It’s suppertime at Dealer Vic’s restaurant in Emeryville. About 30 persons are in a backroom, about to attempt an oyster soup referred to as “Bongo Bongo” that hasn’t been served right here for the reason that time of Harry S. Truman.
“We’re gathered tonight because I happened to find this 1951 menu. I thought, ‘Is there any way to delve into this for a dinner?’” says Carrie Tillie, a number of the gathering. “I’ll pass it around, as long as you promise not to get barbecue stains on it.”
The menu circles the room to appreciative murmurs. First course: Bongo Bongo Soup and Crab Rangoon. Second course and dessert: Lychee Hen, Scorching “Madras” Curry, Rum Ice Cream with Praline Sauce. “This is the real deal,” murmurs one particular person, whereas one other provides, “I just want these prices back again.”
The latest feast, whose theme was impressed by the random discovery of this menu, is the annual dinner of the Bay Space Culinary Historians. BACH, because it’s recognized, is a social membership dedicated to researching the meals of yesteryear – then painstakingly re-creating them at dwelling or in eating places. Within the Bay, it’s well-known folks cherish their extravagant eating experiences, from the Michelin-starred theatrics of Lazy Bear to caviar-topped hotdogs at Outdoors Lands music pageant. However BACH presents one thing extra treasured: a style of one thing that now not exists.
Members of the Bay Space Culinary Historians take pleasure in each other’s firm throughout a uncommon in-person occasion at Dealer Vic’s in Emeryville, CA on Saturday, August 9, 2025. The night included a historic menu from 1951 on which the night’s menu was based mostly. (Don Feria for Bay Space Information Group)
Previous to this meal at Dealer Vic’s — which price $125 and shortly offered out — the group replicated a century-old menu at Sam’s Grill, based in San Francisco in 1867. BACH has held an 18-course Dickensian banquet utilizing 1850s recipes from “Mrs. Beeton’s Book of Household Management,” the “Joy of Cooking” of its day, and staged an historical Roman feast with recipes from Pliny the Elder IPA.
The group additionally maintains a prolific schedule of writer talks, on-line symposiums and real-life get-togethers that each one revolve round old-timey grub. Later this September, it’s sponsoring a chat with Sue Conley, co-founder of Cowgirl Creamery and likewise Vivien Straus, the creator of the California Cheese Path map in regards to the native historical past of cheesemaking — with a cheese tasting, natch. In October, it’s tapped a Pat Saperstein, an editor at Selection journal to speak in regards to the meals that Golden Age film stars loved at Hollywood studio commissaries.
Different occasions in 2025 have included discussions of pre-Western delicacies in California, the mysterious disappearance of the “savoury course” in British society and the 1800s recipes of Encarnación Pinedo, a San Jose native and first revealed Latina cookbook author within the U.S. And BACH in earlier years has delved into scrumptious matters like “The Great Gelatin Revival,” “A Century of Caesar’s Salad” and “Smoked Milk of the Samburu Tribe of Kenya.”
Bay Space Culinary Historians co-founders Andrew Sigal, left, and Carrie Tillie, proper, stand for a portrait at Dealer Vic’s in Emeryville, CA on Saturday, Aug. 9, 2025. The night included a historic menu from 1951 on which the night’s menu was based mostly. (Don Feria for Bay Space Information Group)
“The food culture of the Bay Area is very rich and has been going on for a very long time,” says Tillie, who lives close to Half Moon Bay. “It’s a great cultural melting pot with immigrants from all over Asia, Mexico, Italy and the U.S. And the French Laundry in Napa and Chez Panisse were leading lights in developing what could be called California cuisine.”
Tillie based BACH in 2022 with Oakland’s Andrew Sigal to fill a void left when the statewide group dedicated to historic meals went beneath throughout Covid. (It was referred to as the Culinary Historians of Northern California, or CHONK.) Right now BACH has greater than 350 members together with cooks and students, although many are simply novices. The one factor you must be a part of the group is a love of previous meals — and the willingness to style it.
Parts of sparerib, Crab Rangoon, Fried Shrimp, and Char Pork wait to be served to the Bay Space Culinary Historians throughout a uncommon in-person occasion at Dealer Vic’s in Emeryville, CA on Saturday, Aug. 9, 2025. The night included a historic menu from 1951 on which the night’s menu was based mostly. (Don Feria for Bay Space Information Group)
That’s an enormous issue. The Sam’s Grill dinner reproduced a platter of Celery Victor, for example, celery being a uncommon and splendid ingredient in 1900. The recipe requires the watery stalks to be boiled in meat broth and served chilled, accompanied with ketchup and anchovies.
“Just a personal opinion: Though it is a historic California recipe, I don’t think Celery Victor is a particularly appealing recipe,” says Sigal.
The traditional Roman feast BACH held featured a tasting of garum, an historical fermented sauce made with fish intestines and salt. Even the usually Stoic thinker Seneca bought emotional when speaking about this condiment, asking, “Do you not realize that garum sociorum, that expensive bloody mass of decayed fish, consumes the stomach with its salted putrefaction?”
The meals of yore may not simply be doubtful, however unrecognizable, in its present type. “One of the things people who re-create old recipes need to be aware of, is the chicken you’d get a hundred years ago is not the chicken you get today,” says Sigal. “Many ingredients were changed through the way they’ve been grown or bred. Broccoli was much more bitter, and chicken tougher and beef less-marbled.”
“I once made a recipe from an ancient Arabic cookbook that called for the fat from a ‘fat-tailed sheep,’” he says. “It’s still used today, but good luck finding it. I used fat from some lamb — at a certain point, how many weeks do you want to spend making a recipe?”
Members of the Bay Space Culinary Historians flip by a classic cocktail checklist throughout an occasion at Dealer Vic’s in Emeryville, CA on Saturday, Aug. 9, 2025. The night included a historic menu from 1951 on which the night’s menu was based mostly. (Don Feria for Bay Space Information Group)
Again at Dealer Vic’s, persons are beginning to dig into their meals of Oyster Beef and buttery Pake Noodles. The consensus is that this is likely one of the higher dinners – no fishy goo or moist greens you’d administer to a sick goldminer.
“My grandparents used to go to the original Trader Vic’s on San Pablo Avenue. They actually had a family booth there,” says Steve Noack, who lives in Walnut Creek. “That’s why I came — it was the nostalgia.”
“I love history and I love food, so this has really been great,” says Stephanie Leveene, from Hayward. Leveene’s pastime is amassing previous cookbooks, however she doesn’t all the time have the possibility to make recipes from them — or the willpower, as elements like “brain sauce” can sound “awful,” she says.
When the Bongo Bongo soup arrives, blended with spinach, whipped cream and A.1. Sauce, the room takes a second to savor a taste improbably retrieved from the times of the Korean Conflict.
“Well, gosh… personally I am not a fan of cooked oysters, but it didn’t taste like oysters at all,” says Sigal. “It was nice.”
The traditional Mai Tai was the signature drink of the night time for members of the Bay Space Culinary Historians throughout a dinner occasion at Dealer Vic’s in Emeryville, CA on Saturday, Aug. 9, 2025. The night included a historic menu from 1951 on which the night’s menu was based mostly. (Don Feria for Bay Space Information Group)
Initially Printed: September 25, 2025 at 9:15 AM PDT
