Famous for its food and drink, the Golden State influenced the diets and policies of presidents Theodore Roosevelt, Richard Nixon, and Ronald Reagan.

 In 1903 Roosevelt and the naturalist John Muir camped in Yosemite Valley, where they ate campfire steaks and debated conserving land for public use. As a result, TR preserved 230 million acres, founded the US Forest Service and five national parks, and their trek was deemed “the most consequential camping trip in American history.”

 Richard Nixon, the only native Californian elected president, saw food as fuel and ate cottage cheese for lunch every day. So it was a surprise when he led important food programs and ate exotic dishes in Beijing while conducting “chopstick diplomacy” in 1972 – which spurred America’s Chinese restaurant craze.

Ronald Reagan liked TV dinners, meat and potatoes, and jellybeans. Nancy Reagan hardly ate, but emulated Jackie Kennedy and hosted spectacular evenings for Lady Diana and the Gorbachevs at the White House. Yet it was at their simple ranch in Santa Ynez that they felt most at home -- and helped bring global attention to California’s wines.

Alex Prud’homme has been a nonfiction writer for thirty years. As a journalist he has covered a wide range of subjects for The New York Times, The New Yorker, Vanity Fair, Talk, and Time. As an author he has written nine books, on subjects ranging from biotech to terrorism, fresh water, and food. He is best known for co-writing Julia Child’s memoir My Life in France, a #1 NYT best-seller that inspired half the film “Julie & Julia.” In February 2023, Alfred A. Knopf published Dinner With the President: Food, Politics, and a History of Breaking Bread at the White House, a narrative history of the politics of food and the food of politics. Covering 26 presidents -- from George Washington starving at Valley Forge to Donald Trump’s burgers and the Bidens’ pasta and ice cream -- the book includes sixteen pages of color illustrations and ten presidential recipes.

Kitty Morse's discovery, after her mother's death, of her French great-grandfather's war journal chronicling the advance of the Germans in Le Grand Est (Alsace Lorraine) from April to December 1940, along two notebooks filled with handwritten recipes from her French great-grandmother, a Holocaust victim, provided Kitty with the inspiration for Bitter Sweet: A Wartime Journal and Heirloom Recipes from Occupied France. Prosper Lévy-Neymarck, Kitty's maternal great-grandfather, was an army surgeon in WW1, twice the recipient of the Legion d'Honneur. Blanche, her daughter and son-in-law, and most members of their extended family died at Auschwitz in 1944. Kitty retraced their steps in and around Châlons in May 2023 including the tunnel where Prosper and Blanche took refuge during the bombings in and around Châlons-en-Champagne.

Kitty’s career as a food writer, cooking instructor, public speaker, and tour leader to Morocco spans more than three decades. She has published 11 cookbooks, five on the cuisine of her native Morocco, and has been a guest on local and national television stations. Bitter Sweet took 3 years to complete, and her late husband, photographer Owen Morse, provided the food photography. She has contributed articles in French and English to leading publications in the US and abroad. She has lectured on Moroccan cuisine and culture around the US. Her first memoir with recipes, Mint Tea and Minarets: A Banquet of Moroccan Memories, which she translated into French as Le Riad au Bord de l'Oued, were both recipients of a Gourmet Word Cookbook Award. This program will be presented via Zoom.

Since the earliest days of Hollywood, movie studios have been feeding their armies of stars and crew working on the lots. From Warner Bros., which served the top names of the Golden Age of Hollywood who were shooting classics like “Casablanca” during World War II, to Disney, Paramount, MGM and Fox, each studio commissary had its own vintage character and unique menu items. These days, the commissaries still exist, and their specialties have evolved to suit today’s tastes. Come along for a starry tour of Hollywood as seen through the studios’ official restaurants, the people who worked there, and the off-lot staples like Tam O’Shanter and the Smoke House.

Pat Saperstein is deputy editor at Variety, where she covers movies, TV, vintage Hollywood and restaurants. She has written about restaurants for the Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles Magazine and more, and was a co-author on the books “Eat: Los Angeles,” “Drink: Los Angeles” and “Cannes: 50 Years of Sun, Sex and Celluloid.” A native of Los Angeles, she never tires of exploring Southern California and points beyond.

From fast food locations that all started in Los Angeles to historical iconic restaurants, George highlights the food industry from his two current books, Made in California and L.A.'s Landmark Restaurants. Visit the original California locations that impacted the country's eating habits and trends in this informative presentation—and then return to some of the area's venerable food establishments loved by all.   

George Geary is the author of fifteen historic food and cookbooks. This year, George is celebrating his 30th year in morning television conducting food segments on WGN-TV Chicago, NBC-Tampa, and his home station FOX5-San Diego. In addition, this is the 35th year celebration of George Geary Culinary Tours, conducting tours of Los Angeles Food locations and the South of France. In the 1980s, George worked behind the scenes on major television shows in prop departments creating edible and non-edible foods. In 2025, the 40th anniversary of The Golden Girls, Chronicle Books will publish George's 16th book, The Official Golden Girls Cheesecake Cookbook. In addition, George is frequently quoted and written about in New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, San Francisco Chronicle, and USAToday as an expert in California Fast Foods and Restaurants. 

Bonnie Benwick discusses, via a virtual Zoom presentation, the state of food media, covering its evolution in America via newspaper food sections as well as trends concerning ingredients and cuisines, the impact of diverse voices, and alternative ways of presenting recipes.

Bonnie is a freelance food writer/editor, and cookbook recipe tester based in Washington, D.C. She worked for 39 years as a journalist, spending the majority of her career at The Washington Post, retiring in 2019 as deputy Food editor/recipe editor. In 2013 she published “The Washington Post Cookbook: Readers’ Favorite Recipes.” She is a member of the International Association of Culinary Professionals and Les Dames d’Escoffier

We read them, save them, or toss them—but how do kitchen appliance manuals reflect cooking trends, language, typography, visuals, and changing times? Find out when historian and bookseller Liz Pollock presents an illustrated lecture on appliance instruction manuals that came with the many different types of Gas and Electric kitchen appliances—from Air Conditioners to Yoghurt Makers. 

Pollock’s Power Point presentation examines the historic role of these appliances in the American home. The directions are essentially early examples of technical writing; the product’s designers and experts explained in a sequence of steps how to accomplish the desired result. 

This will be an opportunity for today’s bibliophiles and graphic designers to study the typography, designs and color combinations used in past advertising campaigns. Highlights include when directions in Spanish first appeared in the mid-1970s.

A detailed listing of Gas and Electric Appliances, including manufacturers and dates, arranged in chronological order, will be handed out at the talk.

Liz Pollock has owned and operated The Cook's Bookcase, Santa Cruz, Calif., since 2007, specializing in unique books and ephemera on cookery and wine. cooksbookcase.com

What is a community cookbook? This term is often associated with mid-century, spiral-bound volumes, but in Los Angeles, community cookbooks date back to the city's earliest years of book printing. In this presentation, artist and archivist Suzanne Zoe Joskow will be discussing her ongoing project The Community Cookbook Archive. Comprised of over 400 Los Angeles-based community cookbooks that span 3 centuries, the Archive is an evolving, food-based tapestry of LA stories. Joskow will give an overview of Los Angeles community cookbooks and their role as primary source documents, capturing important and often overlooked local histories. She will also be introducing an upcoming project, in which CHSC members are invited to join Southern California' culinary history by contributing to the organization's own community cookbook! 

Suzanne Joskow has a BA in American Studies from Yale University and an MFA in Fine Art from Otis College of Art and Design. In her artwork and curatorial practice, Joskow focuses on the connection between physical material and social history - often in the form of maps or archives. Most recently, she is immersed in Los Angeles food history, exploring the ways Angelinos, particularly women, cooked at home. Joskow’s work has appeared in galleries, community spaces, institutions, and publications throughout the US. She works and lives in Los Angeles, with her husband and daughter.