Esculent

Each episode of this season has explored different facets of the mezcal-making industry — from its history, to how it’s tasted, served, and perceived by tourists in Oaxaca. In our final episode of the season, we explore the role of women in mezcal-making practices. Briefly translating our two prior epiosdes, we present to you the lived experiences of Paula Aquino Sánchez and Graciela Ángeles Carre...

En la segunda parte de nuestra serie de mezcaleras, Graciela Ángeles Carreño conversa con nosotros sobre la relación del mezcal con la tierra. Con su éxito, su demanda y su fama internacional creciente, ¿cómo ha la globalización del destilado transformado no solo la economía del agave sino también la vida cotidiana de los que lo producen? Este episodio invita a los oyentes a ver el mezcal más allá...

In our first part of our mezcalera series, we are joined by Paula Aquino Sánchez as she shares her background — how she first stepped into the world of mezcal production, the opposition and skepticism she faced as a woman in mezcal, and what uses mezcal had in her family. Her voice in this conversation allows us to see how her connection to mezcal is deeply rooted in family tradition and how her l...

The enduring fascination with the “authentic” drives tourists to seek the artisanally-produced mezcal, especially in Oaxaca, where Daniela and Elizabeth find themselves in Esculent’s fourth episode of this season. Through their navigation of different topics like rising housing prices, Michelin star systems, and alcohol consumption during times of the pandemic, we take a look at the relationship b...

At Masala y Maíz in Mexico City, no bottle goes to waste once it’s been opened. Join us for Esculent’s third episode with special guest and Director of Beverage and Culture, Sergio del Castillo and co-chef Saqib Keval, as they describe the restaurant’s cocktail program and the ethics that goes into its creation. With knowledgeable descriptions and different processes that go into making each spiri...

When mezcal evokes memories of mom’s kitchen or relatives spritzing the spirit to the earth, it becomes clear that smoke has never been adequate to describe a taste of mezcal. In Esculent’s next episode, we are joined by Mi Oaxaca’s founder, Fabiola Santiago , as we take a look at the different ways people encounter mezcal — either through tasting wheels, aromas, or the memories and relations we a...

When studying the history of mezcal, why begin with the milky, lightly fermented beverage pulque? In Esculent’s new season, we are joined once again by Professor Daniela Gutiérrez Flores as we navigate the archives detailing the cultural significance of the maguey plant in Mesoamerica. From discussing pulque’s role in sacred ritual to examining the colonial context of mezcal–both from maguey– we b...

This season welcomes co-host Daniela Gutiérrez Flores as we prepare to travel with Fabiola Santiago and the organization Mi Oaxaca -- we are honored to be thinking, sensing, and traveling with care over the next episodes, all about mezcal.  Host: Elizabeth McQueen & Daniela Gutiérrez Flores Partner: Mi Oaxaca Editors: Santiago Reyes & Stace Baran Production Intern: Alyssa Pulido Theme by R...

What does it mean to steward a living archive? Kyria Boundy-Mills , curator of the Phaff Yeast Culture Collection , joins Esculent to discuss the care and preservation of thousands of yeast strains. The collection extends far beyond familiar fermenters like bread and beer yeasts, encompassing species drawn from insect ecologies, plants, soils, and unexpected environments. In this episode, we explo...

What happens when the science of winemaking meets the emerging world of cultivated meat? Distinguished Professor David Block joins Esculent to discuss how engineering principles, chemistry, and scale shape technologies of taste. This episode also considers mouthfeel—how the tactile sensation of food and drink becomes central, or is becoming central, to the experience of the esculent in the food in...

Microorganisms structure not only our foods but our bodies. Professor Maria Marco joins Esculent to discuss her research on bacteria, fermentation, probiotics, and the gustatory systems that support microbial life. While microbes often appear in consumer culture as wellness buzzwords, Professor Marco offers a another perspective on how microorganisms function as part of systems of eating. This epi...

How do we understand taste as something measurable and communicable? Distinguished Professor Hildegarde Heymann joins Esculent to explore the field of sensory science, a discipline that transforms fleeting sensory impressions into data and descriptive language. From wine and spirits to chocolate and ice cream, Professor Heymann’s work has shaped how sensory researchers structure panels, train tast...

What does it mean to taste in context? Professor Julien Delarue joins Esculent to discuss his research on immersive sensory environments and how surroundings—visual, auditory, spatial—shape our perception of flavor. From reproducing a Korean street market in the lab to considering atmosphere in sensory evaluation, Professor Delarue’s work asks us to reconsider context not as background but as a fu...

What does it mean to study taste, edibility, and food systems through the scientific method? In our season introduction, co-hosts Professor Charlotte Biltekoff (American Studies & Food Science and Technology, UC Davis) and Professor Elizabeth McQueen (College of Fine Arts, FSU) set the stage for a season centered on food scientists — their methods, their imaginaries, and technological and micr...

Esculent is an idea - and one that can be applied, theorized, even rehearsed. This week we self-reflect on the aims of the podcast with host Dr. Elizabeth McQueen and editor Stacey Baran.  Tasting: Strength tea from Harbor Herbalist Viewing: Esculent outtakes Host: Dr. Elizabeth McQueen Producer: Stace Baran Theme by Ronan Delisle Audio Support from Jenevieve Bohmann Esculent is brought to you by...

What happens when art invites us to taste through touch, smell, or atmosphere? Professors Hsuan Hsu and Sal Nicolazzo join the podcast to discuss the interdisciplinary work of artist Candice Lin , whose material and multisensory practice challenges colonial ideas of consumption, and esculence in the present. Together, they consider how smell, tactility, and duration expand the sensory boundaries o...

Our second live episode, culinary artist Nia Lee joins Esculent following the debut of her performance installation, THE ARCHIVE IS THE BIRTHSEED OF OUR DREAMS at the Manetti Shrem Museum . We discuss a tasting of a miracle berry, or Synsepalum dulcificum with audience reflections on sweetness as a means to understand Lee’s concept of Black Food Futurism. Host: Dr. Elizabeth McQueen Producer: Stac...

If culinary art is already an “art,” then what does it mean to have an art practice that uses food? Culinary artist Heidi Ross joins us to begin our season on Artists to share more about her somatic practice, relationship to the culinary world, and sonic explorations.  Tasting: An iteration of Alison Knowles “Make a Salad” (1962-) by Elizabeth McQueen Reading of: The Futurist Cookbook by Filippo T...

Season 5, Artists is finally here. We launch into conversations with artists whose medium is food, matter, and other things esculent.  Host: Dr. Elizabeth McQueen Producer: Stace Baran Theme by Ronan Delisle Audio Support from Jenevieve Bohmann Esculent is brought to you by Professor Charlotte Bitekoff and the Darrel Corti Endowed Professorship in Food, Wine and Culture at University of California...

Thousands of television episodes leave a mark – not only on digital archives of our food media-saturated world – but on the host, the performer, as well. In the final episode of our second season with chefs, we speak with Chef Martin Yan, the host of Yan Can Cook . We discuss Chef Yan’s decades of work wth PBS , the importance of culinary education, not only entertainment, and the development of h...

Can we tell the story of a chef from 1490? Join podcast regular Professor Daniela Gutiérrez Flores as we attempt to recreate a recipe from Mestre Robert, a 15th-century chef and the author of Libre del Coch, the first printed cookbook. Join our reenactment where we speculate salt use, concern over squash cooking, and a huge sensory disagreement over rose water. Tasting & Viewing: Menjar Blanc...

Well-baked bread is an art in and of itself, but in this episode, we look at a few representational mediums of yeasty dough: poetry, photography, and animation, as forms that give new light to a thousand-year-old practice. Baker Jim Franks discusses his new book of poetry, Existential Bread (Drag City, 2025), and one of my favorite animations of food ever, evoking faint memories for both of us, ju...

I first smelled the freshly nixtamalized masa from Emmanuel Galvan of Bolita at the Gilman Wine Block, where the tender, vegetal umami scent carried above the crowds right into my nose. This episode, we focus on technological and labor challenges of nixtamalization in the present, specifically right in Berkeley – complicating the many ways nixtamalization makes corn esculent. Tasting: Tessier Wine...

We are back with a dive into the archive featuring Chef Brandon Jew of Mister Jiu’s restaurant in San Francisco - featuring historic menus and historic buildings, and how this influences canonical Chinese American recipes like Peking Duck. We kick off Season 4: Chefs Pt. 2 with our literary inquiries into the work of Chefs, and how words, archives, and texts make the esculent. Tasting: A whiff of...

Season 4, Chefs is here: we revisit the dynamic role of the chef in popular culture through culinary literatures, from 15th-century cookbooks to PBS television series.  Tasting: A Russell Stover head of an Easter Bunny (context provided, sort of). Stay up to date with Esculent on our Instagram Host: Elizabeth McQueen Producer: Stace Baran Theme by Ronan Delisle Audio Support from Jenevieve Bohmann...