FoodReference.com Logo

FoodReference.com     (since 1999)

 

HOME   |   Articles   |   Food_Trivia   |   Today_in_Food_History   |   Food_History_Timeline   |   Recipes   |   Cooking_Tips   |   Food_Quotes   |   Who’s_Who   |   Culinary_Schools_&_Tours   |   Trivia_Quizzes   |   Food_Poems   |   Cookbooks   |   Free_Magazines   |   Food_Festivals_&_Events

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 FEBRUARY

Updated: Over 9,000 Food Festivals

Valentine’s Day Recipes

St. Patrick’s Day Facts & Food

St. Patrick’s Day Recipes
 

** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** **
 

 


** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** **

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
 

** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** **
 

 


** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** **
 

February Food Holidays:

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

FEBRUARY is:

• Black History Month

• American Heart Month

• Bake for Family Fun Month

• Canned Food Month

• Chocolate Lovers Month

• Fabulous Florida Strawberry Month

 Grain of the Month: Barley

 Great American Pies Month

• National Bird Feeding Month (one of the most difficult months in much of the U.S. for birds to survive in the wild)

• National Cherry Month

• National Children's Dental Health Month

• National Grapefruit Month

• National Hot Breakfast Month

• National Potato Lover's Month

• National Snack Food Month

• Sweet Potato Month

• Return Shopping Carts to the Supermarket Month

** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** **

DID YOU KNOW?

The fruit of the Cacao tree grow directly from the trunk. They look like small melons, and the pulp inside contains 20 to 50 seeds or beans. It takes about 400 beans to make a pound of chocolate.

** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** **

Saturday, February 14, 2026

Daily Trivia Questions are below

TODAY’S FOOD QUOTE

“Cooking is like love, it should be entered into with abandon or not at all.”   Harriet Van Horne
 

FOOD HOLIDAYS - TODAY IS:

Valentine's Day One of the busiest days of the year for restaurants. (Valentines Day Recipes)

• National Cream Filled Chocolates Day

• Bulgaria: Trifon Zarezan (St. Trifon Zarezan is the Bulgarian patron saint of vineyards). This is a very ancient holiday rite; Bulgarians prune the vines and sprinkle them with wine for a good harvest.
[more information: Bulgarian National Television]

• UK: [East Anglia Potato Day] (Feb 14, 2026)

• Kraut and Frankfurter Week ? (Feb 8-14, 2026)

• Jell-O Week (Feb 9-15, 2026 2nd full week in Feb) in 2001 Jell-O was declared Official State Snack of Utah and Utah Governor Michael O. Leavitt declared an annual "Jell-O Week."  (Jello Trivia)
 

TODAY IN FOOD HISTORY

1773 Benjamin Delessert was born (died March 1, 1847).  French industrialist who developed the first successful process to extract sugar from sugar beets. (Sugar Trivia)

1779 Captain James Cook died. British explorer who charted and named many Pacific Islands, including the Sandwich Islands (Hawaii). (Hawaii Food Trivia)

1803 Moses Coates of Downington, Pennsylvania received a patent for a 'Machine for Paring Apples'

1833 Gottlieb Sigismund Kirchhof died. He discovered glucose, developed a method for refining vegetable oil, and experimented with brewing and fermentation.

1838 Margaret E. Knight was born. An American inventor, she invented an improved paper bag machine to make bags with flat bottoms.

1859 George Washington Ferris was born (died Nov 22, 1896). He developed the first Ferris Wheel for the Columbian Exposition in Chicago, Illinois which opened on May 1, 1893.

1871 Thomas Adams, of Hudson City, New Jersey, received a patent for a method of producing chewing-gum. (See also Chewing Gum Trivia & Facts)

1876 Alexander Graham Bell filed his patent for a Telephone.

1886 California oranges were first shipped East by rail. 

1903 The U.S. Department of Commerce and Labor was established.

1912 Arizona was admitted as the 48th State.
(Arizona Food Trivia)

1922 The Fleischmann Co. registered 'Fleischmann's' trademark for yeast (first used in 1876).

1923 The Velveeta Cheese Company is incorporated as a separate company in Monroe, New York.  Velveeta had been invented in 1918 by Emil Frey of the Monroe Cheese Co.  Velveeta cheese was packaged using a 1921 invention of a tinfoil lining that could house the cheese inside a wooden box. Its special cooking properties quickly caught on. When melted, it was as smooth as velvet (hence its name), and it would never curdle when heated.  (Acquired by Kraft in 1927).

1972 The musical 'Grease' opened at the Eden Theatre in New York City.

2003 Dolly the sheep died. Dolly was the first animal cloned from an adult animal. (Born July 5, 1996)

** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** **

 

** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** **

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

February 5-16, 2026 - Florida State Fair
Tampa, Florida

February 6-15, 2026  79th Annual Holtville Carrot Festival - Holtville, California

February 12-March 1, 2026  Riverside County Fair & National Date Festival - Indio, California

February 13-15, 2026  56th Annual Everglades Seafood Festival - Everglades City, Florida

February 14-15, 2026  20th Annual Florida Keys Seafood Festival - Key West, Florida

(SEE ALL FOOD FESTIVALS and OTHER FOOD EVENTS)
 

** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** **

FOOD TRIVIA QUIZ    (new DAILY questions)

1) All of the following events took place in the same year.  What year is it?
· The 7 billionth can of Spam was sold.
· There were 1,449 total breweries in the U.S., 1,406 of them small, independent and traditional craft brewers.
· About 1/3 of all honeybee colonies in the U.S. perished during due to several deadly viruses (collectively called Colony Collapse Disorder).
· The American bald eagle was removed from the endangered species list.
· The animated movie 'Ratatouille' opened in U.S. theatres.

2) Can you match the varieties with the correct fruit or vegetable?
     FIG - APPLE - EGGPLANT - GRAPE - BANANA
· Northern Fox.
· Northern Spy.
· Norwegian Red.
· Gros Michel.
· Pink Bride.
· Brown Turkey.

3) This biennial herb of the Lily family is native to southwestern Asia but is cultivated worldwide as a vegetable.  It is one of the oldest vegetables known to man and one of the most versatile.  Its relatives include the tulip, lily-of-the-valley and the hyacinth.
Can you name this vegetable?

Click Here for Today’s Quiz Answers
 

** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** **

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
 

** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** **

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

Over 90% of the world's olive production is used for oil.
 

** ** ** ** ** **

 


** ** ** ** ** **

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'

** ** ** ** ** **

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

 

** ** ** ** ** **

Classic Fish and Seafood Recipes
 

** ** ** ** ** **

DID YOU KNOW?

While in Jamaica, physician and naturalist Hans Sloane came up with the idea of mixing the bitter local chocolate beverage with milk to improve its taste. He later patented the idea. It soon became popular back in England and quickly spread throughout Europe.

* ** ** ** ** **

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

** ** ** ** ** **

DID YOU KNOW?

The Jordan almond is a large plump variety of almond from Malaga, Spain, considered to be the finest cultivated almond. The are frequently sold with a hard colored sugar coating, or salted.

** ** ** ** ** **

  Home   |   About Us & Contact Us   |   Privacy Policy   |   Chef James Biography   |   Bibliography   |   Food Links  

Please feel free to link to any pages of FoodReference.com from your website.

For permission to use any of this content please E-mail: james@foodreference.com

All contents are copyright © 1990 - 2026 James T. Ehler and www.FoodReference.com unless otherwise noted.
All rights reserved.

You may copy and use portions of this website for non-commercial, personal use only.
Any other use of these materials without prior written authorization is not very nice and violates the copyright.

Please take the time to request permission.
 

Website last updated on Saturday, February 14, 2026