Well-known cook, writer has new book featuring iconic Wichita food, restaurant recipes
Joe Stumpe has been writing about cooking in Wichita for more than two decades, and during that time, he’s collected hundreds of recipes and met hundreds of local cooks.
All that time in the foodie trenches makes Stumpe — also a well-known local musician, cooking instructor and editor of The Active Age newspaper — uniquely qualified to determine which dishes are Wichita’s most iconic, which he’s done in a new cookbook/ food history book just published by The History Press (also the publisher of my book “Classic Restaurant of Wichita.”)
The book, titled “Iconic Eats of Wichita: Surprising People, History and Recipes,” has an official release date of Monday but is already available at Watermark Books, 4701 E. Douglas, and from Stumpe, who is selling autographed copies. It’s Stumpe’s second book for the publisher: In 2018, he authored “Wicked Wichita,” an exploration of the city’s earliest bad guys.
The 239-page book features almost 200 recipes — some provided over the years by generous Wichita restaurant owners and chefs, some that helped talented home cooks win contests both local and national, some shared by Stumpe’s eclectic array of foodie friends and acquaintances. Many of the recipes were previously published during Stumpe’s tenures at The Wichita Eagle, Splurge magazine and The Active Age, and all gave permission for him to re-share them in the book.
But “Iconic Eats of Wichita” is not just a cookbook. It also includes an entertaining history lesson on the cuisine that helped make Wichita the city it is, especially the dishes introduced by Mediterranean, Asian and Mexican populations.
The book also includes photos of and stories about the city’s best-known cooks, from members of Wichita’s Thursday Afternoon Cooking Club, started in 1891, to current-day Wichita cooking stars like Chef Jason Febres and WSU Tech culinary school director John Michael.
“That was important to me,” Stumpe said. “I wanted it to be about the people who make the food. I’m not that into writing flowery descriptions of food. It’s the stories about the people who make it that are pretty interesting.”
Stumpe, who in 1999 moved to Wichita from Little Rock, Arkansas, to take over as food editor at The Wichita Eagle, admits in the book that he wasn’t especially hopeful that the city would offer much food variety. But it took him only about a week, he said, to realize that his fears were unfounded.
It’s in Wichita that Stumpe had his first bowl of Vietnamese pho, an experience he describes as “like a first kiss...an intoxicating, mysterious thing.” Wichita is also where Stumpe and his wife, Wichita Eagle business writer Carrie Rengers, met like-minded foodies who invited them over for meals or attended dinner parties at their home, always happy to share a recipe.
Included in the book are also famous Wichita recipes that Stumpe collected over the years, including one for the Ken’s Klub garlic salad and one for Saigon’s No. 49 — a chicken bun bowl made with vermicelli noodles, shredded lettuce and marinated chicken. Readers also can find many of the recipes that have become Stumpe’s staples, and he identifies his personal favorites with asterisks. Among them: a recipe for ceviche he got from Taqueria El Paisa at 21st and Akrkansas when it was still open; one for Greek pastitsio that he got from a bake sale cook at a local Greek Orthodox church; and one for seared salmon that he got from local chef Tony Card and that he estimates he’s made 100 times or more over the years.
Stumpe also collected recipes from well-known local Wichitans, including former mayors Carl Brewer and Carlos Mayans and former district attorney Nola Foulston. And he talked several current-day restaurateurs and chefs, including the guys from The Flying Stove, into sharing recipes that have never before been published.
The book also includes a chapter that serves as a tribute to two late chefs who Stumpe counted as friends — Tanya’s Soup Kitchen founder Tanya Tandoc, who was killed in 2015, and former Neighbors Bar and Grill owner Chuck Giles, who was killed in 2019. Recipes from both are included.
When deciding how to structure the book, Stumpe said, he was inspired by the Time-Life Foods of the World series, a collection of 27 books published in the 1960s and 1970s that featured not only recipes from countries around the world but also photos of and stories about the cooks who made them.
In his book, instead of posed portraits or staged food shots, Stumpe used candid and casual photos of the cooks he featured.
“You can’t write a comprehensive cookbook about food anywhere,” he said. “But you can make it eclectic and focus in on the most interesting parts. I tried to make it journalistic, too.”
“Iconic Eats of Wichita” costs $23.99. Those who want a signed copy can contact Stumpe by emailing jstumpe@cox.net or by calling 316-942-5385.
He’ll also be at a book signing that starts at 1 p.m. Jan. 22 at Watermark Books.
This story was originally published January 11, 2022 at 1:09 PM.
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