Behind the Line
Topic: Background
It's All in the Past: Food Memories
Are there any foods from your childhood that you still recreate to this day?
- Carlo Lamagna
- Executive Chef
- Benny's Chop House
- Chicago, IL
I still make my dad's pork adobo. Growing up it was always around and any leftovers just got better the next day. I was fortunate enough to finally learn how to make it when I was in my 20's and ...
more »
- Leigh Omilinsky
- Pastry Chef
- Sofitel Chicago Water Tower/ Cafe des Architectes
- Chicago/IL
My grandma's ratatouille. And macaroni and cheese. Definitely not at the same time though!
- Ashlee Aubin
- Executive Chef
- Wood
- Chicago, Illinoise
I strive to replicate vegetables I remember eating as a kid. I remember potatoes that REALLY tasted like POTATOES. Corn that was sooo sweet raw. Raspberries that were so good it was worth eating...
more »
- Scott Malloy
- Sous Chef
- Chicago,Il
I still cook all of my mom's recipes from when I was a kid. I had her make copies of all of them before I moved to Chicago. Being a chef, I adjust the salt, add herbs, etc when appropriate, but the...
more »
- Jennifer Plank
- Toast
- Cleveland, Ohio
all of them. Making those items at home on a day off just has some sort of immediate calming effect.
- Susan Goss
- Executive Chef/Owner
- West Town Tavern
- Chicago, IL
I make my mother's Apricot Nut Bread every year. I am sure she took it from a box of dried apricots or a Woman's Day magazine but we adopted it as our own and gifted friends and relatives each year...
more »
- Brian Runge
- Executive Chef
- Chicago Il
French fries and eggs..
- Patrick Sheerin
- Chef/Partner
- Trenchermen
- Chicago, IL
My aunt's pasta. she's Greek and would make this intense tomato sauce, simmered with cinnamon and the drippings (fat too) from a roasted leg of lamb with a lot of lemons in it. The pasta was alwa...
more »
![Melissa2_web[1]](/system/avatars/1174/thumb/melissa2_web[1].JPG?1320965073)
- Melissa Trimmer
- Pastry Chef
- Le Cordon Bleu Chicago, Pastry Chef Instructor
- Chicago, Illinois
my cooking style is very different, but my family still does everything local and organic so I guess that would be the similarity. But my kids get real chocolate chip cookies!
- Kevin Nashan
- Executive Chef/Owner
- Sidney Street Cafe
- Saint Louis, Missouri
Yes frito pies
- Mark Mendez
- Executive Chef/Owner
- Vera
- Chicago, IL
I still like to make tostones on occasion and I'm still fond of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.
- Jeremy Kittelson
- Executive Chef/Owner
- Denver, Colorado
Grilled cheese and tomato soup. It was one of the things my dad made for us. I make it with a little better ingredients these days but the soul of the dish is still there.
- Matt Troost
- Executive Chef
- Three Aces
- CHICAGO, IL
my dad used to scoop vanilla ice cream into halved cantaloupes and drizzle maple syrup on top. i don't get back to that one often, but sometimes.
- Marianne Sundquist
- Owner
- Mess Hall & co.
- Chicago, IL
my grandma's meat pie. layers of ham, salami & provolone cheese & eggs. When my grandparents asked my sister and I what we wanted for our birthdays, we always gave the same answer. meat pie! the...
more »
- Hugh Amano
- Chef
- Food on the Dole
- Chicago, Illinois
Mac and cheese that my mom would make. I had no idea back then, but she and I would make bechemel, then add cheese to turn it into Mornay; so so good, and Escoffier would have been proud.
- John Anderes
- Chef
- Telegraph
- Chicago, Illinois
Mom's white chicken chili with hatch chiles, pork shoulder with white cannelini beans.
- Rick Gresh
- Executive Chef
- David Burkes Primehouse
- Chicago, Illinois
my moms pierogies and stuffed cabbages!
- Derek Simcik
- Executive Chef
- Atwood Cafe
- chicago, IL.
Yeah two things to this day I cook myself when I can't get home to mom and dad... 1- my moms "steak rice n' gravy" and 2- my dad's chili... especially living in Chicago and during the winter months...
more »
- Toni Roberts
- Pastry Chef
- State and Lake Chicago Tavern
- Chicago, IL
My grandmother's mashed potato doughnuts are usually on my menu in one form or another. Currently, they are coconut with house made cajeta, spicy roasted pineapple, and coconut mint ice cream.
I...
more »
- Mark Steuer
- Chef/Partner
- Carriage House and The Bedford
- Chicago, IL
Growing up, my dad would make kase spatzle, a German dish of homemade egg noodles, melted jarlsburg and charred onions with tons of black pepper. (kind of a germane Mac and cheese). I still make t...
more »
- Norman Van Aken
- NORMAN'S at the Ritz-Carlton, Grande Lakes, Orlando
- Orlando, Fl.
Oh my God yes!
"What is patriotism but the love of the food one ate as a child?"
— Yutang Lin
I am a fire breathing 'patriot' in that sense!
I'm swept away thinking about all of the mem...
more »
- Edward Lee
- Executive Chef
- 610 Magnolia
- Louisville, KY
I grew up with such a rich array of traditional Korean foods, I am always recreating them. They take a lifetime to perfect, especially the simple dishes like daen-jang (korean miso) soup or duk0bo...
more »
- Stephanie Samuels
- Pastry Chef/Owner
- Angel Food Bakery
- Chicago, IL
My Mom made this dish called the "Soup Sandwich" cut up grilled cheese sandwich with tomato soup poured over it. At the bakery, we serve a roasted tomato soup with a tiny grilled cheese garnish.
- David Katz
- Executive Chef/Owner
- Philadelphia, PA
Yes, lots. Most of the dinners I cook at home are dinners I grew up eating.
- Geoff Rhyne
- Sous Chef
- The Ordinary
- Charleston, SC
There are many, some updated but the poundcake my G-mama would make stays true to the recipe. We serve it with whatever fruit is in season.
- Jill Barron
- Executive Chef/Owner
- MANA food bar
- Chicago, IL
smores. rabbit stew.
- Troy Graves
- Chef/Partner
- Red Door
- Chicago, Il
My mother's chicken noodle soup
- Nathan Sears
- Executive Chef/Owner
- The Radler and D.A.S.
- Chicago, IL
Anything with beets. My grandpa also grew beets and I was probably the only 10 year old in knew that loved beets.
- Sean Sanders
- Executive Chef/Owner
- Browntrout
- Chicago, IL
Turkey tetrazzini
- Michael M. O'Connor
- Sous Chef
- Vic & Anthony's
- Houston, TX
Dad's hamburger, mac & cheese casserole. Mom's chicken noodle casserole. Cheesey Brat Stew. Mom's Split Pea Soup. Aunt Millie's breakfast casserole..
These are the comfort foods that I can fall to...
more »
- Joncarl Lachman
- Executive Chef/Owner
- HB Home Bistro
- Chicago, IL
I started young putting pickles and crushed potato chips on grilled cheese sandwiches. I think that flavor profile (with the addition of the crunchy texture of the chips on the sandwich) remains my...
more »
- Tony Priolo
- Executive Chef/Owner
- Piccolo Sogno
- Chicago, IL
Always on holidays I try to recreate my family favorites by making my grandmothers Cranberry pound cake and also her Christmas cookies with figs and chocolate inside.
![Pastry chef patrick fahy b-w[1]](/system/avatars/146/thumb/Pastry Chef Patrick Fahy b-w[1].jpg?1319823449)
- Patrick Fahy
- Pastry Chef
- Sixteen
- Chicago
I still enjoy Kraft macaroni and cheese with frozen peas and ketchup.
- Jimmy Bannos Jr.
- Executive Chef/Owner
- The Purple Pig
- Chicago, IL
The neck-bone gravy on the menu at Purple Pig is something I grew up with. It is my grandma's recipe on my mom's side and my mom made it a lot.
- Paul Fehribach
- Executive Chef/Owner
- Big Jones
- Chicago, IL
I like making knoepfles - a an obscure mutant German farmhouse dumpling that's basically boiled egg dough. With good eggs and nice fresh flour, they are so simply delicious - chewier and denser tha...
more »
- Jason McLeod
- Executive Chef/Owner
- Box Tree Restaurant, Inc
- San Diego, CA
My dads Meatloaf, one of my favorite dishes to cook, very comfortable on a Sunday afternoon
- Paul Virant
- Executive Chef/Owner
- Vie and Perennial Virant
- Western Springs, IL
chicken and dumplings
pot roast
banana cream pie
sourdough breads
coffee cake
my grandmothers yeast doughnuts!
- Carrie Nahabedian
- Executive Chef/Owner
- NAHA and Brindille
- Chicago, IL
My mother's leg of lamb, which she made on Sundays, with the little potatoes underneath. And I do leg of lamb in the restaurant in the Fall and Sping. Also, our stake we make is my dad's charcoal ...
more »
- Cary Taylor
- Executive Chef
- The Southern
- Chicago, IL
pb&j
- Chrissy Camba
- Chef
- Bar Pastoral
- Chicago, IL
Lobster rolls ::drool::, chicken adobo, and spam. I occasionally recreate foods that are more time consuming like palabok (a delicious filipino rice noodle dish) and torta (a filipino omelette made...
more »