Our speaker programs are hosted by the Ann Arbor District Library on location, on YouTube and/or on Zoom.

Upcoming Programs

Sunday, October 15, 4 p.m.
Wealth and Want: Food in the Gilded Age
Dr. Helen Zoe Veit, Assoc. Professor of History
Michigan State University
Ann Arbor Downtown Library, 343 S. Fifth Ave. & Online

Sunday, November 19, 4 p.m.
Pumpkin: The Curious History of an American Icon
Dr. Cindy Ott, Assoc. Professor of History and Material Culture
University of Delaware
Online via Zoom

Winter Theme Meal
Sunday, December 10, 4 p.m.
Ladies Literary Club of Ypsilanti
218 N. Washington, Ypsilanti

Past Programs

Sunday, September 17, 2023
The Story of Jiffy Mix
Howard “Howdy” Holmes, CEO of Chelsea Milling Co.
View the recording

Summer Theme Meal
The Kitchen Front in WWII: Home  Gardens, Rationing and Eating for Victory
Sunday, July 9, 2023

Sunday, May 21, 2023
Made in Chicago: Stories Behind 30 Great Hometown Bites
Monica Eng and David Hammond, Chicago food journalists
View the recording

Sunday, April 16, 2023
What’s for Dinner? Menus and More from the Janice Bluestein Longone Culinary Archives at the University of Michigan
Juli McLoone, Curator
View the recording

Sunday, March 19, 2023
Lisa McDonald, owner of TeaHaus in Ann Arbor, and Jill Rheinheim, co-authors of the just-published Tea for Dummies (March 2023)
View the recording

Sunday, February 19, 2023
Bound to the Fire: How Virginia’s Enslaved Cooks Helped Invent American Cuisine
Kelley Fanto Deetz, Vice President of Collections and Public Engagement, Stratford Hall, Virginia
View the recording

Sunday, January 15, 2023
Sourdough Culture: A History of Breadmaking from Ancient to Modern Bakers
Eric Pallant, amateur baker, author and professor of Environmental Science and Sustainability at Allegheny College
View the recording

Sunday, December 11
Potluck Themed Meal: The Bonnie British Isles

Sunday, November 13
Detroit Tiki: A History of Polynesian Palaces and Tropical Drinks
A nostalgic look at some famous mid-century Detroit Tiki restaurants that embodied the height of the Polynesian craze, presented by author Renee Tadey
View the recording

Sunday, October 9
Ten Years of Culinary Delights from the International Museum of Dinnerware Design with museum director Margaret Carney
View the recording

Sunday, September 18
Forty Years of Zingerman’s and Its Impact on the Global Food World
with Micheline Maynard, author of Satisfaction Guaranteed.
View the recording

Sunday, July 10, 4-7 p.m.
Potluck Themed Meal: The Cuisines of the Caribbean
Ladies Literary Club, Ypsilanti
218 N. Washington St.

Sunday, May 15, 2022
What She Ate and Why I Wrote About It: Women, Food and Biography
Laura Shapiro, author of What She Ate: Six Remarkable Women and the Food That Tells Their Stories
View the recording.

Sunday, April 24, 2022
Unpacking the Meatpacking District Legacy of Ottman & Company, New York’s Storied Meat Purveyor 
Jacquelyn Ottman, fifth-generation member of a pioneering family of NYC butchers
Order the book.
View the recording.

Sunday, March 20, 2022
Victory Gardens: How a Nation of Vegetable Gardeners Helped to Win the War
with Judith Sumner, botanist, educator and garden historian
No recording available.

Sunday, February 20, 2022
The Provisions of War
Roundtable discussion hosted by Prof. Justin Nordstrom, Penn State University
View the recording.

Sunday, January 16, 2022
The Secret History of Home Economics
with journalist and author Danielle Dreilinger
View the recording.

Sunday, November 21, 2021
Prohibition and Repeal with Tammy Coxen, author of Cheers to Michigan
List of cocktail recipes
No recording available.

Sunday, October 31, 2021
German-American Foodways
Antje Petty, Max Kade Institute, University of Wisconsin
View the recording

Sunday, September 19, 2021
Early Mexican Cookbooks with Maite Gómez-Rejón
View the recording.

Sunday, June 20, 2021
The Marmalade Mavens with Sarah B. Hood
No recording available.

Sunday, May 16, 2021
Puerto Rican Cuisine in America with Oswald Rivera
View the recording

Sunday, April 18, 2021
Black Smoke: African Americans and the United States of Barbecue with James Beard Book Award Winner Adrian Miller (adrianemiller.com).
View the recording.

Sunday, March 21, 2021
Creating Sunset Magazine’s Cooking Department: A Study of Men, Women and Cooking in the 1930s with food historian Jennifer Pagano.
View the recording.

Sunday, February 21, 2021
Baking Powder Wars: The Cutthroat Food Fight That Revolutionized Cooking with food historian, educator and author Linda Civitello.
View the recording.

Sunday, January 17, 2021
Sweet Greeks: First Generation Immigrant Confectioners in the Heartland with author Ann Flesor Beck, a third-generation confectioner and independent scholar.

Sunday, December 6, 2020
All Stirred Up: Suffrage Cookbooks, Food and the Battle for Women’s Right to Vote with Laura Kumin (laurakumin.com).