A Taste of the Past

This week on A Taste of the Past , host Linda Pelaccio is feeling festive, talking the history of the turkey with food historian Andrew Smith. Teaching food history at the New School in NYC, he is also the author of numerous books and hundreds of articles on food and history. Speaking on the the centerpiece of family Thanksgiving reunions, the turkey is a cultural symbol as well as a multi-billion...

This week on A Taste of the Past , host Linda Pelaccio welcomes Farha Ternikar, professor of sociology at Le Moyne College to talk about the history of every New Yorker’s favorite meal: brunch. Author of the book “Brunch: A History,” Farha explains that when Americans think of brunch, they typically think of Sunday mornings swelling into early afternoons; mimosas and bloody Marys; eggs Benedict an...

This week on A Taste of the Past , host Linda Pelaccio welcomes one of Greece’s foremost cooking authorities, Aglaia Kremezi to the show. Author of the new book, “Mediterranean Vegetarian Feasts,” she lives on the island of Kea, Greece, and also runs a cooking school there. Talking to Linda about the meaning of “nose to tail” vegetarian cooking, Aglaia explains that when she was growing up in Gree...

This week on A Taste of the Past , host Linda Pelaccio is joined by Margarita Carrillo Arronte to discuss the traditional foods for Mexico’s Day of the Dead celebrations as well as her research of some of Mexico’s historical forgotten recipes, plus where they originated from. Margarita is a teacher, chef, cookbook author, entrepreneur, and culinary activist who has spent her life researching, teac...

Were you a Gerber baby? This week on A Taste of the Past , host Linda Pelaccio is talking the history of baby food with Amy Bentley, Food Historian and Associate Professor of Food Studies at New York University. She is also the author of the book, Inventing Baby Food: Taste, Health, and the Industrialization of the American Diet. Tune in to hear all about the past, present, and future of this fami...

This week on A Taste of the Past , host Linda Pelaccio welcomes Karen Page, author of many books but most recently The Vegetarian Flavor Bible, to talk all about eating vegetarian. With the popularity of cutting out meat in the past decade, Karen Page brings some great dishes to light in the new book. Notably, Karen and her author/photographer husband, Andrew Dornenburg, became vegetarians in 2012...

This week on A Taste of the Past , host Linda Pelaccio is talking shrubs, flips, and rattle-skulls – aka colonial drinks! Welcoming food writer and author of Forgotten Drinks of Colonial New England Corin Hirsch via phone to brief Linda on this interesting topic, they start off the show talking about how prevalent alcoholic beverages were in the times of our founding-fathers. As it turns out, cide...

What is it about salty snacks? What is it, in particular, about the potato chip? Learn about the history of the iconic snack with Dirk Burhans, author of Crunch!: A History of the Great American Potato Chip . Dirk traces the history of the chip back to its origins and gives listeners some great fun-facts and cultural anecdotes. Potato Chip lovers unite! This program was brought to you by Fairway M...

This week on A Taste of the Past , host Linda Pelaccio kicks off the new radio season welcoming Lionel Vatinet, master baker of La Farm Bakery in Cary, North Carolina and author of the book A Passion for Bread: Lessons from a Master Baker . Lionel shares with Linda that his passion for bread was first nurtured when he joined France’s prestigious artisans’ guild Les Compagnons du Devoir as an appre...

It’s that time of year again – students are headed back to school! Linda Pelaccio gets in the spirit on a academic themed episode of A Taste of the Past with guest Ken Albala, Professor of History at the University of the Pacific, USA. He is the author or editor of 17 books including Eating Right in the Renaissance, The Banquet and Beans: A History. He has also coauthored two cookbooks, The Lost A...

What is Midwestern cuisine? We may not ever know, but we get closer to understanding the food of the Midwest on a new episode of A Taste of the Past . Host Linda Pelaccio is joined by Peggy Wolff, author of Fried Walleye and Cherry Pie . With its corn by the acre, beef on the hoof, Quaker Oats, and Kraft Mac n’ Cheese, the Midwest eats pretty well and feeds the nation on the side. But there’s more...

This week on A Taste of the Past Linda tackles the delectable topic of the donut with food historian, Michael Krondl, and author of The Donut: History, Recipes, and Lore from Boston to Berlin. Tracing the donut through the years, Michael details the various types of fried dough that ultimately led to the donut that we all know and love today, including the popular cronut. However, when did donuts...

This week on A Taste of the Past , Linda welcomes Cindy Lobel to the program. Cindy is an assistant professor of history at Lehman College, a cultural historian with interests in urban development and consumer culture as well as the history of New York. Today she and Linda discuss her book, Urban Appetites: Food and Culture in Nineteenth-Century New York. Was New York City the first in the country...

This week on A Taste of the Past, Linda Pelaccio talks about the history of ramen in Japan and the United States with George Solt, author of The Untold History of Ramen . Tune into this episode to learn how international relations and trade agreements allowed ramen to evolve in Japan using non-traditional ingredients. How do ramen noodles different from other Japanese noodle soups like soba? How d...

How does one begin to encapsulate the varied cuisine of Italy? On this episode of A Taste of the Past, Linda Pelaccio is joined by Associate Professor at the New School, Fabio Parasecoli. Recently, Fabio released Al Dente , a book about the history of food in Italy. Learn how a desire for modernization suppressed the interest in Italian heirloom ingredients. Find out how economic conditions shaped...

Linda Pelaccio welcomes Josh Kilmer-Purcell and his husband Brent Ridge, who are known as The Fabulous Beekman Boys, to this week’s episode of A Taste of the Past ! The Beekman Boys describe themselves as “Two NYC guys who bought a farm and are sharing their experiment in living better lives, season by season, neighbor by neighbor.” They are the stars of The Fabulous Beekman Boys , a reality TV sh...

David Sax is an expert of food trends and author of Save the Deli and most recently The Tastemakers: Why We’re Crazy For cupcakes But Fed Up With Fondue . Linda and David talk about how food trends come about, how they spread across the world, and how they come back decades later. Tune in to hear about trends such as Asian BBQ and cupcakes! This program has been sponsored by S. Wallace Edwards &am...

You think you know pasta? Think again! This week on A Taste of the Past , Linda Pelaccio chats with author and pasta expert Maurren Fant who dispels many common myths around everybody’s favorite carb. From cooking times to salting water, Maura breaks down pasta from A-Z and leaves listeners with a much better understanding of the potential, history and variations of pasta. She talks about the proc...

German cuisine is often thought of as brats and not much else. Ursula Heinzelmann is here to change that perception and she’s this week’s guest on A Taste of the Past . Ursula is an acclaimed German food and wine writer, a sommelière and a gastronome. She’s written numerous books on the subject of German cuisine and has twice been awarded the annual Sophie Coe Prize in Food History at the Oxford...

Pretzel history is this week’s topic on A Taste of the Past. Linda interviews Hans Röckenwagner, owner and founder of Restaurant Röckenwagner, James Beard Award winner, pretzel expert and more, about pretzels: where they came from, where they’re made, how they came about, and much more. This program has been sponsored by Whole Foods Market . Today’s music provided by The California Honeydrops ....

In 1827, before Delmonico’s opened, diners ate at cafes and boarding houses (inns), where the food was simply the food available that day from the farms. Diners had no choice of dishes, but ate the food that was served. Delmonico’s changed all of that. Today’s guest is Billy Oliva, graduate of the Culinary Institute of America and currently the Executive Chef at Delmonico’s. This program has been...

Peter Hertzmann is an author, instructor, blogger, historian, and occasional butcher. Today, Peter’s expertise that shines through the rest is that of knives. Linda interviews him about the origins of the chef’s knife, which actually didn’t even exist a mere 50 years ago! Tune in to hear more about how knives have evolved! This program has been sponsored by The Wisconsin Milk Marketing Board . Tod...

This week on A Taste of the Past, Linda explores the history of Rhubarb and other foods of The Silk Road with Laura Kelley, author and food historian. Laura tells us about how so many foods were originally used as medicine, and the lines between food and medicine have become much more clear over the years. This program has been sponsored by Rolling Press . Today’s music provided by Pamela Royal ....

Darina Allen joins us on this week’s episode of A Taste of the Past, to tell us about Ballymaloe Cookery School located in southern Ireland, of which she is the founder. Linda asks her about real Irish cuisine, and she explains how many people in Ireland were so slow to realize the great benefits of using local food. This program has been sponsored by The International Culinary Center . Today’s mu...

Turmeric: health benefits, flavor, dyes, and more. This spice is used in many eastern cuisines, such as Thai and Malaysian. This week on A Taste of the Past, Linda interviews food historian and spice expert Colleen Sen, who tells us all about The Wonder Spice . This program has been sponsored by Heritage Foods USA . Today’s music provided by Obey City . “Like many ingredients, the health benefits...