A Taste of the Past

Ashley Rose Young, Historian of the American Food History Project at the Smithsonian National Museum of American History, has long been interested in the foodways of America’s past. And when she’s not hosting live cooking demos to explore that history at the Smithsonian Museum, she is immersed in her study of the alternative foodways and food economies—specifically of New Orleans—which relied heav...

On a recent trip to Rome, I met up with Katie Parla , Italian food and culture writer, to talk to her about her thoughts on the recent renaissance of old classic Roman dishes, particularly pasta dishes. She spoke about past, present, and what she sees in the future for the food of Rome. A Taste of the Past is powered by Simplecast See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Priv...

In his recently published book, Creole Italian, Justin A. Nystrom explores the influence Sicilian immigrants have had on New Orleans foodways. His culinary journey follows these immigrants from their first impressions on Louisiana food culture in the mid-1830s and along their path until the 1970s. Sicilian immigrants cut sugarcane, sold groceries, ran truck farms, operated bars and restaurants, an...

Graham Kerr , aka The Galloping Gourmet, wrote a very modern and revolutionary cookbook in 1969, which was overshadowed by his huge success as one of the early TV cooking personalities. Matt and Ted Lee have resurrected the book and added Kerr's own handwritten commentary. Graham and Matt join Linda to revisit the newly republished book and early stardom of TV food. A Taste of the Past is powered...

In the 1980s, Montgomery County, Maryland set aside one-third of the county—93,000 acres—for agricultural uses. It was a remarkable act of stewardship, especially in the Washington, DC metropolitan area, where land is at a premium. Since then more than 500 farm operations produce food for local residents and for people around the world. The Reserve has become a national model for land preservation...

Food is a many layered topic in most cultures and none more so than in Sicily, where the bitterness found in the flavors of almonds and wild greens are also present in the emotions of Sicily's past. Fabrizia Lanza, born and raised in Palermo, left to study and live in northern Italy as an art historian for many years. She returned to carry on her mother's work at pre-eminent Anna Tasca Lanza Cooki...

America has long had a love affair with cookies which led big business to get in the game and the choices of commercially made sweets seem endless. Several years ago Oreos, the iconic, #1 American cookie, celebrated their 100th birthday. Food writer and culinary historian Michael Krondl talks with Linda about their history and Nabisco - world's largest cookie factory that transformed cookie and cr...

The Kanz al-fawāʾid fī tanwīʿ al-mawāʾid, a fourteenth-century cookbook, is unique for its variety and comprehensive coverage of contemporary Egyptian cuisine. It is the only surviving cookbook from a period when Cairo was a flourishing metropolis and a cultural haven for people of diverse ethnicities and nationalities. Now available for the first time in English, it has been meticulously translat...

Mary Randolph wrote The Virginia Housewife Cookbook, first published in 1824. But who was she and who was in the kitchen doing the cooking? Dr. Leni Sorensen, a writer, chef, and Jefferson's Monticello resident culinary historian, joins Linda to talk about the kitchens, cooking methods, and enslaved cooks who influenced the recipes and methods of cooking in one of America's oldest printed cookbook...

Trying to pinpoint origins of cuisines from the Caribbean is not an easy task. The many traders, invaders, colonists, and travelers left bits and pieces of their cuisines that became incorporated in the island food cultures. And Like most Caribbean islands, Jamaican foods are derived from many different settlement cultures, including British, Dutch, French, Spanish, East Indian, Portuguese, Chines...

Profoundly intertwined with human civilization, milk has a compelling and a surprisingly global story to tell, and historian Mark Kurlansky, author of the new book "Milk! A 10,000 Year Food Fracas" is the perfect person to tell it. HRN's Kat Johnson interviewed Mark last month at MOFAD, (Museum of Food and Drink) and shares it here with us. In this diverse history from antiquity to the present, he...

From the 1920s through the 1940s "Aunt Sammy's Housekeeper's Chat" was a hit food radio program created by the USDA Bureau of Home Economics. Aunt Sammy doled out recipes, kitchen tips, and other household advice. She was so popular that the spin-off recipe book stayed in print for 50 years. But who was she? Justin Nordstrom, editor of the newly annotated version of Aunt Sammy's Radio Recipes, joi...

America's agriculture has undergone many changes in the past century. One of the major changes is the growth of soy bean farming and how the little-known Chinese transplant became the nation's largest cash crop. Matthew Roth joins Linda to share the history and stories from his book, Magic Bean: Rise of Soy in America. A Taste of the Past is powered by Simplecast See Privacy Policy at https://art1...

The adage "Power of the Press" is never truer than when it comes to restaurant reviews. A review can make or break a business, and more than that, it serves as a reliable guide to diners' experiences. Longtime restaurant critic and food writer Mimi Sheraton shares her insights and experience and sheds some light on the history of restaurant reviews. A Taste of the Past is powered by Simplecast See...

Arabs have always been great traders, collecting spices and ingredients from the early Silk Road routes right through the expansion of Islam from North Africa to South Asia. With the ingredients came the development of recipes and dishes unique to the various locations. Anissa Helou has lived and traveled widely in these regions and has become an authority on the cuisines. In her new book she pres...

Food trucks announcing "halal" proliferate in many urban areas but how many non-Muslims know what this means, other than cheap lunch? Middle Eastern historians Febe Armanios and Boğaç Ergene provide an accessible introduction to halal (permissible) food in the Islamic tradition, exploring what halal food means to Muslims and how its legal and cultural interpretations have changed in different geog...

Many Ancient Roman dishes included the use of fish sauce—garum or liquamen—made from fermented fish parts. Sally Grainger, one of the foremost authorities on Roman fish sauce and foods of the Roman era, joins Linda to explain the nuances, differences, and uses of the sauces, as well as other herbs, spices, and recipes she has written about in her book, Cooking Apicius. A Taste of the Past is power...

Until the mid-19th Century, it was not acceptable--and in some cases not allowed--for women to out and about unescorted. They would not be served even at elite restaurants. But in 1868, a journalist named Jane Cunningham Croly pushed open the doors of restaurants to women with an historic luncheon at Delmonico's in New York City, and the rest is...history. this luncheon was recreated at the famed...

On this episode, historian and regular voice on BBC Radio 4's Kitchen Cabinet , Annie Gray, joins Linda to talk about the enormous culinary changes during the Victorian era and the birth of modern food culture. In her recent book, The Greedy Queen , Annie considers Britain's most iconic monarch from a new perspective, telling the story of British food along the way. Voracious and adventurous in he...

Few ingredients have had greater influence on the cuisines and foodways of the world than peppers. Their diaspora spans millenia and has shaped the way generations of cooks create flavor. On this episode historian and three-time James Beard award winning author Maricel Presilla joins Linda and shares her work from her new book, Peppers of the Americas, in which she retraces the fascinating history...

On this episode, Linda welcomes Kat Johnson, HRN's Communications Director, to share an panel she moderated at the 2018 Charleston Wine + Food festival. Kat welcomed Jerome Dixon and Doc Bill Thomas from Georgia Coastal Gourmet Farms, Chef Sean Brock of Husk, and Glenn Roberts of Anson Mills to talk about the repatriation of Purple Ribbon Sugar Cane to Sapelo Island, home of the Gullah-Gechee comm...

Marvin Taylor, Director and Archivist of NYU Fales Library and Special Collections, has been instrumental in building one of the top culinary collections in the nations. He and Linda discuss the meaning of classic cookbooks and other archival materials that can help us piece together the past. A Taste of the Past is powered by Simplecast See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and Californ...

In his book Chefs, Drugs and Rock & Roll , Andrew Friedman takes us back in time to witness the remarkable changes in the American dining scene and evolution of the American restaurant chef in the 1970s and '80s. Using oral histories told primarily in the words of the people who lived it Friedman writes about the pioneers behind Chez Panisse, Spago, River Cafe and other landmarks as well as ma...

African Americans have worked in presidential food service as chefs, personal cooks, butlers, stewards, and servers for every First Family since George and Martha Washington. Award-winning author and food historian Adrian Miller explores the lives of these men and women in his book, The President’s Kitchen Cabinet: The Story of the African Americans Who Have Fed Our First Families from the Washing...

Just about every culture has some form of noodles. But when and where did noodles first appear? Food historian Ken Albala joins Linda to untangle the noodle's history. A Taste of the Past is powered by Simplecast See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info .