My heart belongs to Ohio. And the thing about that is I never wanted it to. I grew up in Ohio and moved the hell away from here as fast as I could manage. But whenever I came back to visit, I can’t explain it—I felt like my circadian rhythms were realigning.
As much as I didn’t want to be in Ohio, I could tell deep inside that I belonged here.
It’s been over a decade since I moved back to Ohio. I live in Columbus, a glittering, modern city rising from the middle of endless cornfields. People who live here hate that our most well-known nickname is Cowtown—but I secretly love it.
Being smack-dab in the middle of farmland means we have access to the best pork, grass-fed beef and milk from grass-fed cows, artisan cheeses, heirloom fruits and vegetables. In the summers when I worked downtown, I could pick up heirloom tomatoes and freshly picked corn on my lunch break at Pearl Market, a farmers market that sets up in an alley in the shadows of skyscrapers. How cool is that?
During a lifetime spent in Ohio, communing with people who also spent lifetimes in Ohio, I’ve gleaned some insights into Midwestern cooking. Not nearly enough, but a start.
Food in Ohio is about potlucks, meat and potatoes, casseroles, savory pies, cookie bars, and recipes that inexplicably use Jell-O as an ingredient. It’s about cinnamon-spiked chili and famous salad dressings and pork and more pork and corn. So much corn.
Midwestern food is getting some attention these days. I highly enjoyed Amy Thielen’s “The New Midwestern Table,” and yet was struck by how different her Midwest in northern Minnesota is from mine here in central Ohio.
For this project, I’ve been mining my own childhood food memories, reading through old cookbooks, and unearthing menus from long-closed restaurants, and creating new recipes inspired by those findings. My hope is that by exploring the Ohio foodways and traditions, and interpreting them in a way that works for today’s home cooks, I can start to come to peace with why this place has such a hold over me.
modwestfood.com 