Chicago: an American culinary paradise. Discover the visionary restaurateurs, beloved haunts, and food companies (current and past) that not only helped build Chicago but fed a growing nation. From chef Grant Achatz to the edible (but unloved) zebra mussel, this A-to-Z compendium is the ultimate reference on the history of the city and its food.

Food historian Cynthia Clampitt pens the epic story of what happened when Mesoamerican farmers bred a nondescript grass into a staff of life so prolific, so protean, that it represents nothing less than one of humankind's greatest achievements. Blending history with reportage, she traces the disparate threads that have woven corn into the fabric of our diet, politics, economy, science, and cuisine. At the same time she explores its future as a source...

Traces the origins of Jewish cookery in the Midwest, from pioneers to Sephardic and Ashkenazic settlers, and from cities to farmlands. Surveying handwritten personal cookbooks, community archives, anecdotes, The Chicago Tribune and other sources, they reinforce food as ancestral memory and evidence of ingenuity. Extensive comparisons of recipes serve as clues toward generational and cultural shifts as well as adaptations to regional supplies and privations....

"Ann Beck is a third-generation Greek confectioner and independent scholar. With her sister, she co-owns and operates Flesor's Candy Kitchen in Tuscola, IL, her grandfather's original business begun in 1901. The sisters have been featured on the CBS Evening News and on regional Illinois PBS stations, as well as in the Chicago Tribune, Los Angeles Times, and American Profile magazine. This project is based on her dissertation completed at the University...