Milwaukee’s Flavor: A Mix of Culture and Diversity

Rows of shelves with books surrounded guests attending the Milwaukee Flavor: The Cookbook book-talk event on Nov. 17, 2025, at Boswell Book Company. Light chatter filled the room as the four chefs featured on the panel made their way to the front of the room. Over a hundred folks attended the event highlighting the new cookbook, which contains over 90 recipes from Milwaukee chefs.

Among the chefs on the panel were Stephanie Kegel, co-owner of Kegel’s Inn, a historic German restaurant, and Tony Kora, partner of Rice n Roll Bistro, a standout Asian-fusion restaurant known for its inventive modern menu. Both are non-Milwaukee natives who came to the city to continue their work in the culinary scene.

In 2016, Kegel and her husband, Julian, gained ownership of the restaurant, which was originally established in 1924 by Julian’s great grandfather. Over the years, the restaurant has undergone a series of changes but has remained authentic to its German beer-hall origins.

“We are like an old hallmark, cooking the same recipes that have been on the menu for 70 years,” said Stephanie Kegel, “so being brought into the fold with the cookbook was a way for me to show that I like cooking other than traditional German stuff.”

Milwaukee is a city whose food scene has been shaped by waves of immigration. During the industrial age, a majority of the immigrants that arrived in Milwaukee were German and Polish. This was followed by Black migrants during the Great Migration and later by growing South and Southeast Asians communities in the decades following the Vietnam war.

“I grew up with my aunt, and she used to cook for King Pares in Thailand,” said Kora. “I watched her cook all the time, and it just got in me. I don’t know when or how, but it’s just in me.”

Kora worked in New York City and Chicago, but fell in love with Milwaukee and chose to make it his home in 2014 by opening his own restaurant. Since then, he has made a name for himself by sharing Japanese-style food like Maki.

“Milwaukee offers a lot of great options,” said event attendee Jessica Swearingen, 46. “Sometimes it’s easy to fall into the same patterns, and this inspired me to just keep trying new places.”

“I think the city has a lot to offer,” said Gui Chinang, 27, another attendee. “Today we didn’t have anyone representing the Hispanic community, which is like a huge pot geographically and culturally. I think the food scene is great, but it’s also very dispersed, like the city itself. It’s a bit hard to see all of that food culture together.”

Between 2010 and 2022, the Latino population in Milwaukee County increased from about 3% to to more than 16%, according to data from the U.S. Census Bureau.

As the U.S. population shifts, so does its food scene. Arijit Sen, professor of History and Urban Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, said it’s important to recognize not just restaurants, but home cooking and food stores, when assessing cultural diversity.

“To see how diverse it is, don’t just look at restaurants, look at the food as a system: where food is being grown and where the grocery stores are,” said Sen. “Milwaukee has always been very diverse. The coming of blacks, Jews, and Mexicans created some segregation but that doesn’t mean it’s not diverse just segregated.”

In a city where diversity and segregation coexist, the cookbook —and the chefs behind it — serve as a reminder of the power of food. Giving people the chance to honor one’s heritage or explore a neighboring one, food creates connection across communities.