Mom And Daughter Team Up For Cookbook

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette:

Carlyn Berghoff grew up in two kitchens — her mother’s and that of The Berghoff Restaurant, a Chicago institution that closed last year after 107 years. Only one was a friendly confines:

“Berghoff’s was more like a production house than a kitchen. Everything was huge. When I was 6, I remember standing by one of the stock pots. You could cook me in it!” she said in a phone interview.

Since her mother, Jan, was hostess of the family-run restaurant, she prepared early dinners for Carlyn and her brothers and sister. The menu included lots of roasts, lasagna, meatloaf and tuna casserole — not sauerbraten, wiener schnitzel and other German dishes found at The Berghoff and, this time of year, at Octoberfest.

Jan Berghoff had learned to cook from her North Side German mother-in-law, but she was from Bohemian stock on Chicago’s South Side.

“She cooked her way into the family,” her daughter said.

Now mother and daughter have gathered favorite recipes from The Berghoff and Carlyn’s catering business in “The Berghoff Family Cookbook” (Andrews McMeel Publishing, $29.95).

The book, written with Nancy Ross Ryan, includes a history that begins in 1898, when German brewer Herman J. Berghoff opened the Berghoff Cafe, serving free sandwiches with his light and dark Dortmunder beer. The family’s food tradition continues today into the fourth generation at two locations: A Berghoff Cafe at O’Hare International Airport; and, in the old restaurant space at 17 W. Adams St., 17/west at the Berghoff and Artistic Events, Carlyn Berghoff’s cafe and catering business.