Rabbi Deborah Prinz, author of On the Chocolate Trail: A Delicious Adventure Connecting Jews, Religions, History, Travel, Rituals and Recipes to the Magic of Cacao, will give several local presentations on chocolate February 9-10. Two of the presentations are sponsored by Illinois State University, and are free and open to the public.
Cover of the book On the Chocolate Trail: A Delicious Adventure Connecting Jews, Religions, History, Travel, Rituals and Recipes to the Magic of Cacao
A workshop and tasting titled “What is the Best Chocolate? Values Mix into our Chocolate Eating” will be at 2 p.m. Sunday, February 9, at Green Top Grocery, 921 E. Washington St., Bloomington. The event is sponsored by Illinois State University’s Food Studies, the Department of Sociology and Anthropology, and the Harold K. Sage Fund.
Prinz will also give the lecture, “What Did Alexander Hamilton Drink? Colonial Chocolate Trade” at 4:30 p.m. Monday, February 10, in the University’s Center for Visual Arts, room 147. The center is located at 468 W. Beaufort St., Normal. The event is sponsored by Illinois State University’s Department of History and the Harold K. Sage Fund.
Rabbi Prinz lives in NYC and lectures about chocolate and religion around the world and blogs at onthechocolatetrail.org, The Forward, JWFood&Wine, and ReformJudaism.org. She was awarded a Starkoff Fellowship and a Director’s Fellowship from the American Jewish Archives as well as a Gilder Lehrman Fellowship from the Rockefeller Library to pursue this research. This project stirs age-old passions for chocolate and religion using information gathered from travel in several countries, including Belgium, England, France, Israel, Italy, Mexico, Spain, Switzerland, and the United States. It spans several cultures, countries, centuries, and religions, exploring how faith traditions share consumption, ritual, and business interests in chocolate.
Those who need special accommodation to fully participate in these events can contact Illinois State’s Department of History at (309) 438-5641. Please allow sufficient time to arrange the accommodation.
