Armchair Travels

Food in the Midwest: More Interesting than You May Think

Discover how immigration shaped Midwestern cuisine as traditions from China, Europe, Mexico, and beyond blended into a uniquely diverse food culture. Presented by food historian Cynthia Clampitt.

The history of the Midwest is remarkable for many reasons, not least of which is the diversity of its population, and therefore of its regional cuisine. There were reliable foods here, and migration from Meso-America introduced more. But myriad other foods entered and mingled as people escaping war, poverty, and famine began flooding into the young country. Between 1850 and 1910, the Midwest grew faster than any other region in history. Migrants from China, Europe, Mexico, and other regions of the U.S. brought their own traditions, which mixed and evolved. The food culture of a region famed for abundance became hard to define (but worth exploring) because of its diversity.  
 
Cynthia Clampitt is a writer, speaker, and food historian. She has pursued her love of culture, history, and food in thirty-seven countries on six continents, but has in recent years increasingly focused her studies on the American Midwest. She is the author of Pigs, Pork, and Heartland Hogs: From Wild Boar to Baconfest and Midwest Maize: How Corn Shaped the U.S. Heartland. Her last book, Destination Heartland, focuses on places to enjoy Midwestern history, and she recently completed a sequel. There is more here than most realize.

Armchair Travels is generously funded with a gift from the Rutherford Family Trust.

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