NFIB

A Bite of History
03/ 28/ 2002

By Kathleen Landis

Paleocuisineology. The term's a mouthful, but aptly describes History Cooks, Mary Gunderson's business as food writer, historian and cooking instructor.

Gunderson's passions for food and history lie deep in the soil of Yankton, S.D., her rural Missouri River hometown. Her grandparents homesteaded and farmed there in the 1870s. Lewis and Clark's Corps of Discovery blazed the trail before them, during their 1804-1806 westward trek.

This Yankton connection prompted Gunderson's book, Cooking on the Lewis and Clark Expedition, the first to describe what the Corps of Discovery ate en route (menu items ranged from hominy to salt pork.) Five additional books in the series "Exploring History Through Simple Recipes" commemorate the foods of other significant eras in North American history. From Pioneer Farm to Southern Plantation, the books and information on Gunderson's cooking classes can be found at www.historycooks.com.When not writing or lecturing, Gunderson teaches cooking in lessons that introduce the young, and young at heart to great adventures in American history, one morsel at a time.

Veteran food writer Mary Gunderson explores her prairie roots in a series of historical cookbooks.

---

This article originally appeared in the July/August 2001 issue of MyBusiness Magazine, NFIB's member magazine.

Small Business Sound Off
Does this story hit home?  Share your story with us