This is an IHeart podcast.

Welcome to Aaron Menke's Cabinet of Curiosity's, A production of IHeart Radio and grim and mild.

Our world is full of the unexplainable.

And if history is an open book, all of these amazing tales are right there on display, just waiting for us to explore.

Welcome to the Cabinet of Curiosity's.

Most restaurants are themselves on the freshness of the food they serve.

They'll stand at your table and discuss how the chickens led happy, satisfied lives before they ended up on your plate,

or how the greens were harvested from local farms only a mile away. Nothing tastes quite as crisp as a lettuce leaf straight from the dirt. But in

1911, one place didn't care about farm-to-table. In fact, it refused to serve anything freshly

made for a very good reason. It all happened in Chicago at the Hotel Sherman.

400 guests had gathered in the hotel's Louis XIV,

the 14th room, for a special five-course meal lasting two hours.

Among the elite clientele was the city's mayor, the health commissioner,

and a number of politicians from Washington, D.C., and

New York, all who had arrived with hefty appetites. On their plates were things like April egg salad

and roast February capin. The menu didn't hide anything either. It explained where every

ingredient had come from in detail, including how long ago it had been

prepared.

For example, the chicken had been kept in Chicago cold storage for almost a year.

Mayor Eichen Green, the VP of the National Poultry Butter and Egg Association, told

everyone that Yer Capen received its summons to the Great Unknown along about last

St. Valentine's Day. Now, it was late October. None of the ingredients had come from local

...