When Chinese American Vincent Chin was beaten to death by two autoworkers in 1982 during a time of growing resentment toward Japan’s auto industry, the incident became a rallying point for Asian Pacific American communities. Photograph by Corky Lee

When Christopher Columbus set off across the Atlantic in search of a Western route to Asia, the continent became a footnote in the discovery of America. But before the country was even founded, Asians and Asian Americans have played integral roles in the American story. Some chapters of that history are well known: the impact of Chinese railroad workers or the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II. But countless others have been overlooked.

In honor of Asian Pacific American Heritage Month, a new traveling show developed by by the Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service (SITES) and the Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center seeks to provide a more complete story of Asian American history. Now on view at the American History Museum, the exhibition “I Want the Wide American Earth: An Asian Pacific American Story” begins with the pre-Columbian years and spans the centuries, to tell of the Asian experience with a series of posters featuring archival images and beautiful illustrations that eventually will travel the country. A condensed set of exhibition materials will also be distributed to 10,000 schools nationwide as teaching tools.

Though often marginalized with legislation like the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, Asian Americans were central to American history, “from the Civil War to the Civil Rights Movement,” explains Konrad Ng, director of the Asian Pacific American Center.

Posters will travel to 10,000 schools to help educate school children about the many contributions of Asian Americans.

The rise of Asian cuisines has had a profound effect on American culture today.

This poster shows members of the Asian American Political Alliance at a Black Panther Party rally in 1968.

The densely packed exhibit resonates with many of today’s conversations around immigration, identity and representation. Beneath the broad banner of Asian American identity dwells a deeper, more diverse set of experiences. The Puna Singh family, for example, represents a unique blending of cultures that occurred when Punjabi men–unable to immigrate with Indian brides–became employed in agriculture in the West, and met and started families with female Mexican fieldworkers. “The story of Asian Americans,” says Lawrence Davis, who worked on the exhibition, “is very much one that’s not in isolation.”

The Asian experience is one that includes a diversity of cultures and countries. As early as 1635, Chinese merchants were trading in Mexico City. By the 1760s, Filipinos had set up fishing villages in the bayous of New Orleans, and Vietnamese shrimpers and fishermen are a large part of the Coast’s current economy. Asian Americans fought on both sides of the Civil War, including two brothers, who were the sons of the famous conjoined twins Chang and Eng, brought to the U.S. by circus-owner P.T. Barnum. In 1898, Wong Kim Ark, a Chinese American, won a landmark Supreme Court case, which established the precedent of birthright citizenship. In the 1960s, Filipino workers marched alongside Cesar Chavez for farm workers’ rights.

The exhibit borrows its title from the 20th-century Filipino American poet, Carlos Bulosan who wrote:

Before the brave, before the proud builders and workers,

I say I want the wide American earth

For all the free.

I want the wide American earth for my people.

I want my beautiful land.

I want it with my rippling strength and tenderness

Of love and light and truth

For all the free.

“When he arrived in the U.S., like most immigrant stories, it wasn’t easy,” says Ng of the poet. “And yet he still came to love this country.” Despite the hardship, discrimination and even vilifying, many Asian Americans came to love this country as well, and from that love, they improved it and became an integral part of it.

Though Ng had a hard time singling out any favorite chapter from the show, he says many present “new ways to think about the community,” including the politics of international adoption, the spread of Asian food cultures and much more.

“I Want the Wide American Earth: An Asian Pacific American Story” will be on display at the American History Museum through June 18, 2013 before traveling to the Japanese American National Museum in Los Angeles.

A glimpse into the famous kitchen, where the solid maple counters were made two inches taller than was standard to accommodate the 6-foot-3 Julia Child. Courtesy of the American History Museum

As part of the American History Museum’s new exhibit, “FOOD: Transforming the American Table 1950-2000,” Julia Child’s cherished kitchen has also received some curatorial love. What better time to pay tribute to one of the most famous TV chefs and cookbook authors than the holiday season?

From her Cambridge, Massachusetts, home, the kitchen was donated to the museum in 2001 and has continued to be one of its most popular attractions. In addition to serving as her personal kitchen, it was also where Child filmed three of her shows in the 1990s. Nothing inside the room has been altered, of course, down to the cookbooks on the shelves and the steel pole attached to the ceiling for the television lights. But new items, including her Emmy and nomination letter as well as her French Legion of Honor medal, elevate the star’s presence in the museum.

Peruse her copper pot and pan collection and Emmy award paraphernalia before hearing from the legend herself. Visitors can watch clips from her cooking shows in the new “Beyond the French Chef” section, as well as interviews with famous chefs about the influence Child had on the country and on their careers.

You might even get some ideas for your holiday wish list, like a blowtorch for your kitchen–”Every woman needs a blowtorch,” according to Child.

For visitor tips for each museum, check here for more information.

And for visitors heading into town for the holidays, don’t forget to download our Visitors Guide and Tours app. We’ve packed it with specialty tours, must-see exhibitions, museum floor plans and custom postcards. Get it on Google Play and in the Apple Store for just 99 cents.

More from our Thanksgiving must-sees:

Going West: The American History Museum’s Conestoga Wagon

Another Smash Hit: Rovaldi’s “Opening Day”

The incredible changes in food production and consumption in the second half of the 20th century provide a proverbial feast for thought in the upcoming exhibit. Courtesy of the American History Museum

You can thank the U.S. ballistic missile program for CorningWare’s ubiquitous, simple white dishes with the dainty blue blooms painted on like pressed wildflowers. “That’s a complete Space Age material,” says  Cory Bernat, one of the curators on the American History Museum’s upcoming exhibit “Food: Transforming the American Table, 1950-2000.” Touring the space where the exhibit will open next month, Bernat points to the place where the CorningWare baking dish will take its place of honor.

“It really changed people’s lives and I know this because the dish in the show belonged to my mother,” says Bernat. Humble, unassuming objects like a CorningWare dish, Bernat argues, actually represent major transformations in the way Americans cook and eat.

An illustration of the exhibit’s “New and Improved” display showcases technological changes in cooking and food production. Illustration courtesy of the American History Museum.

Bernat says the exhibit is full of these transformational stories, including the rise of frozen concentrated orange juice. As a product specially developed just after  WWII and popularized by modern marketing, Bernat says, “To me, that’s a pretty quintessential story for this exhibit.” She also points to appliances like the George Foreman grill, which now seem minor, but at the time represented a significant shift; in this case, using a manly personality to market both health and cooking to a new audience.

These items are just a small part of the story. The show will also cover what it’s calling the Mexican food revolution, the Good Food movements, food on the go, advancements in the vineyard, the rise and fall of kitchen appliances and other such topics.

The section titled “Resetting the Table,” will feature the rise of Mexican food in America. Illustration courtesy of the American History Museum.

Starting with a trip past the home kitchen of Julia Child, the exhibit succeeds in showing the diversity of food cultures and the many forces that shape our current diets. Across from the display case of Good Food movements–complete with Alice Water’s paraphrenalia and photographs from the Black Panthers’ food distribution program–sits the food-on-the-go case. Bernat points out that the advent of fast food culture actually began in California alongside early iterations of Good Food movements. In-N-Out Burger, founded in 1948 in Baldwin Park, California, will be represented by two lap mats, which allowed people to dine in their cars.

That California’s car culture as well as its reputation for agricultural abundance made it home to in-car dining on the one hand and local food movements on the other speaks to the ways in which food can both unite and divide.

And because the story is far from over, the “Open Table” hopes to inspire conversation. Illustration courtesy of the American History Museum.

At the heart of the exhibit sits a large table with an array of nutritional guides and pyramids from over the years presented on rotating wheels. The charts include the standard guides we were all shown growing up as well as less conventional ones, including a vegetarian’s guide, charts from international diets and other variations. Billed as the “Open Table,” it is meant to encourage conversation about our changing relationship to food.

Set to open November 20th, just in time for Thanksgiving, the exhibit will show the complicated reality of a simple question: what’s for dinner?

Sliders served at last year's ZooFari benefit. Image courtesy of the National Zoo.

Tuesday, May 15 Words, Earth and Aloha

Celebrate Asian Pacific Heritage Month with the American Indian Museum’s May Daily Films. Words, Earth and Aloha celebrates the Hawaiian composers who flourished between the 1870s and the 1920s, exploring the poetry and play of Hawaiian lyrics as well as the places and features of the natural world that inspired songs that remain beloved to this day. The documentary is directed by Eddie Kamae, the legendary Hawaiian musician who helped launch the Hawaiian cultural renaissance. Free. 12:30 p.m. to 1:30 p.m. American Indian Museum.

Wednesday, May 16 merengue and méringue

Discover and celebrate the common traditions of island neighbors Haiti and the Dominican Republic at the Haiti-Dominican Friendship Concert, sponsored by the African Art Museum and the Smithsonian Latino Center. Enriquillo Tejada y Los Clarinetes Mágicos open with a set of Dominican merengues, boleros, and Latin jazz. Tabou Combo closes the show with konpa and Haitian méringue music. Both merengue and méringue stem from a blend of African and European roots. Free. 6:30 p.m. Baird Auditorium, Natural History Museum.

Thursday, May 17 ZooFari

Expand your palate at ZooFari, which has been called “D.C.’s foodie event of the year.” More than 100 of the best eateries in the area are participating this year. Add the fine wines, fabulous entertainment, animal demonstrations, and a great silent auction, all in the wild setting of the Smithsonian’s National Zoo, and you have the recipe for a delicious evening. All proceeds will benefit the Zoo’s research, conservation and education programs. $150 for members, $200 for nonmembers. 6:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. National Zoo.

For a complete listing of Smithsonian events and exhibitions visit the goSmithsonian Visitors Guide. Additional reporting by Michelle Strange.

Come to the Freer for a dinner of Taiwanese beef noodles and a movie, "Eat Drink Man Woman." Image courtesy of the Freer Gallery.

Tuesday, February 14 Handi-hour

Whether you come with a date or forgot it’s Valentine’s Day, the Renwick Gallery has a craft and a beer for you. Learn to knit while you enjoy live music and several seasonal brews. Then, join a scavenger hunt—no, they’re not just for kids—through the galleries. $20 includes 2 drink tickets, snacks and crafts. 5:30 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. Renwick Gallery.

Wednesday, February 15 Noodles and a Movie

Get a taste of Taiwan at the Freer’s celebration of Chinese New Year. Chef Hou Chun-sheng, winner of the 2011 Taipei Beef Noodle Soup Competition will be ladling out his signature beef noodles. Stick around for a screening of the widely acclaimed 1994 film by Ang Lee, “Eat Drink Man Woman,” about an elderly chef and his daughters in modern Taiwan. Free. 6:00 p.m. Meyer Auditorium, Freer Gallery.

Thursday, February 16 Little Red and the Renegades’ Mardi Gras Special

The classic Louisiana stylings of Little Red (Tom Corradino) and the Renegades gets the party started in the Kogod Courtyard. Hailed as “exuberant” and “just flat-out fun” by music critic Lee Nichols, Little Red is sure to get you on your feet. Dance, play a board game, chow down on snacks and just relax at this latest performance in the Take 5! jazz series. Free. 5:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. American Art Museum.

For a complete listing of Smithsonian events and exhibitions visit the goSmithsonian Visitors Guide. Additional reporting by Michelle Strange.

Indulge and educate yourself at the Power of Chocolate Festival this weekend. Image courtesy of the American Indian Museum

Friday, February 10 Mourning

Before the Iranian Film Festival draws to a close next week, be sure to catch Morteza Fashbaf’s debut film, “Mourning,” which won the top prize at South Korea’s 2011 Busan International Film Festival. The film follows a road trip with two characters who are deaf and dumb, spending most of their time bickering almost entirely in sign language. The breakout feature led the Institute of Contemporary Art in London to speculate that it “may herald the arrival of a major new Iranian talent.” Free. 7:00 p.m. Meyer Auditorium, Freer Gallery.

Saturday, February 11 The Power of Chocolate Festival

Start getting your sweet tooth in shape now, because this weekend the American Indian Museum is chock full of chocolate. Considered a “food of the gods” by the Mayan and Aztec peoples, chocolate has a rich and complicated cultural history that will be on full display. Grind your own cacao beans and froth your own drink, or learn from the renowned chef Richard Hetzler of the museum’s Mitsitam Cafe about the many different ways you can cook with chocolate. And this just in—sample tastings will be offered. See the full schedule here. Free. 10:00 a.m. to 3:30 p.m., Saturday and Sunday. American Indian Museum.

Sunday, February 12 The Emerson String Quartet

Join the acclaimed Emerson String Quartet for an evening of diverse global music ranging from Bach to jazz to Brazilian Choro. Fresh off their induction into the American Classical Music Hall of Fame last year, the Emerson String Quartet has nine Grammy Awards and the Avery Fisher Prize under their belt. Buy tickets through the Resident Associates Program. $51 for members, $63 for general admission. 6:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. Baird Auditorium, Natural History Museum.

A recent study indicates that ancient peoples in Peru were eating popcorn. Photo courtesy of the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute

Popcorn dates pretty far back—way earlier than Orville Redenbacher—according to a study published last week. The paper, which appeared in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences and was co-authored by Dolores Piperno, curator of New World archaeology at the Museum of Natural History, reveals that archaeologists have unearthed a number of corn samples from a pair of Peruvian excavation sites. Several of the specimens indicate that among many uses the ancient Peruvians found for the maize was one we still know well today: popcorn.

The samples include corncobs, husks and stalks, and date to 6,700 to 3,000 years ago, making the discovery the oldest corn sample ever found in South America, says Piperno. “Corn was first domesticated in Mexico nearly 9,000 years ago from a wild grass called teosinte,” she says. “Our results show that only a few thousand years later corn arrived in South America, where its evolution into different varieties that are now common in the Andean region began.”

The excavation sites, Paredones and Huaca Prieta, are located in a climate that allows such samples to be preserved for a long time. “The sites occur in a very, very arid climate, the coast of Peru, where it almost never rains,” Piperno says. “Those kinds of conditions are particularly good for preserving things, because it’s humidity that affects the preservation of plant remains over time.”

Some of the ancient corn cobs discovered in Peru. Photo courtesy of the Natural History Museum

Although there had been previous discoveries of microfossils—such as starch grains—finding entire cobs provides valuable information. “Microfossils give an excellent picture of if they’re eating corn, if corn is present, but what was missing was the morphological detail,” says Piperno. “This site provided actual cobs, information on the sizes of the cobs, and what they look like.” These findings will help researchers trace the early domestication of corn from teosinte, a complicated transformation that occurred thousands of years ago.

The samples indicate that the inhabitants of the site consumed the maize in several different ways—apart from popcorn, they consumed corn flour—but that it was still not a common food at the time. “It was probably a fairly minor component of the diet, because despite the very good preservation, not many cobs were found,” Piperno says.

How did the corn travel all the way from Mexico, its birthplace, to Peru, thousands of miles away? “People just passed it along,” says Piperno. “Farmers like to exchange goods and ideas, so it was probably just passed from person to person, from farmer to farmer.”

Got a burning question about popcorn or some other zany topic? We invite you to submit questions to our new reader forum, Ask Smithsonian. Each month, we’ll select a handful of reader-submitted questions to publish in Smithsonian magazine with answers from the Institution’s experts.

See Alice Waters and her new portrait side-by-side on Friday. Image courtesy of the National Portrait Gallery.

Friday, January 20 An Evening with Alice Waters

Meet organic food icon and chef Alice Waters both in the flesh and in still life at this presentation of her new portrait on view at the National Portrait Gallery. Following the presentation, enjoy light fare at a reception catered by several local celebrity chefs, including José Andrés of ThinkFoodGroup and Mike Isabella of Graffiato. Waters will be interviewed in the Nan Tucker Auditorium at 6 p.m., the reception follows at 7 p.m. in the Kogod Courtyard. Ticket prices vary, National Portrait Gallery.

Saturday, January 21 Create Your Own Peacock Room

Kids and families, learn the story of the Freer Gallery’s Peacock Room, which is now recently restored to its appearance circa 1908, when the museum’s founder Charles Lang Freer purchased it. Next come to the ImaginAsia workshop and curate your own miniature Peacock Room to take home with you. Free. 2:00 p.m. Sublevel 2, Sackler Gallery.

Sunday, January 22 Dance for the Dying Unplugged

The Luce Foundation Center’s “Unplugged” series welcomes local band Dance for the Dying for an intimate acoustic performance at 2 p.m. Based out of Alexandria, Virginia, the group says their music is a “perfectly mismatched marriage of macabre and melody.” Get there early for a pre-concert art talk. Free. Art talk meets in F Street Lobby at 1:30 p.m., performance begins in Luce Foundation Center (third floor) at 2 p.m. American Art Museum.

Beth Lipman's sculpture "Bancketje," is on view at the Renwick. Photo courtesy American Art Museum

With Thanksgiving Day at hand, the ATM team combed the collections for the some of the best feasts depicted in art. Visit the American Art Museum and its branch, the Renwick Gallery, to see these and other masterpieces of holiday food festivities.

1. Sioux Dog Feast: George Catlin was a self-taught artist who traveled the American West during the 1830s. This painting portrays a feast given by the Lakota people to visiting U.S. government representatives, likely observed at Fort Pierre in 1832. Recounting the event in his Letters and Notes Catlin wrote, “Near the foot of the flag-staff were placed in a row on the ground, six or eight kettles, with iron covers on them, shutting them tight, in which were prepared the viands for our voluptuous feast.”

2. Vegetable Dinner: This 1927 work, painted by artist Peter Blume at the precocious age of 21, depicts a pair of women—one, seated and smoking, the other, standing and chopping vegetables. “Blume was involved with a style called Purism, which emphasized exquisite contours and simplified shapes,” writes museum director Elizabeth Broun. “Still, there’s something in the way the knife slicing away a potato skin is poised against the vulnerable thumb, perhaps to cut more deeply. Blume could find a dark tension in this game of edges and surfaces.”

Doris Lee's 1935 "Thanksgiving," is held in the collections. Photo courtesy American Art Museum.

3. Thanksgiving: During her lifetime, Doris Lee was a popular mainstream artist whose work evoked Norman Rockwell and appeared in Life magazine. This 1935 painting provided a look back at the simpler domestic life many yearned for during the years of the Great Depression. The bustling kitchen is full of preparation for the annual feast, and although the work appears simple in terms of subject, it is filled with countless realistic details.

4. Archelous and Hercules: In ancient Greek myth, the god Archelous took the form of a bull during flood season and carved channels into the earth, while Hercules tore off his horn to create a cornucopia of plenty. Thomas Hart Benton’s 1947 oil painting adapts this legend as a parable for the American Midwest, where engineers worked to tame the Missouri River. The plentiful harvest spilling from the horn represents the future bumper crops farmers would enjoy as a result of this work.

5. Bancketje: This sculpture—named after the banquets often featured in 17th century Dutch still-life paintings—is a literal feast, but one already eaten. Contemporary glass artist Beth Lipman worked with 15 other artisans to create the extravagant installation, piling 400 pieces of hand-blown glass tableware, stemware, candlesticks and serving dishes atop an oak table. The 2003 piece manages to combine an initial impression of abundance with a subsequent awareness of emptiness and decay.

Still of a sleepy orangutan from the IMAX film, "Born to Be Wild 3D," currently showing at the Natural History Museum. Courtesy of IMAX and Warner Brothers Pictures

Monday April 11 Born to be Wild 3D

Born to be Wild 3D features the conservation efforts of primatologist Birute Galdikas with orangutans in Borneo, along with that of Dame Daphne Sheldrick‘s work with elephants in Kenya. Both women live near the animals, rescuing them and returning them to live in the wild. Film is shown at 2:25, 4:25 and 6:25 daily. The Johnson IMAX Theater at the Natural History museum. Tickets are $9 adults, $8 seniors and $7.50 children ages 2 to 12. Toll free phone 866-868-7774 or online.

Tuesday April 12 Draw & Discover

Be inspired by the paintings, sculptures and installations at the American Art Museum and spend some time sketching at the Luce Foundation Center’s workshop. Free, but bring your own sketchbooks and pencils. American Art Museum, 3:00-4:30PM. This event repeats every Tuesday at the same time and location.

Wednesday April 13 Nile Style

How does a nation’s history affect its food? Cookbook author Amy Riolo provides a virtual tour of Egypt’s history and cuisine. Light refreshments will be provided by the Embassy of Egypt. Riolo’s books, including Nile Style will be offered for sale. 7:00 PM to 9:00 PM. $25 members, $30 non members. Tickets may be purchased online or at the Resident Associate Program box office located in the Ripley Center on the National Mall. Ripley Center.

Thursday April 14 Smithsonian Craft Show

More than 100 American artists will be displaying and selling their wares at this year’s Smithsonian Craft Show. The National Building Museum makes a perfect backdrop for the beautiful hand-crafted work of the nation’s top artisans. 10 AM to 8 PM through April 17. Reduced price tickets are $6 after 6 pm Thursday and Friday. Daily admission is $15/person, 12 and under free (no strollers permitted). Two day admission is $20/person. Call the Craft Show Office at 202-633-5006 or 888-832-9554 or online. Event is at the National Building Museum.

Friday April 15 DJ Toxic Avenger

Disco Dance Party at the Postal Museum provides visitors and locals alike a lively end to a long work week or a spring break vacation. 9 PM to 1 AM. Must be 21 or older to attend the event. Tickets are: $30 members, $35 general admission (and includes 2 drink tickets). Purchase tickets online or at the Resident Associate Program box office, located in the Ripley Center on the National Mall. Postal Museum

For updates on all exhibitions and events, visit our companion site goSmithsonian.com

Chef Richard Hetzler of the Mitsitam Cafe says you don't have to be a chef to master the recipes in his new book, below. Photos courtesy of the American Indian Museum

Smithsonian.com’s food blogger Amanda Bensen has referred to area south of the National Mall as a “culinary desert.” The Mitsitam Cafe, a Zagat-rated restaurant located inside the American Indian Museum is then the oasis. Mitsitam, which opened with the museum in 2004, serves up Native American delicacies from five different regions of the Americas: Northeast Woodlands and Great Lakes, South America, North Pacific Coast and Columbia Plateau, Mesoamerica and Great Plains.

Now Natives and non-Natives alike can make some of Mitsitam’s specialties with the new cookbook, The Mitsitam Cafe Cookbook: Recipes from the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian. Written by head chef Richard Hetzler, the book includes recipes for simple American Indian staples such as fry bread and original dishes such as corn and chocolate tamales. I discussed the new cookbook with the chef himself.

How is sharing food the equivalent of sharing culture?

In my mind food and culture are basically the same. If you look at food, food essentially is how people sustain life. Whether you’re talking about Incas with chocolate, clams in the Northeast, or going all the way to salmon in the Northwest, I think food ultimately becomes a part of culture because it’s such a part of life.

Eating locally has come into vogue in recent years, but that’s something that Native peoples have been doing for centuries. What are your thoughts on the local food movement?

If we were [located] in these regions, we would buy local. For example, salmon that we buy from the Quinault tribe, we actually have it flown in. So for us, it’s more difficult because of the regions of the food, but I think in general, it’s the way people should live. Looking outside the carbon footprints and everything else, I think it just makes sense. It makes sense to eat stuff that’s indigenous to the area where you live. If you live in the desert, you’re growing cactus agave syrup, chilies and plants that are indigenous, and then protein—lamb, goat or whatever it might be. In doing that, you’re supporting local farms and your community, and you’re also reconnecting with the area that you’re from. You’re not bringing in all these non-indigenous species that are eventually going to take over or hurt the ecosystem.

What are some of your favorite ingredients?

It would have to be the chola buds or sorel cactus syrup. Chola buds are the bud off a cactus, and the Native Americans in the Southwest actually harvest these. It’s probably about the size of one digit of your pinkie, and it’s a little thorny, almost like the top of an asparagus. They clean the thorns off and dry it out in the sun. They’re phenomenal tasting and they’re actually really good for you.

Sorel cactus syrup is made from the big-armed cactus that you see cowboys hanging their hats on in the movies. It’s basically the sap that they actually cook down to syrup. Super expensive, but it’s excellent. It costs about $128 an ounce. It’s kind of a cool story, but I dare you to find a truffle that costs that much. Essentially you’re going to put that as like a drizzle on a plate or something, so we’ve done some specialty chef’s tables where we’ve [included] that as a finishing.

Can anyone make these recipes?

Every recipe in the book has been home tested. The staff at the museum each took three or four recipes home, made them and critiqued them, and we adjusted the recipes. One of the pushes behind the book was to really find and make recipes that any person could make. You don’t have to be a chef to recreate any of it.

Executive Pastry Chef Bill Yosses. Photo by Marcus Nilsson

I understand that for you dessert has deep connections to American traditions. Can you tell me about that?

Sure, one of the things that I mentioned in the book that I always love talking about is how America, especially even before the revolution, as our country was being formed, was seen as kind of a source of great food. Potatoes, tomatoes, chestnuts, all theses things did not exist in Europe and were found in America. All these were seen by Europeans as a new source, an interesting source, of food. Just as in the 14th century, spices from Asia were the new thing and only available to royalty and the aristocratic class, America was seen as this great source of new food and was looked to for new ideas.

One of the things that was developed here was new apples. The most famous one, that was written about by Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson, was called the New Town Pippin. That apple was developed in what then was called New Town and what is now Queens, New York. Both Franklin and Jefferson write about this great apple that has no peer and European stock and all that. So, these foods were being celebrated even by our founding fathers who were, in Jefferson’s case and Washington’s case, basically farmers, but gentlemen farmers with very erudite backgrounds. So, that’s why things like apple pie have becomes so much a part of not just our American menu and American folklore, but also, really, our political traditions.

Have your desserts ever had an impact on politics and diplomacy at the White House?

Well, of course! [Laughs] Let me put it this way, I think food in general is sort of a universal. It’s universally appreciated. It has been since people gathered around the campfire. Food has a great civilizing influence. It’s when we stop hunting and we sit down and enjoy food together. It’s also the beginning of community.

In that sense, I think food is an important political tool. And this is the type of thing that was recognized in the early 19th century by Napoleon who hired Antonin Careme, one of the great chefs of that period. And his lavish dinners were used to persuade and cajole a lot of political questions. So, I don’t mean to glorify what we do by comparing them with that opulent period, but yes I think food is a great chance for people to come around a table and relax and talk through their differences. But I cannot point out a single amendment or bill that credit could be given to the strawberry shortcake.

What has been your most, let’s say, fanciful creation at the White House?

I would have to say the Chocolate Easter Village. It’s one we have a lot of fun with. We make an entire village out of chocolate, and little chocolate huts in the shape of eggs, and little creatures made out of marzipan and chocolate. Susie Morrison, my assistant, and myself spend a couple weeks preparing this and it is unveiled at the Easter Egg Roll and the kids get a big kick out of it. So in terms of fanciful, whimsical, I think that would count.

The whole Christmas season for us is a one huge, long event. From Dec. 1 to Christmas, there are several events a day, so we do a lot of decorated cookies and dessert buffets and decorations on that buffet, so that’s kind of our peak period.

How do you meet that balance between your inner artisan and your inner chemist when creating your desserts?

The inner artisan is what it’s all about in terms of creating something appropriate. The great thing about working at the White House is that we have a very cohesive team and basically we are all responding to the direction of Mrs. Obama and so, through her social secretary, we work out the theme of the event, what the food will be and what dessert will be. And this goes down to include as much as the invitations, the tableware, the florists, tablecloths, every department in the White House is involved in this joint process.

So, the artisan in each of us is attuned to what the theme of the event will be. As far as the inner chemist, that certainly has a place in pastry because our recipes are a kind of cooking chemistry and we base them on recipes we have developed, or the favorites of the first family, or are White House traditional recipes.

How often do the Obamas order dessert and what is their favorite?

As far as the frequency, we can say it is certainly not every day and mostly for special occasions. And the family likes traditional American desserts like cobblers and crisps and pies.

Final question: In the White House, does everyone receive their “just desserts”?

[Laughs] Well, I guess if you are philosophical in life in general and believe in Karma, then everyone gets their “just desserts” and I’m sure we’re no different.

Anything else you would like to add?

I would just add this: that as a chef it’s really exciting to be in the food business at this time when Mrs. Obama has put the importance of quality food and the importance of healthy eating in the forefront of the national conversation. Cris Comerford and myself are proud to be part of that effort.

Chef Yosses will also be signing copies of his new book “The Perfect Finish: Special Desserts for Every Occasion.” Praline Bakery and Bistro will be providing tasty treats for the event. Tickets are $25.

Film still from Phoebe Greenberg's "Next Floor," (2008). Courtesy of the artist.

Based on the grotesque imagery of the screen shots of strange food and even stranger characters I saw beforehand, I was hesitant to go see Phoebe Greenberg’s critically acclaimed film, Next Floor. But as soon as I sat back in the Hirshhorn’s darkened Black Box theater, I immediately realized this visually stunning piece was going to be food for thought.

Filmed in a richly desaturated color palette (think The Sopranos) and occupied by characters extreme in appearance and appetite, it is gluttony at its finest. Lavishly dressed guests at a dinner party held in an abandoned house tear at an abundance of food in a visceral and carnal frenzy. The scene takes place on the  top floor of the building and the ever-increasing weight of the diners and their feast-laden table pushes the limits of the creaking floorboards. When the floorboards can bear no more, they burst, sending table and guests crashing through to the next floor. Yet servers keep serving, and the dinner guests keep dining, gorging themselves, even as boards of the consecutive floors continue to break. Undeterred, the diners eat their way to a Dante-esque descent into damnation, eventually plummeting into an endless abyss. Is this a post-consumption era morality tale?

The short film, just twelve minutes of highly-stylized suspense, has garnered many honors, including Best Short Film at the 2008 Cannes Film Festival and is on view at the Hirshhorn through April 11.

This Thursday, February 25, from 7 to 8 PM, meet the woman behind the vision, creator and producer Phoebe Greenberg will discuss her work in the Lerner Room at the museum.

A model of the record-breaking giant LEGO light bulb being built this weekend at the Lemelson Center. Photo courtesy of the Lemelson Center.

August is National Inventors’ Month. To commemorate the occasion, the Lemelson Center for the study of Invention and Innovation at the National Museum of American History invited visitors over the weekend to help construct a record-breaking 8-foot-tall light bulb—made completely out of LEGO bricks.

Tricia Edwards, education specialist at the Lemelson Center, said it took two days, one LEGO master builder and about 300,000 LEGO bricks to complete the light bulb, a universal symbol of a “bright idea.”

Inventions come in all different sizes, shapes and makes, and not all inventions were planned or sought out. Edwards recalls a favorite story of discovery, the creation of the chocolate chip cookie.

In the 1930s, Ruth Graves Wakefield, who along with her husband, owned the Toll House Inn in Massachusetts, was trying to make chocolate drop cookies, which legend says she was famous for. After realizing she didn’t have the right ingredients, she broke up a Nestles chocolate bar thinking the chocolate pieces would melt all the way through—of course the pieces stayed in chunks. In need of  a dessert for the evening’s guests, Wakefield served the cookies anyway. Soon the scrumptious rounds were a must- have on every dessert tray.

The invention of the chocolate chip cookie makes every cookie lover happy.

What invention brightens up your day?

Paula Johnson installs Julia Child's copper pots to the original mapped peg board wall at the National Museum of American History. Photograph by Hugh Talman/NMAH

Every cook, be it an elite chef or an aspiring foodie, has a favorite pot. Julia Child, the genius of American cookery, had dozens. So many pots and pans, in fact, that her husband Paul designed a pegboard and mapping system so that each pot could be handily replaced after every use.

Today, the National Museum of American History unveiled Julia Child’s original blue-painted pegboard hung with 30 gleaming French copper pots and pans that once resided in the famous chef’s Cambridge, Massachusetts, home. The addition completes the museum’s Julia Child kitchen collection.

The exhibition “Bon Appétit! Julia Child’s Kitchen at the Smithsonian,” has been popular with visitors since its 2002 installation after Julia and Paul Child donated the kitchen’s entire contents (minus the copper pots, and more about that later), some 1,200 artifacts, including everything in the drawers and cabinets, as well as the drawers and cabinets and appliances too.

So how is that the pots and pans didn’t make it into the original donation? As luck would have it, another museum got there first. Just days before negotiations began, COPIA, the American Center for Wine, Food & the Arts, in Napa, California, asked for and received the pots and pans. Smithsonian curators were of course disappointed but they, after all, got the mother lode—up to and including the kitchen sink.

In 2008, COPIA closed and the Child family estate sent word to the Smithsonian that the pots and pans were available and the rest, as they say, is history.

Julia Child's copper pots and pans as they looked in her kitchen in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Image courtesy of the museum.

The pots were purchased in France between 1948 and 1952, during the time that the family lived in Provence. Several bear the address 18 rue Coquillière. Every self-respecting cook recognizes that as the home of Dehillerin, the Paris kitchen-supply shop that is to cooking gadgetry what the dictionary is to words.

When Child first discovered the shop, she wrote “I was thunderstruck. Dehillerin was the kitchen-equipment store of all time, a restaurant supply-house stuffed with an infinite number of wondrous gadgets, tools, implements and gewgaws—big shiny copper kettles, turbotières, fish and chicken poachers, eccentrically shaped frying pans, tiny wooden spoons and enormous mixing paddles, elephant-sized salad baskets, all shapes and sizes of knives, choppers, molds, platters, whisks, basins, butter spreaders, and mastodon mashers.”

She later struck up a friendship with the owner, Monsieur Dehillerin, and became “one of his steadiest customers.”

According to Nancy Verde Barr, author of My Years with Julia Child, the pegboard organization system was devised by the couple for their small French kitchen. Storage for the family, like anyone else, was an issue. So Paul cut and painted the boards and then for each pot, pan or tool, he took a thick marker and outlined its shape on the board. Julia, it turns out, was a stickler for organization. When she needed something, she didn’t want to have go looking for it.

From their new perch in the museum, after being tenderly cleaned and arranged by white gloved curators, the pots and pans are gloriously polished. And there for the ages they’ll remain. But truth be told, they are screaming for someone to pluck them off the wall and hoist them over a flame, toss in a stick of butter, some shallots, a bit of wine, some vinegar, salt and pepper and fill the museum galleries with the aroma of something delicious cooking in Julia Child’s kitchen.

“It did my heart good to see rows of . . . copper pots at the ready,” Julie wrote in her 2006 bestseller My Life in France, “I could hardly wait to get behind the stove.”