Food on the Page – Learn about cookbooks, menus, and American culture.
Cookbooks and menus are much more than guides to your next meal. They tell you who you want to be, where you think you fit into your social world, and which cultures you feel comfortable exploring. We will look at American cookbooks and restaurant menus across the history of the nation and how Americans have defined both regional and national cuisines.
Maryellen Burns collects cookbooks, kitchen gadgets and food-related ephemera. Former owner of In Any Event, a Sacramento special events and catering firm, she now writes and teaches about food, writing, history, art and travel. She winces when asked how many cookbooks she owns for it is not the quality but the number that is significant. Menu’s and matchbooks are a constant acquisition.
She also directed FoodTalk, series of food-related talks, workshops, and classes held in partnership with the Sacramento Public Library and Sacramento County Historical Society and We Are Where We Eat, in partnership with Capitol Public Radio.
She is a member of Les Dames d’Escoffier, Slow Food, The Culinary Historians of Northern California (and many others) and authors of five or more books on food and food history including Lost Restaurants of Sacramento and their Recipes, A Taste of History, Pear Pearfection, and Whip Up A Cookbook. Her newest book – Extracts: Mostly True Stories with a Sprinkling of Recipes should have been out by now but she is having way too much fun developing programs like this one tonight.
The Renaissance Cafe features regular programs on almost every subject imaginable. We feature authors, writers and speakers throughout the state; food, drink and cultural historians; Renaissance Society members; and others from our community who are passionate about the past and the present.Renaissance Cafe works with community partners to offer these free lectures. Thank you to our associates from The Art Deco Society of Sacramento, Culinary Historians of Northern California, Friends of the Sacramento Library, Sacramento Public Library, Friendship Force, Sacramento Book Collectors Club, Sacramento Historical Society, Sacramento River Delta Historical Society, Social Distance Theater, and many others.
Learn more about Renaissance Society at