 2003

"French Culinary Nuances --
The History of Marseillaise and Provencale Cuisine"
 presented by
Daniel Young
Restaurant Critic, Cookbook Author
Saturday, January 18, 2003

The food of Marseilles (the capital of Provence), like the culture it richly reflects, is the result of 26 centuries of importation, immigration, and implantation. It is a cuisine du port -- a "seaport cuisine." Marseille's culinary evolution began with the Greek mariners who founded the city around 600 BC and soon after planted Provence's first olive, fig and walnut trees and vineyards.

Situated near the mouth of the Rhone River, Marseille has long been the principal French port of entry for everything moving from the south to the north: exotic spices, grains, cereals, sugar, oils, bananas, citrus fruit, and cocoa. Through foreign trade and shipping, Marseille developed an extraordinary capacity to absorb the foods and integrate the cuisine's of Southern and Southeastern Europe, the Middle East and North Africa. In addition to importing goods, Marseille cooks have always had access to the outstanding variety and quality of seafood fished off its shores. The city's "national" dish, the world famous bouillabaisse marseillaise, is a magnificent manifestation of that bounty.

Our speaker, Daniel Young, is the author of the recently published Made in Marseille -- Food and Flavors from France's Mediterranean Seaport (HarperCollins). He divides most of his time and meals between his hometown of New York, where he was restaurant critic of the Daily News, and Paris, where he wrote the Paris Cafe Cookbook. He has written about French food and culture for Gourmet, Bon Appetit, Conde Nast Traveler, and the Los Angeles Times. (Our volunteers will prepare tastings from Mr. Young's recipes.)

"It's unusually unusual --
Where to find 'different' food in Chicago"
presented by
Monica Eng
Feature writer, Chicago Tribune
Saturday, February 15, 2003

Have you ever tasted "cuy"? That's an Andean delicacy, also known as guinea pig, which is really a domestically raised rodent that is spit roasted and served in areas of Peru and Ecuador to honored guests or as part of special occasions like baptisms. And who among our members has picked their fork over "mughuz masala"? This South Asian dish is often made with mutton and goat brains in India, and with cow brains in Pakistan. But don't start salivating just yet, because you won't find these dishes at our meeting -- our volunteers threatened to go on strike if we asked them to prepare such tastings. (They opted to make dishes that were "interesting" for our group, but wouldn't give them the "queases" to cook.)

Instead, our speaker, Monica Eng, will give us food for thought as she takes us on an "unusual" ethnic tour of several Chicago markets, discussing the cultural and historical context of several dishes. She will use several of her "World Eats" columns as a basis for her talk, and tell how she searches out and researches her columns. She will also ask CHC members to share their ethnic dining tales.

Ms. Eng is a feature writer for the Chicago Tribune who focuses on ethnic culture and dining. She is a native Chicagoan who has also worked an an editor at the Tribune and the Daily Southtown, and as a reporter for the Chicago Sun-Times. She has lived in England, Nicaragua and Uzbekistan for extended periods and is always interested in traveling across town or across the world for great food experiences. About five years ago she started a weekly column for the Tribune called the "Dumpling Zone", exploring various starched wrapped delights in different cultures. The column exists today as "World Eats."

"The Kasbah, couscous and Kitty --
A culinary tour of marvelous Morocco"
presented by
Kitty Morse
Cookbook author, cooking teacher
Saturday, March 29, 2003

She is THE authority on Moroccan cuisine, according to CHC President, Bruce Kraig. Please join us as award-winning author Kitty Morse shares her passion and her expertise on her beloved homeland, Morocco. She will take us on a cultural and gastronomic tour through a series of slides illustrating Morocco's cornucopia of dishes, from tagines, to couscous, and mint tea. Kitty will also sign copies of several of her books, which will be available for purchase (The Scent of Orange Blossoms: Sephardic Cuisine from Morocco, Cooking at The Kasbah: Recipes from my Moroccan Kitchen, A Biblical Feast: Foods from the Holy Land).

Kitty Morse was born in Casablanca, Morocco, of a French mother and British father. She emigrated to the United States at the age of 17. While studying for her Master's Degree at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Kitty catered Moroccan diffas, or banquets, and went on to teach the intricacies of Moroccan cuisne in cooking schools and department stores nationwide. She is a regular guest on public radio, including the BBC's "The World." Kitty has given seminars on North African Cuisine and Culture at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. She has appeared on TV shows such as "Sara's Secrets" on the Food Channel, and on Morocco's national television. She is the author of 10 cookbooks. (Our volunteers will prepare several of Kitty's dishes for sampling.)