Articles by Kurt Michael Friese
Kurt Michael Friese is chef/owner of Devotay in Iowa City, serves on the Slow Food USA Board of Directors, and is editor-in-chief of the magazine Edible Iowa River Valley. He is the author of two books, including A Cook's Journey: Slow Food in the Heartland and Chasing Chiles: Hot Spots on the Chile Trail (which he co-authored with Gary Nabhan and Kraig Kraft). He lives with his wife Kim in rural Johnson County.
All Articles
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Reclaiming the beauty of Thanksgiving
Gratitude is not only the greatest of virtues, but the parent of all the others. — Cicero In a couple of days, we’ll celebrate our best, most important holiday. While celebrations of the harvest have existed for as long as civilization (for indeed it was agriculture that necessitated both), this particular holiday is uniquely […]
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To make the Thanksgiving centerpiece a sure triumph, go heritage — and reach for the deep-fryer
Fry ya later, alligator. In the 11 years between the Declaration of Independence and the ratification of the Constitution, arguments raged over the future of the nascent nation. One involved the naming of a National Bird. Writing to his daughter on the subject of his choice for the symbol in 1784, Benjamin Franklin wrote, “Eagles […]
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How I beat KFC’s ‘family meal’ challenge
Recently, the American public was issued a challenge by the folks at KFC (formerly “Kentucky Fried Chicken,” but “fried” just didn’t sound healthy). The fast-food joint argues in its latest commercial that you cannot “create a family meal for less than $10.” Their example is the “seven-piece meal deal,” which includes seven pieces […]
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From Iowa’s apple orchards, a delicious heirloom and a recipe for stuffing
This column is an excerpt from Friese’s new book A Cook’s Journey: Slow Food in the Heartland. Truly scrumptious: the “red delicious” apple’s heirloom antecedent. Photo: Kurt Michael Friese One cool spring morning about 1880, a farmer in Madison County, Iowa, named Jesse Hiatt was walking the rows of his young […]
