Boston Flora

Tag: Improper Bostonian

  • Saturday, June 14, 1:00 pm – To Cook is to Love

    Longtime Boston-based chef John Verlinden serves up his own healthier, modernized version of traditional Latin cooking, while also taking readers on a classic immigration adventure, in his upcoming book, To Cook Is to Love. He will appear on Saturday, June 13, at 1 pm at Porter Square Books, 25 White Street in Cambridge.

    John Verlinden is a chef, food educator and writer who started cooking the summer he turned 12 years old. He honed his craft by working in many restaurants and other food businesses in nearly every capacity—from dishwasher, to busboy, to waiter, to bartender, to chef to owner. Along with his life partner, Oz Mondejar, he owned and operated a popular Cuban-American restaurant, Mucho Gusto Café & Collectibles, in Boston from 1995 to 2000. Among the honors the restaurant received were Boston Magazine’s “Best of Boston”, The Improper Bostonian’s “Boston’s Best”, and Hispanic Magazine’s “Top 50 Hispanic Restaurants in the U.S.” A passion advocate for healthier Latin cooking, Verlinden has participated in a variety of culinary training programs for adults and children. He also maintains a popular blog on his website and produces a food column for a local newspaper. For more information visit www.portersquarebooks.com, or call 617-491-2220.

  • Tuesday, August 3, 7:00 pm – Empires of Food: Feast, Famine and the Rise and Fall of Civilization

    Porter Square Books in Cambridge hosts author Andrew Rimas on Tuesday, August 3, beginning at 7 pm.  Andrew will speak on his most recent book, Empires of Food: Feast, Famine and the Rise and Fall of Civilization. The book vividly chronicles the fate of people and societies for the past twelve thousand years through the foods they grew, hunted, traded, and ate-and gives us fascinating, and devastating, insights into what to expect in years to come. The narrative takes the reader to places as disparate as ancient Mesopotamia and imperial Britain. Discussed are the history of cyclic consumption and also of the future and the impact of food availability and distribution on world events. Rimas is a journalist and the managing editor at the Improper Bostonian magazine; previously he was an associate editor and staff writer at Boston Magazine. His work has frequently appeared in those publications, and in the Boston Globe Magazine and the Boston Globe. For more information, email ellen@portersquarebooks.com, or call 617-491-2220.