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Chef James

“The duty of a good Cuisinier is to transmit to the next generation everything he has learned and experienced.”
 
Fernand Point, 1941

FEATURED FOR JANUARY

Updated: Over 9,000 Food Festivals

Valentine’s Day Recipes

Football Food Articles

Buffalo Chicken Game Day Recipes

Guacamole & Avocado Dips

Meatball Appetizer Recipes
 

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FEATURED RECIPES & TIPS

· Original Frank's Redhot Wings

· Ultimate Party Wings

· More Chicken Wing Recipes

· More Appetizer Recipes·

· French Onion Dip

· Jack's Screaming Red Sauce

· Potato Salad Recipes

· Cole Slaw Recipes

· Chicken Salad Recipes

· Kickoff Kabobs

· Banana Bread Recipes

· Mushroom Appetizer Recipes

· Crunchy Snack Mixes

· Mustard and Mustard Sauces

· Salsa Recipes

· Baked and Stuffed Potato Recipes

· Mac & Cheese Recipes
 

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January Food Holidays:

For Details, History and more DAY, WEEK and MONTH Food Holiday designations, including LINKS to Holiday Origins and Additional Information:
SEE Detailed JANUARY Food Calendar

JANUARY is:

• Be Kind To Food Servers Month

• Bread Machine Baking Month
  · Bread Recipes  · Bread Trivia
  · Bread Quotes

• [Family Fit Lifestyle Month]

• [National Fiber Focus Month]
   · Fiber Facts & Trivia

• [National Hot Tea Month]
  · Tea Trivia & History
  · Tea Quotes

• National Meat Month
  · Meat Trivia  · Meat Quotes)

• [National Soup Month]
  · Soup Recipes  · Soup Trivia
  · Soup Quotes

• Oatmeal Month
• Grain of the Month: Oats (More oatmeal is eaten in January than any other month)
  [Whole Grains Council]  · Oat Trivia

• Prune Breakfast Month

• [Wheat Bread Month]
  · Bread Recipes  · Bread Trivia
  · Bread Quotes

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DID YOU KNOW?

Red Pepper is the dried, ripened fruit pod of Capsicum frutescens, one of the most pungent Capsicums. It is sometimes referred to as Cayenne Red Pepper, having been named after the high heat chilies grown in the vicinity of the Cayenne River in French Guiana.

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Monday, January 26, 2026

Daily Trivia Questions are below

TODAY’S FOOD QUOTE

“Hard to call it a party without sardines.”
Brandon Mull, 'The Candy Shop War'
 

FOOD HOLIDAYS - TODAY IS:

• National Peanut Brittle Day

• [International Sous Vide Day] The birthday of Dr. Bruno Goussault, the father of modern sous vide (the process of vacuum-sealing food and cooking it in a temperature controlled water).

• National Green Juice Day (?)

• Australia: [National Australia Day]

• St. Timothy's Day, patron against stomachaches.
 

TODAY IN FOOD HISTORY

1788 Captain Arthur Phillip took formal possession of the colony of New South Wales and became its first Governor. (Australia Food Trivia)

1838 The first state temperance law was passed in Tennessee. (Tennessee Food Trivia)

1861 Samuel Slocum died. He invented a machine to make pins with solid heads and a machine for sticking the pins in a paper holder for sale.

1871 Samuel Hopkins Adams was born (died Nov 16, 1958).  American author and journalist. His series of articles in 1905 about patent medicines ('The Great American Fraud') for Collier's Weekly, led to the passage of the Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906.

1875 The first battery-powered dentist’s drill was patented by George F Green of Kalamazoo, Michigan.

1904 Ancel Keys was born (died Nov 20, 2004).  An American nutritionist, he developed the lightweight, nutritious K ration used during WW II.  He also identified saturated fats role in causing heart disease.  (Military Food Trivia)

1909 Alexander King was born (died Feb 28, 2007). Scottish scientist. A pioneer in warning about the dangers to the environment from extensive industrial development.

1915 Corn Products Refining Co. registered 'ARGO' trademark for corn starch. (Corn Starch Tips & Facts)

1925 Paul Newman was born (died Sept 26, 2008). Actor, director, race car driver, etc. Newman also co-founded 'Newman's Own' food company, which donates all profits to charity (amounting to more than $500 million as of 2017).

1932 William Wrigley, Jr. died (born Sept 30, 1861).  He started out as a traveling salesman at the age of 13, selling soap for his father's company. He had a series of sales jobs, one of which gave chewing gum as a premium. Customers liked the gum better than the product, so he was soon marketing his own gum, Juicy Fruit in 1893, and later that year Wrigley's Spearmint. An advertising genius, his company became the largest chewing gum manufacturer in the world.  (Chewing Gum Trivia & Facts)

1962 Michael Chiarello was born. American celebrity chef, author, winery owner and cooking show host.
[Website: michaelchiarello.com/]

1965 Noah W. and Joseph S. McVicker received U.S. patent #3,167,440 for a "Plastic Modeling Composition of a Soft, Pliable Working Consistency", today better known as Play-Doh.  Play-Doh was originally designed as a wallpaper cleaner.

2001 The movies 'Sugar and Spice' and 'The Wedding Planner' debuted in U.S. theaters.

2007 Food writer Sharon Tyler Herbst died. Author of ' The Food Lover's Companion,' 'The Joy of Cookies,' and more than a dozen other books.

2007 'Blood and Chocolate' opened in U.S. theaters.
 

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A FEW FEATURED FOOD FESTIVALS
(See All 9,000 Food, Wine & Beer Festivals)

January 1-31, 2026 - Napa Valley Restaurant Month
Napa Valley, California

January 20-Feb 12, 2026  NYC Restaurant Week
New York, New York

January 22-February 1, 2026  140th Saint Paul Winter Carnival - St. Paul, Minnesota

January 23-February 1, 2026  Baltimore Restaurant Week - Baltimore, Maryland

January 26-31, 2026  Cheeseburger Week in Pasadena - Pasadena, California

January 28-February 1, 2026  Key West Food and Wine Festival - Key West, Florida

January 31, 2026  Manitou Springs Great Fruitcake Toss - Manitou Springs, Colorado

(SEE ALL FOOD FESTIVALS and OTHER FOOD EVENTS)
 

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FOOD TRIVIA QUIZ    (new DAILY questions)

1) All of the following events took place in the same year.  What year is it?
· Boston, Massachusetts appointed the first Inspector of Milk in the U.S.
· In the Fifth Avenue Hotel in New York City, the first elevator in an American hotel began operation.
· Battle Creek, Michigan was incorporated as a city. The Breakfast Cereal center of the world.
· The first Pullman Sleeper railroad cars were put into service on the Chicago & Alton Railroad.
· Edwin L. Drake drilled the 1st successful commercial oil well in the U.S. near Titusville, Pennsylvania.

2) Native to both Europe and the Americas, today this fruit is cultivated in the U.S. from Alaska to Florida, but it is rarely cultivated from seed. The U.S. produces 75% of the world's crop, and it is an important crop in Canada, Australia, Japan, and parts of Africa.
Its name is very old, dating back to at least 1000 AD, There are many theories, but no one really knows for sure how, why and where its name originated. The Romans valued it for its supposed medicinal properties, such as healing loose teeth and treating stomach problems.  This fruit is technically an enlarged pulpy receptacle bearing numerous achenes, or in other words an aggregate of numerous nutlets distributed on an enlarged, pulpy, scarlet receptacle.
It is 90% water and contains more vitamin C than an equal quantity of lemons or oranges.
Name this fruit.

3) When this St. Louis housewife married her lawyer husband in 1899, he had to teach her how to cook. In 1931 she published a private edition of a cookbook to give to her grown children. In it she gave minute details for each recipe. In 1936, at age 60 she published it for sale to the public.  Her daughter and grandson have co-authored several new editions, and chances are pretty good that you have owned a copy of her cookbook yourself.
Who was this housewife and what cookbook did she publish?

Click Here for Today’s Quiz Answers
 

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Read an article about Chef James and the FoodReference.com website published in the Winona Daily News, Minneapolis StarTribune, and numerous other newspapers: Click here for the Article
 

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Dedication
This website is dedicated to:
· Gladys Ehler, my mother, who taught me patience and how to make Sauerbraten (it is still my favorite)
· Edward Ehler, my father, who taught me a love of books and history.
· Barbara Saba, my sister, who taught me how to dance.
· Cpl. Thomas E. Saba, my nephew.  Died in action on Feb. 7, 2007 in Iraq.  He was 30 yrs. young.

          Chef James
 

TOP

DID YOU KNOW

Kirsch or Kirschwasser is a colorless cherry brandy made in Germany, France, and Switzerland.  Kirsch is colorless because it is not aged in wood.

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A FOOD LIFE

"There are those who say that a life devoted to food -- cooking it, eating it, writing about it, even dreaming about it -- is a frivolous life, an indulgent life.  I would disagree.  If we do not care what we eat, we do not care for ourselves, and if we do not care for ourselves, how can we care for others?"
Fictional cookery writer Hilary Small, in episode 6, series 2 of 'Pie In the Sky'

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Click Here for
Food Emergency
Websites, Phone #s, E-mails, etc.

 

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Classic Fish and Seafood Recipes
 

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DID YOU KNOW?

VEGEMITE:  A popular spread in Australia and New Zealand. Vegemite is made from a brown yeast extract. It is spread on bread and sandwiches, and used to flavor soups and stews. The flavor is mostly yeast and salt. It is similar to marmite.

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IN SEASON FOR WINTER

VEGETABLES
(Recipes  --  Tips)
Avocados
Beets
Brussels Sprouts
Cabbage
Carrots
Celery
Collard Greens
Kale
Leeks
Onions
Parsnips
Plantains
Potatoes
Pumpkin
Rutabagas
Sweet Potatoes & Yams
Swiss Chard
Turnips
Winter Squash

FRUITS (Tips)
Apples
Bananas
Grapefruit
Grapes
Kiwifruit
Lemons
Limes
Oranges
Pears
Pomegranates

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DID YOU KNOW?

The peanut plant originated in South America. As early as 1500 B.C., the Incans of Peru used peanuts as sacrificial offerings and entombed them with their mummies to aid in the spirit life.

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Website last updated on Sunday, January 25, 2026