Mama and I have taken to watching Chef Walter Staib's PBS series, Taste of History, which focuses on the foodways of 18th-century America. We knew of Staib from the historical restaurant, City Tavern, in Philly, where we've eaten twice (most recently with t he kids over Memorial Day weekend)--the first time, ten years ago, we actually met the chef, who came out to talk to us and signed our copy of his cookbook. He is famous for researching, recreating, and celebrating colonial foodways. And it's not just baked beans and apple pie but surprising combinations of fresh ingredients and international spices (and meats many Americans don't eat anymore--kidneys, oxtail, or tongue, anyone?).
But we didn't know he had a tv show--Emmy-winning, no less--until we visited the Tavern again. And it's wonderful! There are historic houses, costumed interpreters, old recipes, and open-hearth cooking! Plus his charming and enthusiastic explanations, in his endearing German accent. With soccer over for another half-hour, we just watched the episode where the chef goes to Montpelier and cooks for the interpreters reenacting James and Dolley Madison. You can watch the fourth season now on PBS, or old episodes on WE, I think, or on DVD, which is what we have.
It's really perfect tv for us in these anxious times.
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