Midwestern cuisine

Midwestern cuisine is a regional cuisine of the American Midwest. It draws its culinary roots most significantly from the cuisines of Central, Northern and Eastern Europe, and is influenced by regionally and locally grown foodstuffs and cultural diversity.

Everyday Midwestern home cooking generally showcases simple and hearty dishes that make use of the abundance of locally grown foods. Its culinary profiles may seem synonymous with "American food." Quoted in a 2007 interview with the Daily Herald, Chef Stephen Langlois, a pioneer in the Midwestern local food movement, described it: "Think of Thanksgiving dinner. Turkey and cranberry sauce and wild rice and apple pie."

The Midwest's restaurants also offer a diverse mix of ethnic cuisines as well as sophisticated, contemporary techniques.

Sometimes called "the breadbasket of America," the Midwest serves as a center for grain production, particularly wheat, corn and soybeans. Midwestern states also produce most of the country's wild rice.

Beef and pork processing always have been important Midwestern industries, with a strong role in regional diets. Chicago and Kansas City were historically stockyard and processing centers of the beef trade and Cincinnati, nicknamed 'Porkopolis', was once the largest pork-producing city in the world.Iowa is the center of pork production in the U.S.

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