I come from a long line of cooking enthusiasts. My grandmother, Dorothy Mengering, published a cookbook based on recipes from her family, friends and travels (“Home Cooking with Dave’s Mom,” Atria, 1996). My parents are both accomplished home cooks. My brother is a graduate of the French Culinary Institute and has taught at cooking schools in Tuscany and Chicago—and he recently opened a bakery and cheese shop in Chicago’s Uptown neighborhood called Baker & Nosh. [I will tell you that I came up with the name. Clever, no?]
So I loved writing a feature article about family food traditions for my wonderful collaborators and colleagues at Edible Ohio Valley. Here’s an excerpt from the story:
The words we use to describe our connections with family are decidedly naturalistic. When someone travels to Scotland or Eastern Europe to find his ancestors, we say he’s gone off to trace his roots. We chart our family trees to record when Great Aunt Ethel lived and died and to understand how, exactly, we’re related to that third cousin twice removed. We talk about how our closest relatives help keep us grounded.
If our concept of family is deeply rooted in the earth — the source of the food that sustains us — then it’s not surprising that culinary traditions also twine through generations. Grandmothers pass on recipes to their granddaughters with as much reverence as they hand down the good silver. Fathers show sons how to tend the grill. When families gather, food is often the centerpiece.
Mine is one of those families bonded not just by DNA but also by chicken soup and blueberry pie. My grandmothers both transferred their cooking talents to my parents and then to my brother and me. Grandma Dorothy’s piecrust recipe remains my go-to; Grandmother Ruth’s coconut cream pie set the gold standard. My father certainly knows his way around the kitchen, and my mother calls often when she’s had a culinary breakthrough and generously shares beautiful and well-made dishes with friends and neighbors.
Read the full article in the Winter 2011 edition of Edible Ohio Valley.
