Table Of ContentKansas City
The Big City Food Biography Series
as part of the Rowman & Littlefield Studies in Food and Gastronomy
General Editor: Ken Albala, Professor of History, University of the Pacific
([email protected])
Rowman & Littlefield Executive Editor: Suzanne Staszak-Silva (sstaszak
[email protected])
Food helps define the cultural identity of cities in much the same way as
the distinctive architecture and famous personalities. Great cities have
one-of-a-kind food cultures, offering the essence of the multitudes who
have immigrated there and shaped foodways through time. The Big City
Food Biography series focuses on those metropolises celebrated as culi-
nary destinations, with their iconic dishes, ethnic neighborhoods, markets,
restaurants, and chefs. Guidebooks to cities abound, but these are real
biographies that will satisfy readers’ desire to know the full food culture
of a city. Each narrative volume, devoted to a different city, explains the
history, the natural resources, and the people that make that city’s food
culture unique. Each biography also looks at the markets, historic res-
taurants, signature dishes, and great cookbooks that are part of the city’s
gastronomic makeup.
New Orleans: A Food Biography, by Elizabeth M. Williams (2012)
San Francisco: A Food Biography, by Erica J. Peters (2013)
New York City: A Food Biography, by Andrew F. Smith (2013)
Portland: A Food Biography, by Heather Arndt Anderson (2014)
Chicago: A Food Biography, by Daniel Block and Howard B. Rosing
(2015)
Kansas City
A Food Biography
Andrea Broomfield
ROWMAN & LITTLEFIELD
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Copyright © 2016 by Rowman & Littlefield
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British Library Cataloguing in Publication Information Available
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Broomfield, Andrea, author.
Kansas City : a food biography / Andrea L. Broomfield.
pages cm. — (The big city food biography series)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-1-4422-3288-4 (cloth : alk. paper) — ISBN 978-1-4422-3289-1
(electronic)
1. Food—Missouri—Kansas City—History. 2. Cooking, American—
Midwestern style—History. 3. Food industry and trade—Missouri—Kansas
City—History. 4. Kansas City (Mo.) —History. I. Title.
TX360.U63K364 2016
641.59778'411—dc23 2015029520
™
The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements
of American National Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence
of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992.
Printed in the United States of America
For Charles S. Broomfield, Native Son
Contents
Preface Kansas City: The Nation’s Hospitality Crossroads ix
1 “Here Stands a City Built O’ Bread and Beef”:
Kansas City’s Natural and Material Resources 1
2 Prehistoric and Native American Foodways of the
Kawsmouth Region 21
3 The Old World Meets the New 35
4 Contributing to Kansas City’s Greater Good:
Immigrants and Their Food Traditions 55
5 African American Contributions and Kansas City’s
Southern Traditions 81
6 Kansas City Markets and Groceries 105
7 “Kansas City, Here I Come”: Historic Restaurants
at America’s Crossroads, 1860s–1970s 123
8 Kansas City Home Cooks and Homegrown Festivals 149
9 We’ve Grown Accustomed to These Tastes: Kansas City’s
Signature Dishes 171
Notes 187
Bibliography 211
Index 225
About the Author 241
vii
Preface
Kansas City
The Nation’s Hospitality Crossroads
Visitors to Kansas City should come ready to be welcomed, and if they are
staying with a host, they can bet that their welcome will involve food, and
lots of it. An excursion to the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, the National
World War I Memorial, and the Country Club Plaza might also come into
play, but meals in the home and out on the town will most likely take
priority. Fall visitors at a Chiefs football game may not remember much
about the game, but they won’t forget the tailgate party, where the Tru-
man Sports Complex parking lot will be crammed with upwards of 25,000
vehicles that function in some cases as complete kitchens. Charcoal grills
sit alongside 560-pound PitBoss smokers, and many fans will also have
a three-crock slow cooker featuring the family chili recipe and other
decadent cold-weather foods. Roasted green chili and tomato queso, jam-
balaya loaded with shrimp and Andouille sausage, and gooey Crock-Pot
brownies often accompany the barbecued ribs, briskets, and brats. It might
take strangers ten minutes of wandering around in that thick hickory haze
before they are invited over to partake of what is on offer. Why is this?
After all, most cities market hospitality and great food to visitors, and
many cities start the football game with a tailgate party, but Kansas City
is special. Its very existence was founded on food and hospitality. At no
time in the city’s past have the two items been separate from one another.
Geography has a lot to do with this fact. Located roughly in the cen-
ter of the contiguous United States and at the confluence of the Kaw
(Kansas) and Missouri Rivers, Kansas City is a crossroads, historically
a place that people came through on their way to somewhere else. Prior
to the Civil War, Kansas City was a main jumping-off place for the
overland journey west, and while here, traders and pioneers stocked up
ix
