CHEW meetings are free and open to the public. Unless otherwise noted in a program’s description, meetings are held on the first Wednesday of the month at the Goodman Community Center, (Ironworks Building), 149 Waubesa St., Madison, Wisconsin. Got questions? Or want to get on our newsletter list? Email chewwisconsin@gmail.com
TO RENEW OR JOIN CHEW PLEASE GO TO www.chewwisconsin.com/enthusiasts/membership.
COMING SOON: SPECIAL ZOOM EVENT
Join us for an opportunity to Zoom in with the Culinary Historians of Chicago, with whom CHEW is co-hosting this event:
Saturday, April 25, 2026, 10 AM – “How Macaroni and Cheese Shaped Human History” with presenter Karima Moyer-Nocchi.
What would it mean to view history through the lens of a single, familiar dish? At first glance, the idea of macaroni and cheese having an epic history may seem whimsical, even trivial. Yet its story begins in ancient Rome and unfolds across centuries of colonization, migration, labor, industry, and identity. In this talk, Karima Moyer-Nocchi will discuss her book The Epic History of Macaroni and Cheese from Ancient Rome to Modern America, where she traces the dish’s movement through Europe and America, examining the cultural meanings it accumulated, and revisiting the tidy origin stories that hardened into myth, revealing, in the process, how the dish intertwined with the forces shaping human history, and went on to become cultural icon.
Karima Moyer-Nocchi is a culinary historian and professor at the University of Siena in Italy. She is author of the book Chewing the Fat: An Oral History of Italian Foodways from Fascism to Dolce Vita and The Eternal Table: A Cultural History of Food in Rome. In preparation for her latest book, The Epic History of Macaroni and Cheese: From Ancient Rome to Modern America, she was awarded fellowships at the International Center for Jefferson Studies, the Smithsonian Institution, and the George Washington Presidential Library in Mount Vernon. Moyer-Nocchi resides in Umbria and has been an Italian resident for over 35 years.
ALSO AHEAD
Wednesday, May 13, 7 pm – “American Bacon: A Food Phenomenon,” with presenter Mark A. Johnson, Goodman Community Center, 149 Waubesa St., Madison, WI
In his new book, American Bacon: The History of a Food Phenomenon, Mark A. Johnson asks (and answers) a seemingly simple question: How has bacon overcome centuries of religious prohibition, cultural contempt, and dietary advice to become a twenty-first-century culinary and cultural powerhouse? Through the stories of American bacon producers, like Wisconsin’s Nueske’s Applewood Smoked Meats, Johnson tells the story of bacon in the American gastroimagination. Since the 1930s, Nueske’s and others, like Benton’s Bacon in Tennessee, have continued to make bacon despite the Great Depression, the campaign against saturated fat, and the fear of chemicals like nitrates and nitrites. For Johnson, bacon’s story from “most dangerous food in the supermarket” to pop culture and gastronomic phenomenon reflects the cultural values of a nation.
MARK A. JOHNSON, from Milwaukee, earned a PhD in history from the University of Alabama. Previously, he earned an MA from the University of Maryland and BA from Purdue University. He currently teaches at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga and is the author of An Irresistible History of Alabama Barbecue: From Wood Pit to White Sauce and Rough Tactics: Black Performance in Political Spectacle, 1877-1932.
ABOUT CHEW
CHEW meetings feature invited speakers, lively discussions, and often food samplings or cooking 
demonstrations. See below for info about our newsletter, membership, traveling library and more.
Newsletter – To receive our email newsletter, send us a note at chewwisconsin@gmail.com.
Membership – For info about why and how to join CHEW, click here.
CHEW Library – One of the benefits of in-person CHEW meetings is access to CHEW’s traveling library. Our collection totals over 110 titles, ranging from James Beard award winner The Sioux’s Chef’s Indigenous Kitchen to the very drinkable Bottoms Up: A Toast to Wisconsin’s Historic Bars and Breweries. To peruse all the book titles in our library, click Culinary. You can put in an “order” for a specific book by emailing chewwisconsin@gmail.com. The book will be brought to the next in-person meeting (if it hasn’t already been checked out). Several titles will also be featured at each meeting–you’ll hear a short review and will have the opportunity to check one of the featured titles out for a month.
Facebook – We also invite you to join CHEW on Facebook, for fascinating food links, discussions and more: https://www.facebook.com/groups/chewwis/