A Journey in Taste Presentation With Certified Executive Chef Paul Higgins

Museum on Main Street A partnership of the Smithsonian Institute and State Humanities Councils nationwide in service to rural America

It is the mission of the Ohio Humanities Council to encourage all Ohioans to become explorers of their human story; to use history, philosophy, and the other humanities as the means to arrive at new insights.

500 hundred years of American Food Eating from coast to coast American cuisine is regional and diverse Key Ingredients is a snapshot of how Americans grow, prepare and serve food

1500’s Native Americans grew Corn, Beans and Squash. 1600’s new foods develop as Europeans introduce their own touches. Cows arrive in 1611 and by 1621 we have the first Thanksgiving celebrating a successful planting season Enslaved Africans brought with them seeds and native foods – the basis for what we now enjoy as southern cuisine

Lewis and Clark encountered herds of wildlife and at the time meat was the focus of the American diet. As the settlers moved west different foods, such as chili in the southwest, were being introduced The Chinese immigrants in California building the railroads brought new traditions and ingredients

As the country continued to grow and become settled, more local foods were being discovered; food influences from immigrants as well as Native Americans were forming American Food. Through the late 1800’s into the 1900’s as the country experienced growth, civil war, the gold rush and world wars, our food culture was taking shape.

Today we have evolved to canned foods, processed foods, snack foods, frozen foods, microwave foods, space foods, fast foods, home meal replacements, ready to eat foods, health foods and designer foods.

WHAT’S NEXT? We’ll have to wait and see. History will be our teacher.

Key Ingredients The Public Library of Mount Vernon and Knox County 201 North Mulberry Street Mount Vernon Ohio B00K August 31- September 27,2007