September 2024 President Newsletter

President's Letter

President’s Message                           September 2024

September is here and brings us cooler temperatures and plenty of sunshine. We celebrated Labor Day this week and I’m looking forward to a fun filled fall. While it may not be pumpkin spice latte season yet, we have plenty to look forward to in the next few months.

Monday September 9th is Schmoozefest with our media partner Food Industry News. Chef Corey Grupe will be the speaker, and he is the Executive Chef for HMS Host for O’Hare Airport. He oversees 58 restaurants and oversees a large team of food professionals. He has extensive experience as a chef, culinarian, leader and entrepreneurial owner of Bagels by the Book Café in Libertyville. Join us for an informative and interesting meeting with Chef Corey to discover how he leads his team and manages vendors who deliver more than 60 loads of product to him every week. Chef Corey is our ACF Chicago Chefs Vice President, and we are very proud of his accomplishments. Please consider joining us this Monday at Moretti’s in Edison Park from 5:00PM – 9:00PM. 

Last week board member Joanne Madura and I were treated to a delicious meal created by Chef Surendra at his restaurant, India Palace in Wheaton. The food was amazing, and Joanne and I enjoyed every morsel he created for us. I’d like to host a chapter meeting at his restaurant in the future so all of us can have the same experience that we did. 

The food on the American table may not define exactly what we are as a nation, but the traditions surrounding our foods speak volumes about who we are. Rooted in centuries of borrowing and sharing, food traditions are staggeringly diverse and constantly evolving. The intersection of cultures in America is perhaps the most important factor in the mix that is America’s food.

“American food” defies definition, except to say that it is what people in America harvest, prepare, and eat. There is no real recipe, just a few key ingredients constantly stirred by time.

The DeKalb County History Center is one of five organizations in the United States selected to participate in this exhibit, a Smithsonian project. The framework for the exhibition is provided by the Smithsonian and complemented by the History Center and its history partners using local historical images, art and artifacts, video clips, and oral histories. The resulting exhibition reflects DeKalb County’s strong history and culture.

Historic recipes in Today's Kitchen with Chef Mary

Wednesday, September 18 | 6:30pm

Hy-Vee's Club Room

2700 Dekalb Ave, Sycamore

Registration required – $5

Join us as we journey back to the 1800's and discover how people prepared, cooked and preserved pork, making use of the whole animal. With no electrical refrigeration or modern conveniences, it was a time of thriftiness, resourcefulness and making do with what you had at the time.

Chef Mary Gorski, President of ACF Chicago Chefs, will create a few recipes of days gone by to share with you. She will provide you with a sense of history and an appreciation of what cooking was like in the past. Pork is generously donated by Smithfield. 

Use this link to register: https://www.zeffy.com/ticketing/9173317f-7d36-4482-8ccf-b8fe5975feb9

My harvest has been plentiful this year and I’m still preserving tomatoes. It’s almost apple time as the apples and pears are easy to remove so that is nature letting me know they are ripe and ready for picking. 

Welcome to our next season and all it has to offer us. 

All the best,

Chef Mary

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