Culinary Historians of Chicago & Chicago Foodways Roundtable

Priya Mani is rare three-peat having visited us previously us in 2021 and 2022 on Stone Flowers (lichens). She returns to talk about her book Spiced: Recipes Celebrating Spices from Around the World.

Priya is a meticulous researcher who focuses on 50 key spices, offering a deep dive into each. Cooks will find annatto from Central and South America, cardamom from India, grains of paradise from West Africa, nutmeg from the Banda Islands, and more, all accompanied by texts that cover the spice’s history, origin, and impact on world cuisine.

There is a mix of traditional and modern dishes – from Risotto alla Milanese (saffron), Jollof rice (calabash nutmeg), Massaman curry (white cardamom), Chicken paprikash (chile), Touba coffee (Grains of Selim), Golden milk (turmeric) and Eggnog (nutmeg). Plus 20 recipes for spice blends, including garam masala, Chinese five-spice, baharat, and ras el hanout, which evoke the distinctive flavors of regions across the globe. A collection of over 300 recipes.

Part recipe collection, part culinary history, Spiced offers fascinating cultural context for its subject. Priya Mani provides deeply researched insights into the complex history and origins of spices, inviting cooks to consider the evolution of flavors that have shaped today’s culinary landscape, and to expand their palates by adding new spices to their pantry.

Bio: Priya Mani is a food-historian, award-winning writer, and designer leading research-driven projects on ingredients, flavor, and material culture. She founded Appetite Studio, based in Copenhagen, and is the author of, and contributor to, several food books, articles for the BBC, and journals, including Bloomsbury Handbook of Indian Cuisine (Bloomsbury Academic, 2023). In 2022 she won the prestigious Guild of Food Writers Award (2022) and the International Association for Culinary Professionals (IACP) award. She is a trustee of the Oxford Food Symposium, and a director at the British Guild of Food Writers, leading the committee on Diversity.

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Monday, November 16, 2026
7 PM Central Time via Zoom
If you wish for a link or have any questions,

please e-mail: Culinary.Historians@gmail.com
http://www.CulinaryHistorians.org

Presented by Terry Fucik,
Co-owner, Dirk’s Fish & Gourmet Shop, Lincoln Park

One thing that Scott Warner, president and program chair of the Culinary Historians of Chicago likes to do is take cooking classes. Not just because he likes to cook, but because many cooking teachers know culinary history, and Scott knows when to nab them as speakers. One of Scott’s favorite places for cooking classes is Dirk’s Fish in Lincoln Park, where co-owner Terry Fucik dishes out a groaning board of recipes showing students how to cook the fresh fish that her husband Dirk showcases. Terry also creates the recipes for the prepared foods that Dirk’s sells. Terry often demonstrates Cuban-inspired recipes, based on her Cuban background, which she lovingly talks about. So, after taking a recent class, Scott invited Terry to speak to us about her perspective on Cuban culinary history She accepted immediately.

We’ll let Terry introduce herself in her own words:
I’m Cuban-American, born and raised in Chicago. My parents left Cuba in 1960, during the revolution. I will forever be grateful that I was born in Chicago. I spent a lot of time with my paternal grandparents; they were both excellent cooks. I started cooking when I was 12. I’ve never stopped. I’m a self-taught chef. I create recipes, and teach cooking classes at Dirk’s every other Tuesday. (This isn’t my only career. I own a salon in Wilmette. I’ve been doing hair for 44 years and have been an owner for 34 years.)

I’ve been teaching cooking for 22 years. I’m also a pescatarian, therefore I’ve created many recipes using fish instead of meat. We have over 300 recipes on our website. I love to create recipes representing many regions, Thai, Greek, Italian, Vietnamese, etc. And of course Cuban.
https://dirksfish.com/recipes

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Wednesday, November 18, 2026
7 PM Central Time via Zoom
If you have any questions or wish for a link, please e-mail: Culinary.Historians@gmail.com