The pioneers who journeyed from the Midwest to California had a challenge that is hard to imagine for a modern person: how to carry enough food for a journey of several months along with all their possessions in a vehicle that also served as shelter. Their diet was monotonous but offered them the calories to survive. They managed to include a few minor luxuries to bring a hint of home to a desolate prairie camp. After you hear this presentation, you will marvel at the fortitude and ingenuity of the people who settled the West.

Richard Foss, a culinary historian who has written a book about food in space and a published science fiction author reveals all. He is a journalist, author, culinary historian, and lecturer based in Manhattan Beach, California. He has written two books, Rum: A Global History and Food In The Air and Space: The Surprising History of Food and Drink in the Skies. He also is Guest Curator at the Autry Museum of the American West for “Cooking Up a New West” an exhibition to open in May, 2022.

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