Historic Kansas site will be featured on this Emmy-winning cooking show
An Emmy-winning cooking show that’s aired on PBS since 2008 was in Kansas over the weekend, filming an episode at an historic attraction.
Crews from “A Taste of History,” a show hosted by chef and cookbook author Walter Staib, were at the Fort Larned National Historic Site in Larned on Sunday to record an episode that will air sometime next year as part of the show’s 12th season.
The show visits historic sites around the country and brings history to life by recreating the recipes cooked by its founders: Think cabbage pudding at Monticello and roasted leg of venison at Philadelphia’s City Tavern.
George Elmore, the chief ranger at Fort Larned, said that the site first heard a couple of years ago from the show’s producers, who were interested in filming an episode that explored military cooking along the Santa Fe Trail. Fort Larned, which served as an army post on the Santa Fe Trail from the 1860s to 1870s, housed troops in sandstone-constructed buildings. The troops who stayed there were known as the Guardians of the Santa Fe Trail.
Staib — a German-born chef and culinary historian who has opened restaurants across the world — was at the site with his crews all day on Sunday, Elmore said, and it was clear they were taken with the place.
“They just fell in love with it,” he said. “They didn’t understand how much we had to offer. They just kept filming and filming and couldn’t believe the unique shots out here.”
During filming, Staib prepared bread in the site’s historic bake oven, something that reenactors do regularly for visitors. They also prepared split peas and salt pork at the barracks kitchen, where meals would have been prepared for the soldiers.
Finally, the crews filmed a segment on peach pie, something the officers’ mothers would make and bring to their sons stationed at Fort Larned, Elmore said.
Episodes of “A Taste of History,” which has won 15 Emmy awards, show Staib preparing the historic dishes and also feature historic reenactments of what life was once like at the sites chosen for filming. Several volunteers from Fort Larned were chosen to appear in the shots, including six dressed as soldiers.
Elmore said the day of filming was a unique experience, and he can’t wait to see how it all translates to the screen. The show should air sometime between May and July next year on PBS, on Amazon Prime, on the Hungry Channel on Apple TV and on Roku streaming devices.
“It was fun to see how they actually film a program like that,” he said.
I’ll let you know when there’s an air date.
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This story was originally published September 1, 2021 at 5:45 AM.
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