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FIELDWORK: A Forager’s Memoir

Spence Medford, senior vice president and chief advancement officer, The Henry Ford, offers his observations of celebrated chef Iliana Regan’s latest book reflecting on her history, heritage and connection to the natural world.

I was drawn to Iliana Regan’s second book, Fieldwork: A Forager’s Memoir, out of curiosity more than anything. As a former Chicagoan, I never had the chance to dine at Regan’s restaurant, Elizabeth, in the Lincoln Square neighborhood. I wish I had as Michelin-starred chef Regan’s commitment to using regional, sustainably grown ingredients is very much in line with The Henry Ford’s focus on edible education and the work of our Carver-Carson Society.

Regan’s first book, Burn the Place, was longlisted for the National Book Award in 2019. The last chef to attain such an honor was none other than Julia Child. Regan’s latest book brings us back to the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic when she and her wife, Anna, decided to live off the grid and create a new culinary destination deep in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula called the Milkweed Inn. The vision for the inn was to create a remote culinary and lodging experience for about 10 guests every weekend, dining on dishes created from ingredients sourced directly from the Hiawatha National Forest. I’ve since discovered that, even if I did have the temerity to live off the grid for a weekend, my chances of nabbing a reservation are not that good as the Milkweed Inn is booked well into 2025.

Fieldwork is not a chef’s memoir about navigating the world of restaurants and a path to culinary glory. Nor is it a cookbook. It is part poetry, part love letter to nature and the forest, and part gut-wrenching self-reflection. Regan has the uncanny ability to take the reader from the anxiety-filled early days of 2020 to her complicated childhood growing up in Gary, Indiana. I found her writing to be brutally honest, vulnerable and, at times, extremely vivid.

Regan’s ultimate connection with the natural world and the role it continues to play in her life makes me certainly want to visit the Milkweed Inn and see the Hiawatha Forest for myself. Regan’s memoir is not for the faint of heart, but certainly a captivating and lyrical look into the private world of one of America’s most celebrated chefs.

The Henry Ford

The Boston Cooking-School Cook Book, 1896, by

Fannie Merritt Farmer

When we pick up a printed cookbook, we generally expect to find recipes organized by type, containing precise measurements and specific directions. This cookbook format was introduced by Fannie Merritt Farmer in 1896 and has remained prominent for more than a century. Published recipes from the 18th and 19th centuries often appear as part of books about running households. These “treatises” and “cyclopedias” were commonly written by women, for women, and assumed a level of skill learned from a young age. In the last decade of the 19th century, Farmer tapped into the growing interest in scientific knowledge and set out to produce a cookbook full of tried-and-tested recipes that could be reproduced by home cooks anywhere. She succeeded, and her cookbook has remained in print for more than a century.

I find that the original Boston CookingSchool Cook Book provides a bridge from historic to modern cuisine with hundreds of recipes — including two of my favorites: ginger punch and cheese straws — and dozens of menus. The next time you are looking for a cooking adventure, I recommend scanning through this book for inspiration.

Dawna LattenMcQueen

Banquet Manager

The Henry Ford yummly.com tasty.co

Every new year always comes with resolutions and ideas on how to make them happen. In trying to become more tech savvy and home efficient, I found two recipe websites at the beginning of this year that offer more than just pretty pictures of food that I probably can’t or won’t make. Yummly. com and tasty.co are not only easy to follow but motivational. Both offer ways to customize your menu based on what you like, what you have and your skill level (that’s the part I like the most). They can help you set up weekly menus and grocery lists with templates that you can download to your cellphone. Tasty.co even offers videos. I have not opted to go to the purchase level yet, but all the free stuff they offer was enough to get me going in the right direction. This New Year’s resolution might actually make it to year’s end.