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Chef James

“The duty of a good Cuisinier is to transmit to the next generation everything he has learned and experienced.”
 
Fernand Point, 1941

FEATURED FOR SEPTEMBER

Updated: Over 9,000 Food Festivals

Summer & Picnic Food, Tips & Recipes

Grilling & Barbecue Articles & Recipes

Sports & Tailgating Articles & Recipes

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FEATURED RECIPES & TIPS

· Original Frank's Redhot Wings

· Ultimate Party Wings

· More Chicken Wing Recipes

· More Appetizer Recipes·

· French Onion Dip

· Jack's Screaming Red Sauce

· Potato Salad Recipes

· Cole Slaw Recipes

· Chicken Salad Recipes

· Kickoff Kabobs

· Banana Bread Recipes

· Mushroom Appetizer Recipes

· Crunchy Snack Mixes

· Mustard and Mustard Sauces

· Salsa Recipes

· Baked and Stuffed Potato Recipes

· Mac & Cheese Recipes
 

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September Food Holidays:

For Details, History and more DAY, WEEK and MONTH Food Holiday designations, including LINKS to Holiday Origins and Additional Information:
SEE Detailed SEPTEMBER Food Calendar

SEPTEMBER is:

• Better Breakfast Month
• All-American Breakfast Month
• California Wine Month
• Childhood Obesity Awareness Month
• Family Meals Month
• Hunger Action Month
• National Biscuit Month
• National Bourbon Heritage Month
• National Chicken Month
• National Cholesterol Education Month
• National Food Safety Education Month
• National Fruits & Veggies Month
• National Hazelnut Month
• National Honey Month
• National Mushroom Month
• National Papaya Month (also June)
• National Potato Month
• National Rice Month
• Organic Harvest Month
• Whole Grains Month
• Grains of the Month: Rice & Wild Rice
• Canada: National Organic Month
• Scottish Food & Drink September
• UK: Seed Gathering Season
• UK: Sourdough September
• UK: Sustainable Seafood September

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DID YOU KNOW?

Charles Ranhofer (1836-1899) was the first internationally renowned chef of an American restaurant, Delmonico's in New York City. He published a cookbook, The Epicurean in 1893, which contained more than 3,500 recipes.

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Monday, September 21, 2026

Daily Trivia Questions are below

TODAY’S FOOD QUOTE

“Too many cooks may spoil the broth, but it only takes one to burn it.”
Madeleine Bingham, ‘The Bad Cook's Guide  (1968)
 

FOOD HOLIDAYS - TODAY IS:

• National Pecan Cookie Day (Pecan Trivia & Facts)

• National Chai Day (a spiced milk tea)

• St. Matthew the Apostle, patron of accountants and tax collectors.

• Maine Lobster Week (Sept 19-26, 2026)
  [Maine Lobster Marketing Collaborative]
  (Lobster Trivia  ---  Lobster Recipes)

• National Farm Safety & Health Week (Sept 21-25, 2026) [Nat'l Education Ctr for Agricultural Safety]
  (Farms and Farmers Trivia & Facts)

• UK [British Food Fortnight] (Sept 17-Oct 2, 2026)

• UK: [Fairtrade Fortnight] (Sept 21-Oct 4, 2026) Celebrate the people who grow our food, people who live in some of the poorest countries in the world and who are often exploited and badly paid.

• UK: Seed Gathering Season (Sept 21-Oct 21, 2026)
[The Tree Council]  Gather seeds, fruits and nuts which can be nurtured to grow the trees of the future.
 

TODAY IN FOOD HISTORY

1756 John Loudon McAdam was born (died Nov 26, 1836).  Scotish engineer who invented macadam pavement for roads.

1760 Olof Swartz was born. A Swedish botanist who collected plants in Jamaica and Hispaniola, and published several books on the plants of the Caribbean.

1776 The Great Fire of 1776 in New York City.  During the British occupation of the city during the Revolutionary War a fire broke out at the Fighting Cocks Tavern, near Whitehall Slip. It destroyed between 10 and 25 percent of the 4,000 buildings in the city. (New York Food Trivia)

1784 The nation's first daily newspaper, the 'Pennsylvania Packet and Daily Advertiser', began publication.

1897 Deere and Co. registered 'John Deere' trademark.

1897 The famous editorial 'Is There a Santa Claus' reply to 8 year old Virginia O'Hanlon letter appeared in the New York Sun.
(See article: Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus)

1930 John T. Dorrance died (born Nov 11, 1873).  An American chemist, he developed a method to make condensed soup, and served as president of Campbell Soup Co. from 1914 to 1930.  (Campbell Soup Trivia)

1937 J.R.R. Tolkein's 'The Hobbit' was published. Hobbits were well known as both gourmets and gourmands.

1959 Congress passes legislation authorizing the Secretary of Agriculture to run a Food Stamp program through 1962. However the Eisenhower Administration never uses the authority.
(See February 2, 1961)

1961 Earle Dickson died. He invented Band-Aids for his wife, who had frequent kitchen accidents, cutting or burning herself. He worked for Johnson & Johnson, who soon began manufacturing Band-Aids.

1964 'Bread and Butter' by The Newbeats was #2 on the charts.

1969 Anne Burrell was born. American chef and television food show personality. Host of the Food Network's 'Secrets Of A Restaurant Chef', 'Worst Cooks in America', and 'Chef Wanted.'  Author of 'Cook Like a Rock Star'.

1970 Monday Night Football premiered. More snack food please! (The Cleveland Browns beat the NY Jets, 31-21)

1971 Coca Cola introduced the plastic bottle.
(Coca-Cola Trivia & Facts)

1982 A bad day for hot dog vendors. Only 2,251 fans came to see last place NY Mets play the Montreal Expos at Shea Stadium in New York City. (The Mets lost, 5-1).  (Hot Dog Trivia & Facts)

2014 Belleville, Illinois celebrated its 200th birthday by grilling a 200-foot bratwurst, complete with a 200-foot bun.

2015 Stewart Parnell, owner and CEO of Peanut Corporation of America (PCA), was sentenced to 28 years in prison. He was convicted of 72 counts of fraud and conspiracy for knowingly shipping peanut butter paste contaminated with salmonella bacteria. In 2008 peanut butter paste manufactured by PCA killed 9 people and sickened 714 others in 46 states. It resulted in one of the largest food recalls in American history.  Parnell was the first corporate executive convicted of federal felony charges related to food poisoning.

2016 Richard Dale Trentlage died (born Dec 27, 1928) An American jingle writer, best known for the long-running jingle for Oscar Mayer wieners: "Oh, I wish I were an Oscar Mayer wiener / That is what I’d truly like to be / ’Cause if I were an Oscar Mayer wiener / Everyone would be in love with me".
 

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A FEW FEATURED FOOD FESTIVALS
(See All 9,000 Food, Wine & Beer Festivals)

September 19-26, 2026  79th Persimmon Festival
Mitchell, Indiana

September 20-26, 2026  Farmington Fair
Farmington, Maine

September 24-27, 2026  106th Annual Durham Agricultural Fair - Durham, Connecticut

September 24-27, 2026  Chicago Gourmet
Chicago, Illinois

September 24-27, 2026  Annual Alligator Festival
Luling, Louisiana

September 25-26, 2026  34th Annual Coca-Cola Days
Atlantic, Iowa

September 25-27, 2026  Annual Pensacola Seafood Festival - Pensacola, Florida

(SEE ALL FOOD FESTIVALS and OTHER FOOD EVENTS)
 

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FOOD TRIVIA QUIZ    (new DAILY questions)

1) All of the following events took place in the same year.  What year is it?
· Smith Dairy in Orrville, Ohio makes a world's record milkshake: 1,575.2 gal gallons.
· A fossil egg was found in Utah that was 150 million years old.
· Jack Dietz set a new world's record for watermelon seed spitting, 66 feet 11 inches.
· Japanese Chefs in New York persuaded the FDA to allow them to import and serve fogu.
· Hershey's reduces the size of the Hershey bar to 1.55 ounces. The price remains 40 cents.

2) Botanically, this is a strange plant - taxonomists are unable even to agree into which family it belongs. The flowers are a bright, waxy scarlet, and the fruits are topped off with a persistent calyx that resembles a tall, medieval crown which became a symbol of kingship in the Middle Ages: Henry IV adopted the fruit from the Moorish kings as his heraldic emblem, with the motto "Sour, yet sweet," and it was Catherine of Aragon's device when she married Henry VIII. They were among the first fruits to be brought into cultivation after grain-farming was invented in the Fertile Crescent between the Nile and the Indus about 10,000 years ago.
  a) Fig.  b) Date.  c) Pomegranate.
  d) Apricot.  e) Mulberry.

3) The original base for this bright red Polish and Russian soup was the cow parsnip.
Name this soup.

4) When was milk first sold in glass bottles?  Whan were plastic milk bottle introduced?

5) These were first made commercially in 1882 by Swiss flour manufacturer Julius Maggi. He produced them so the poor living in city slums (who could not afford meat) would have an inexpensive method for making nutritious soup.
Click Here for Today’s Quiz Answers
 

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Read an article about Chef James and the FoodReference.com website published in the Winona Daily News, Minneapolis StarTribune, and numerous other newspapers: Click here for the Article
 

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Dedication
This website is dedicated to:
· Gladys Ehler, my mother, who taught me patience and how to make Sauerbraten (it is still my favorite)
· Edward Ehler, my father, who taught me a love of books and history.
· Barbara Saba, my sister, who taught me how to dance.
· Cpl. Thomas E. Saba, my nephew.  Died in action on Feb. 7, 2007 in Iraq.  He was 30 yrs. young.

          Chef James
 

TOP

DID YOU KNOW

Albany, Georgia is the Pecan Capital of the U.S., with more than 600,000 pecan trees.

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A FOOD LIFE

"There are those who say that a life devoted to food -- cooking it, eating it, writing about it, even dreaming about it -- is a frivolous life, an indulgent life.  I would disagree.  If we do not care what we eat, we do not care for ourselves, and if we do not care for ourselves, how can we care for others?"
Fictional cookery writer Hilary Small, in episode 6, series 2 of 'Pie In the Sky'

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Click Here for
Food Emergency
Websites, Phone #s, E-mails, etc.

 

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Classic Fish and Seafood Recipes
 

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IN SEASON FOR SUMMER

VEGETABLES: (Trivia)
(Recipes  --  Tips)
Avocados
Beets
Bell Peppers
Carrots
Celery
Corn
Cucumbers
Eggplant
Garlic
Green Beans
Lima Beans
Okra
Onions
Peas
Plantains
Summer Squash
Tomatillos
Tomatoes
Zucchini
 

FRUITS (Tips)
(Trivia)
Apples
Apricots
Bananas
Blackberries
Blueberries
Cantaloupe
Cherries
Grapes
Honeydew Melon
Mangos
Peaches
Pears
Pineapples
Plums
Raspberries
Strawberries
Watermelon

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DID YOU KNOW?

The carp was the mascot of the radio station WKRP on the TV show 'WKRP in Cincinnati' which ran from 1978 to 1982.

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Website last updated on Monday, September 21, 2026