Behind the Line
Topic: Background
It's All in the Past: Food Memories
Think way back to your first tasty experiences. What are your earliest memories about food?
- Nate Hamilton
- Chef de Cuisine
- Harvest
- Madison, WI
My mom's chicken pot pie, and her goulash. Both of which I still try to recreate for staff meal every so often. She still knocks the pie out practically every time I make it home. The goulash isn't...
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- Carlo Lamagna
- Executive Chef
- Benny's Chop House
- Chicago, IL
Some of my earliest memories were when my grandparents were babysitting and they would always make some delicious, simple food. From Filipino standards like adobo, pancit, and eggrolls to fried ch...
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- Ashlee Aubin
- Executive Chef
- Wood
- Chicago, Illinoise
One of the tastes from childhood I remember most clearly is the pancakes my father made on Sunday mornings.
Nothing fancy. The batter was Bisquick, and was beaten with a fork (not a whisk, for ...
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- Colby Garrelts
- Executive Chef/Owner
- bluestem Restaurant
- Kansas City, Missouri
My father was rather adventurous when it came to food at home. When my mom and sister were away he'd come home with liver and tongue..
- Ben Lambert
- Executive Chef
- Bread & Tulips
- New York City
A very early memory of this is my grandfather making a big ball of polenta in a copper pot. serving it up with braised beef and gravy.
- Leigh Omilinsky
- Pastry Chef
- Sofitel Chicago Water Tower/ Cafe des Architectes
- Chicago/IL
I remember my mom making chicken soup and giving me the boiled chicken after the broth was done.
- Scott Malloy
- Sous Chef
- Chicago,Il
My earliest food memory has got to be my mom's version of my great grandfather's mac and cheese. It is a classic recipe. Starting with a bechamel, adding cheese to make it a Mournay, par cooked ma...
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- Jennifer Plank
- Toast
- Cleveland, Ohio
eating an apple straight off the tree... the warmth of the juice running down my chin, and how you could almost taste the sunshine kissed on the crisp skin.
The smell of basil on our front por...
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- Greg Biggers
- Executive Chef
- Café des Architectes
- Chicago, IL
I was always know as the "cookie monster" when I was a kid. I loved chocolate chip cookies. Still do! my deathbed meal would end with warm chocolate chip cookies and ice cold milk.
My pastry so...
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- Susan Goss
- Executive Chef/Owner
- West Town Tavern
- Chicago, IL
Believe it or not, I was a very picky eater. For a long time I wouldn't eat much more than steak (medium rare, please), tomatoes (preferably canned or stewed), corn on the cob and potatoes any way ...
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- Brian Runge
- Executive Chef
- Chicago Il
Freindly's ice cream. Its a northeastern thing.
- Patrick Sheerin
- Chef/Partner
- Trenchermen
- Chicago, IL
Tomato sandwiches-still warm from the sun on baguette with mayo and cracked pepper.
Pickled beets all summer long.
Spaghetti squash with butter, black pepper and parmesan
Pork neck bones...
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- geoffrey yahn
- Sous Chef
- Bread & Wine
- chicago/IL
My first tasty experience was fresh croissants when I was three or so from the pike place market in Seattle Washington.
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- Melissa Trimmer
- Pastry Chef
- Le Cordon Bleu Chicago, Pastry Chef Instructor
- Chicago, Illinois
I still remember vividly the first time I saw "white spagetti" at my babysitters house. It looked so strange, I had grown up on whole grain everything. I came tearing out of the house shouting to...
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- Kevin Nashan
- Executive Chef/Owner
- Sidney Street Cafe
- Saint Louis, Missouri
Eating epanadita's, posole,and hatch green chile sandwitches on wondra bread and butter.
- Mark Mendez
- Executive Chef/Owner
- Vera
- Chicago, IL
When I was little my room was located right next to the kitchen. There were many times I woke up to the smell of my mother cooking breakfast, it was the best. I also remember the smell of brewing c...
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- Jeremy Kittelson
- Executive Chef/Owner
- Denver, Colorado
My grandmother Virginia's fresh baked bread because she would let me eat it right of the oven with soft butter on it. Truly amazing and still one of my favorite foods to this day. I also have a gre...
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- Matt Troost
- Executive Chef
- Three Aces
- CHICAGO, IL
Escargot with my grandpa. i remember him telling me it was a snail and that it tasted really good. i remember eating it because i wanted to gross out my cousins and i remember loving it. and corn o...
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- Marianne Sundquist
- Owner
- Mess Hall & co.
- Chicago, IL
my earliest memories of food revolve around christmas. we would spend christmas with my italian aunts, uncles, grandma, grandpa, cousins, etc. on long island in new york. my aunt jessie hosted ev...
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- John Anderes
- Chef
- Telegraph
- Chicago, Illinois
One of my first food memories is from when I was about six - my grandfather used to make lamb kidneys and mustard over a wood fire and they were amazing.
- Timothy Harville
- Sous Chef
- Café des Architectes
- Chicago, IL
My earliest memories of food are my dad making deer chili when I was about 5 years old. I remember it cooking all day and making the house smell amazing. He would come home after hunting all day wi...
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- Matt Haase
- Executive Chef
- Rocketbaby Bakery
- Wauwatosa, Wisconsin
Helping my dad make sunday brunch. He let me stir the scrambled eggs.
- Nathaniel Meads
- Pastry Chef
- RM
- Chicago, IL
My mother would set me on the counter when she would cook. She would show me what she was making and we would talk about everything.
- Sandra Holl
- Pastry Chef/Owner
- Floriole Cafe & Bakery
- Chicago, IL
It is kind of sad but I remember having lunch at a friend's house. Her mom made us mac & cheese with hot dog slices mixed in. I had never tasted such an amazing thing before.
- Rick Gresh
- Executive Chef
- David Burkes Primehouse
- Chicago, Illinois
walking through the kitchen barely being able to reach the counter and stealing a cooked beet off the counter. I love beets, i used to sit in my grandmothers cellar and eat her pickled beets. I u...
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- Mark Steuer
- Chef/Partner
- Carriage House and The Bedford
- Chicago, IL
I remember traveling to europe when i was very young. I remember eating in germany and enjoying the play between richness and acid. of course I couldn't explain it back then, but i know realize t...
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- Brian Reilly
- Chef
- Noodlecat
- Cleveland, Ohio
Hateing meatloaf
- Derek Simcik
- Executive Chef
- Atwood Cafe
- chicago, IL.
mmmmm that would have to be either my moms Beignets for breakfast or my Dad's BBq onthe weekends.
- Toni Roberts
- Pastry Chef
- State and Lake Chicago Tavern
- Chicago, IL
We always had a ton of good food. My grandparents had a small farm. I have a spoiled taste for corn on the cob picked minutes before cooking.
- Norman Van Aken
- NORMAN'S at the Ritz-Carlton, Grande Lakes, Orlando
- Orlando, Fl.
I loved the combination of home-made applesauce and fatty roasted pork chops as a young kid. We lived near a place called "Quig's Apple Orchard" located on a pretty otherwise empty stretch of Illin...
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- Edward Lee
- Executive Chef
- 610 Magnolia
- Louisville, KY
It was always the smells for me. Korean food is so pungent and I always knew dinner was ready when the apartment smelled of many different layers of funk. I can still identify those smells as cle...
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- David Katz
- Executive Chef/Owner
- Philadelphia, PA
Just everything my Mom cooked pretty much are my earliest memories. Food from the charcoal grill would be my earliest great memories maybe. Every night in the summer the food was cooked on the gri...
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- Carrie Nahabedian
- Executive Chef/Owner
- NAHA and Brindille
- Chicago, IL
Radishes, whole and crispy still love them like that. Shish Kebab at the beach on summer vacation in Cape Cod.
- Geoff Rhyne
- Sous Chef
- The Ordinary
- Charleston, SC
A great source of pride for me and other Southern
men is to know how to do something from scratch. Salt-curing a ham, sausages,jams, you name it. It's just invigorating to know that you
did it. ...
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- Nathan Sears
- Executive Chef/Owner
- The Radler and D.A.S.
- Chicago, IL
Crepes for breakfast at my grandpa's house. Also making saltwater taffy with my grandma.
- Sean Sanders
- Executive Chef/Owner
- Browntrout
- Chicago, IL
spaghetti,meat sauce, and a glass of milk.
Loved the combo.
- Jill Barron
- Executive Chef/Owner
- MANA food bar
- Chicago, IL
watching my mom dress rabbits, then eating the mosst delicious "chicken" stew ever.
- Joncarl Lachman
- Executive Chef/Owner
- HB Home Bistro
- Chicago, IL
Cabbage!
- Tony Priolo
- Executive Chef/Owner
- Piccolo Sogno
- Chicago, IL
My earliest memories about food where definetly with my grandmother Faye. I would enjoy Spending time with her(who was also my babysitter) watching her create dishes for recipe contests. After she ...
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- Patrick Fahy
- Pastry Chef
- Sixteen
- Chicago
My earliest food memory occurred around St. Patrick's Day - all the food in the refrigerator was colored green. The milk, the condiments, the bagels, everything!
- Jimmy Bannos Jr.
- Executive Chef/Owner
- The Purple Pig
- Chicago, IL
When I was a little kid and I would visit my grandparents on the weekend, I would wake up to the smell of well-done bacon. They always ate their bacon well-done, super crispy, and that smell remind...
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- Paul Fehribach
- Executive Chef/Owner
- Big Jones
- Chicago, IL
Picking blackberries out in the blackberry patch, eating more than made it into the bucket, and getting what was left back to mom to make pie. Our faces were always black and blue from the face-stu...
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- Jason McLeod
- Executive Chef/Owner
- Box Tree Restaurant, Inc
- San Diego, CA
my family was never big into food growing up, we were a very active family playing many different sports and my mom and dad coached the teams my sisters played on so we ate allot on the go. My dad ...
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- Paul Virant
- Executive Chef/Owner
- Vie and Perennial Virant
- Western Springs, IL
my first crab rangoon
real italian food (potato gnocchi, some fried dough thing with parma ham and incredible cheeses)
freshly churned ice cream
fresh unpasteurized milk with a major cream line ...
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- Cary Taylor
- Executive Chef
- The Southern
- Chicago, IL
Chicken fingers before Dawg games in Athens from this place called Gutherie's. Good times. Fried chicken at Minnies in Columbus GA. BBQ from Country's in Columbus after church
- Chrissy Camba
- Chef
- Bar Pastoral
- Chicago, IL
We always ate rice - breakfast, lunch and dinner. We would eat with our hands too. I remember spam slices dipped in egg and fried, banana ketchup, corned beef out of that can that has the key to op...
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