Bethlehem shines on popular TV cooking show

The Christmas City’s Colonial cuisine and historic hospitality are now starring in a popular TV show.

Historic Bethlehem is featured on PBS’ “Taste of History,” a cooking program that explores the traditional recipes and techniques of American cuisine.

You can watch the episode now online at whyy.org

Hosted by chef and historian Walter Staib, the show features re-creations of historical recipes, cooking techniques, and ingredients. The program also takes viewers on a culinary journey through American culinary history, with visits to historical sites and interviews with experts in food’s origins.

The episode, shot in Bethlehem in the summer of 2021, features The Burnside Colonial garden and an 18th-century Moravian summer kitchen. Here, Staib learns how the famed hospitality of the first Bethlehem settlers continues today while cooking at the Hotel Bethlehem with Executive Chef Michael Adams.

Recipes include “To Fry Beets” and rack of venison.

Staib is a world-renowned chef, restaurateur, author, television personality, and culinary historian. He was the proprietor of City Tavern in Philadelphia, founded in 1994. The restaurant, now closed, was widely regarded as one of the finest dining establishments in the country.

Staib has authored numerous cookbooks, including “City Tavern Cookbook,” “The City Tavern Baking & Dessert Cookbook,” and “Walter Staib’s Historic Tavern Cookbook.”

He is a graduate of the Culinary Institute of America, and a member of the prestigious Ordre des Coteaux de Champagne, an international honor bestowed on select wine and food professionals. Historic Bethlehem’s Burnside Colonial farm is featured on PBS’“A Taste of History.” Chef Walter Staib, left, and Joanne Ritter made To Fry Beets, a recipe from 1724 with ingredients that would have been accessible to the Moravians that lived in Bethlehem later in the 18th century.