The Berghoff Cafe Cookbook

November 15, 2009
Visitors to the Windy City almost inevitably flock for lunch or dinner to the Chicago Loops century-old Berghoff Caf'. Its warm, bustling, clubby atmosphere evokes nostalgia for bygone days of hearty eating and noisy drinking in the best German-American tradition. The Berghoffs menu has expanded over the decades, and it now serves some more sophisticated dishes. But the heart of its fare continues to be its popular soups, salads, and sandwiches. Cooks who want to reproduce their Berghoff favorites will find complete instructions here for doing so, even to baking their own pretzels or rye bread, part of whose secret turns out to be dill seed instead of more common caraway. Reinventions of classic fare include mustard-slathered sausage baked inside a crust, and popcorn-topped beer-cheese soup. Changing times have brought new dishes to the Berghoff, even pizza, here given a German accent with a topping of bratwurst and kraut.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2009, American Library Association.)