It’s suppertime at Trader Vic’s restaurant in Emeryville. About 30 people are in a backroom, about to try an oyster soup called “Bongo Bongo” that hasn’t been served here since the time of Harry S. Truman.
“We’re gathered tonight because I happened to find this 1951 menu. I thought, ‘Is there any way to delve into this for a dinner?’” says Carrie Tillie, a host of the gathering. “I’ll pass it around, as long as you promise not to get barbecue stains on it.”
The menu circles the room to appreciative murmurs. First course: Bongo Bongo Soup and Crab Rangoon. Second course and dessert: Lychee Chicken, Hot “Madras” Curry, Rum Ice Cream with Praline Sauce. “This is the real deal,” murmurs one person, while another adds, “I just want these prices back again.”
The recent feast, whose theme was inspired by the random discovery of this menu, is the annual dinner of the Bay Area Culinary Historians. BACH, as it’s known, is a social club devoted to researching the meals of yesteryear – then painstakingly re-creating them at home or in restaurants. In the Bay, it’s well known people cherish their extravagant dining experiences, from the Michelin-starred theatrics of Lazy Bear to caviar-topped hotdogs at Outside Lands music festival. But BACH offers something more precious: a taste of something that no longer exists.
Members of the Bay Area Culinary Historians enjoy one another’s company during a rare in-person event at Trader Vic’s in Emeryville, CA on Saturday, August 9, 2025. The evening included a historic menu from 1951 on which the evening’s menu was based. (Don Feria for Bay Area News Group)
Prior to this meal at Trader Vic’s — which cost $125 and quickly sold out — the group replicated a century-old menu at Sam’s Grill, founded in San Francisco in 1867. BACH has held an 18-course Dickensian banquet using 1850s recipes from “Mrs. Beeton’s Book of Household Management,” the “Joy of Cooking” of its day, and staged an ancient Roman feast with recipes from Pliny the Elder IPA.
The group also maintains a prolific schedule of author talks, online symposiums and real-life get-togethers that all revolve around old-timey grub. Later this September, it’s sponsoring a chat with Sue Conley, co-founder of Cowgirl Creamery and also Vivien Straus, the creator of the California Cheese Trail map about the local history of cheesemaking — with a cheese tasting, natch. In October, it’s tapped a Pat Saperstein, an editor at Variety magazine to talk about the food that Golden Age movie stars enjoyed at Hollywood studio commissaries.
Other events in 2025 have included discussions of pre-Western cuisine in California, the mysterious disappearance of the “savoury course” in British society and the 1800s recipes of Encarnación Pinedo, a San Jose native and first published Latina cookbook writer in the U.S. And BACH in previous years has delved into delicious topics like “The Great Gelatin Revival,” “A Century of Caesar’s Salad” and “Smoked Milk of the Samburu Tribe of Kenya.”
Bay Area Culinary Historians co-founders Andrew Sigal, left, and Carrie Tillie, right, stand for a portrait at Trader Vic’s in Emeryville, CA on Saturday, Aug. 9, 2025. The evening included a historic menu from 1951 on which the evening’s menu was based. (Don Feria for Bay Area News Group)
“The food culture of the Bay Area is very rich and has been going on for a very long time,” says Tillie, who lives near Half Moon Bay. “It’s a great cultural melting pot with immigrants from all over Asia, Mexico, Italy and the U.S. And the French Laundry in Napa and Chez Panisse were leading lights in developing what could be called California cuisine.”
Tillie founded BACH in 2022 with Oakland’s Andrew Sigal to fill a void left when the statewide organization devoted to historic food went under during Covid. (It was called the Culinary Historians of Northern California, or CHONK.) Today BACH has more than 350 members including chefs and scholars, though many are just interested novices. The only thing you need to be part of the group is a love of old food — and the willingness to taste it.
Portions of sparerib, Crab Rangoon, Fried Shrimp, and Char Pork wait to be served to the Bay Area Culinary Historians during a rare in-person event at Trader Vic’s in Emeryville, CA on Saturday, Aug. 9, 2025. The evening included a historic menu from 1951 on which the evening’s menu was based. (Don Feria for Bay Area News Group)
That’s a big factor. The Sam’s Grill dinner reproduced a platter of Celery Victor, for instance, celery being a rare and luxurious ingredient in 1900. The recipe calls for the watery stalks to be boiled in meat broth and served chilled, accompanied with ketchup and anchovies.
“Just a personal opinion: Though it is a historic California recipe, I don’t think Celery Victor is a particularly appealing recipe,” says Sigal.
The ancient Roman feast BACH held featured a tasting of garum, an ancient fermented sauce made with fish intestines and salt. Even the normally Stoic philosopher Seneca got emotional when talking about this condiment, asking, “Do you not realize that garum sociorum, that expensive bloody mass of decayed fish, consumes the stomach with its salted putrefaction?”
The food of yore might not just be dubious, but unrecognizable, in its current form. “One of the things people who re-create old recipes need to be aware of, is the chicken you’d get a hundred years ago is not the chicken you get today,” says Sigal. “Many ingredients were changed through the way they’ve been grown or bred. Broccoli was much more bitter, and chicken tougher and beef less-marbled.”
“I once made a recipe from an ancient Arabic cookbook that called for the fat from a ‘fat-tailed sheep,’” he says. “It’s still used today, but good luck finding it. I used fat from some lamb — at a certain point, how many weeks do you want to spend making a recipe?”
Members of the Bay Area Culinary Historians flip through a vintage cocktail list during an event at Trader Vic’s in Emeryville, CA on Saturday, Aug. 9, 2025. The evening included a historic menu from 1951 on which the evening’s menu was based. (Don Feria for Bay Area News Group)
Back at Trader Vic’s, people are starting to dig into their meals of Oyster Beef and buttery Pake Noodles. The consensus is that this is one of the better dinners – no fishy goo or wet vegetables you’d administer to a sick goldminer.
“My grandparents used to go to the original Trader Vic’s on San Pablo Avenue. They actually had a family booth there,” says Steve Noack, who lives in Walnut Creek. “That’s why I came — it was the nostalgia.”
“I love history and I love food, so this has really been great,” says Stephanie Leveene, from Hayward. Leveene’s hobby is collecting old cookbooks, but she doesn’t always have the chance to make recipes from them — or the willpower, as ingredients like “brain sauce” can sound “awful,” she says.
When the Bongo Bongo soup arrives, blended with spinach, whipped cream and A.1. Sauce, the room takes a moment to savor a flavor improbably retrieved from the days of the Korean War.
“Well, gosh… personally I am not a fan of cooked oysters, but it didn’t taste like oysters at all,” says Sigal. “It was nice.”
The classic Mai Tai was the signature drink of the night for members of the Bay Area Culinary Historians during a dinner event at Trader Vic’s in Emeryville, CA on Saturday, Aug. 9, 2025. The evening included a historic menu from 1951 on which the evening’s menu was based. (Don Feria for Bay Area News Group)