Cooking Boston: Where to Go

Cooking Boston: Where to Go

The great places and great personalities that put Boston on the map; looking at some of the big name restaurants like Anthony’s Pier 4, Locke-Ober’s, Jacob Wirth, to important innovators such as Tony Maws, Jim Koch, Chris Schlesinger, Lydia Shire, etc. to socially important neighborhood spots. 

The speakers include Jim O’Connell, author of Dining Out in Boston; Professor Corky White of Boston University; Erwin Ramos, former owner of Ole Restaurant Group; and MHS’s Peter Drummey. A display of historic menus will be available for this day only. 

Cooking Boston: How the Hub Shaped the American Diet 

This six program series will explore the culinary history of Boston and the impact the city has had on the American diet. In the first half of the 19th century, Boston had a reputation as the center for European taste and refinement. By the end of the 19th century, the Colonial Revival movement nationally popularized foods like Boston baked beans and Yankee pot-roast shifting Boston’s image from refined to rustic. In the 20th century, Boston clung to two identities: that of thrifty Puritans and of cosmopolitanism through education. This created some remarkably bland food but also made the city fertile ground for a culinary revolution. In the 1960s, chefs like Julia Child and Joyce Chen brought the flavors of the world to America through Boston.

The series will run from March through June of 2017. See the other programs in the series