Join Maite Gómez-Rejón of ArtBites in exploring early Mexican recipes. Read between the lines of colonial kitchen manuscripts, the first printed cookbooks post Independence through the Revolution in the early 20th century. Discover the shifting attitudes toward food, from a status marker and divider of classes to a tool for unifying the country and creating a unique national identity.

From the legendary Janet Keiller, popularly credited with "inventing" marmalade in Dundee, Scotland in the 1700s, to Cooper's, Chivers and Smucker's, the world's great marmalade manufacturers have fascinating stories. Touching on marmalade history from ancient times to the present, author Sarah B. Hood weaves a compelling tale that ties in Roman cookery, medieval Persian poetry, changing attitudes towards racism, scurvy in the British Navy, Victorian labour conditions and globalization, and perhaps explains why marmalade is such an enduringly beloved commodity.

Most Americans know very little about Puerto Rican cuisine, partly because Puerto Ricans are but one segment of a vast population known as Latinos or Hispanics, a group that includes people of diverse racial, social and economic backgrounds, from Mexico to Cuba to South America.

Puerto Ricans hail from the Caribbean; thus their cuisine is a potpourri of various cultures, particularly Spanish, native Caribbean and African. It’s heavy on spices, though native “Nuyorican” cuisine has become milder over time due to mainland American influence.

Across America, the pure love and popularity of barbecue cookery has gone through the roof. Prepared in one regional style or another, in the South and beyond, barbecue is one of the nation’s most distinctive culinary arts. And people aren’t just eating it; they’re also reading books and articles and watching TV shows about it. But why is it, asks Adrian Miller—food writer, attorney and longtime certified barbecue judge—that in today’s barbecue culture African Americans don’t get much love?

Join us for a look at the gendered history of Sunset Magazine‘s early years, from its first recipe columns featuring recipes submitted by women, to its various “outdoorsy” columns where men’s cooking found a place. Learn how Sunset’s cooking categories shape-shifted as the “cooking department” began to accommodate men who cooked.

Explore the customs, traditions, and stories surrounding Chinese food and festivals. 

Frances Kai-Hwa Wang is a journalist, essayist, speaker, activist, and poet focused on issues of diversity, race, culture, and the arts. The child of immigrants, she was born in Los Angeles, raised in Silicon Valley, and now divides her time between Michigan and the Big Island of Hawai‘i. 

This event is in partnership with Culinary Historians of Ann Arbor. 

Author Ann Flesor Beck, a third-generation confectioner, will discuss her new book, Sweet Greeks. Flesor’s grandfather, Gus Flesor, came to the U.S. from Greece in 1901 and settled in Tuscola, IL, where he learned the confectioner’s trade and opened a shop that still stands on Main St.

An engaging blend of family memoir and Midwest history, Sweet Greeks tells how Greeks became candy makers to the nation, one shop at a time.

This event is in partnership with the Culinary Historians of Ann Arbor. No registration is required. 

Celebrating the 100th anniversary of the Nineteenth Amendment, which guaranteed women the right to vote, All Stirred Up reveals a new side to the history of the suffrage movement.

Laura Kumin’s book acknowledges the familiar images of the women’s suffrage movement: picket signs, flowers and women in white marching through the streets, but demonstrates how much more there was to the movement. Ever courageous and creative, suffragists also carried their cause into America’s homes through cookbooks and food.

Like many Americans, Midwesterners have fond memories of apples. Family apple orchards are commonplace in the region, and cider mills used to be common and are making a comeback. Apple butter is a traditional way of preserving the fruit, while apple pies and pastries frequent many homemade and commercial tables. Johnny Appleseed is embraced as a hometown hero, and festivals frequently celebrate the fruit. These memories make apples a significant part of personal histories and local food cultures.

Manoomin: The Story of Wild Rice in Michigan is the first book of its kind to bring forward the rich tradition of wild rice in Michigan, and its importance to the Anishinaabek people who live here. The book received the 2018 Michigan History Award and 2019 Michigan Notable Book Award.