'Wisconsin Field to Fork' by Lori Fredrich
Lori Fredrich is best known as OnMilwaukee.com’s dining editor. She’s the person who holds the golden ticket in this town for knowing where to go, what to eat, and how best to write about it. Besides being my inspiration for the work I do with the Shepherd Express, she’s also a chef and twice published author. Her latest project is Wisconsin Field to Fork and is a love letter not only to Milwaukee where she lives, but to the state as a whole.
The title is a play on the ever-present term “farm-to-table” used in the restaurant world, which is something Wisconsin people never really had to use as a descriptive for our food. That’s because most things were coming from our farms to our tables. As I paged through over 70 recipes, you could see Fredrich’s dedication to bringing readers an eclectic look at farms and restaurants across the state with her favorite recipes. It’s much, much more than the “meat and potatoes” people might think we eat here in Wisconsin.
You’ll notice some of the more familiar dishes featuring things like whitefish, bratwurst, mushrooms, beef, and anything dairy. But you’ll also discover recipes with Indian, Nepalese, Greek, and Swiss influences. It’s the perfect tour de Wisconsin mixed with a vacation of flavors from around the world.
Not only do you get to know the farms behind the dishes, but you learn the story of the people who own and run the farms. In the on-going slow food movement and striving for more sustainable food operations, it’s important to keep the farms in business that provide us with what we need for our tables.
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The timing of this book couldn’t be better now that “Top Chef: Wisconsin” is currently filming, and the buzz continues to grow around the dairy state’s food scene. Fredrich is a wonderful writer and really tells a beautiful story of Wisconsin through not only her words, but the photography throughout the book as well (see photos for credits). It’s not only a good book to have around the house after a run to the farmers market, but it would make a great gift for someone who might be missing home or for someone who simply loves Wisconsin as much as we do.
Wisconsin Field to Fork will be available for purchase in October 2023. Fredrich will talk about her book at 6:30 p.m., Oct. 3 at Boswell Books.
