A Taste of the Past

What is most commonly known about the food and dining of Ancient Rome comes from vivid—and often fictional—descriptions of exotic foods of lavish banquets of the wealthy. But further study reveals an approachable cuisine of the Mediterranean in ancient times. Farrell Monaco describes how she combines her background in archaeology to study and recreate many of those dishes. A Taste of the Past is p...

Good news to David Shields is that the Speckled Whippoorwill Cowpea, Jimmy Red whisky corn, or the Sicilian Timilia strain of durum wheat has been located, identified, and successfully grown and harvested. And further success means that many of these formerly lost seeds are added to the Ark of Taste, Slow Food's global register of the most flavorful, historically resonant, and imperiled foods. Dav...

Who were the Acadians? What was their food culture and cuisine? Food writer and journalist Simon Thibault, talks about exploring his Acadian roots and reacquainting himself with the food and recipes from his family’s past which he documented in his new book, Pantry and Palate: Remembering and Rediscovering Acadian Food . It’s a cookbook filled with old food traditions, recipes and anecdotes “seaso...

Culinarians are and were intellectually curious, aesthetically experimental, and gastronomically evangelical. In his new book, The Culinarians: Lives and Careers from the First Age of American Fine Dining , Dr. David Shields traces the stories of 175 lives and careers of chefs, caterers, and restaurateurs who raised the profession of cooking and fine dining in America to an art form. A Taste of th...

Unlike many Italian cookbooks, Autentico goes far beyond pasta. In a world where culinary shortcuts, adulteration, misleading labeling, and mass production of seemingly “authentic” food rule, culinary archaeologist, innovator and cooking teacher Rolando Beramendi has kept centuries-old culinary traditions alive. A Taste of the Past is powered by Simplecast See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/p...

The American South is a diverse region with its own vocabulary, peculiarities, and complexities. Even Southerners can't always agree on all things Southern. A new book by the editors of Garden & Gun Magazine is a good source for answers. S is for Southern is an encyclopedia of Southern life, culture, and history, covering age-old traditions and current zeitgeists. Executive managing editor Phi...

Following WWII, France--particularly Paris--became the world's most stylish tourist destination and capital of fine dining. Americans were smitten. Justin Spring follows the lives of six American writers-adventurers who adopted Paris as their home, and tells how they transformed the way Americans talk and think about food and the way they eat. A Taste of the Past is powered by Simplecast See Priva...

Tea has been one of the most popular commodities in the world. Over centuries, profits from its growth and sales funded wars and fueled colonization. Erika Rappaport talks about her new book, A Thirst for Empire, in which she delves into how Europeans adopted, appropriated, and altered Chinese tea culture to build a widespread demand for tea in Britain and other global markets and a plantation-bas...

Paris has been associated with fine dining for centuries and the city remains a veritable walking tour of historic gastronomy. David Downie, a travel and food writer living in Paris, takes a deep dive into this history for his new book, A Taste of Paris: A History of the Parisian Love Affair with Food . He shares with us stories, events and locations that brim with passion and flavor--a true food...

Award winning journalist Maryn McKenna reveals the fascinating history of chicken in her new book, Big Chicken . She talks with us about chicken's rise in popularity through the routine use of antibiotics, a practice that would transform agriculture, change the world's eating habits, and contribute to the deadly rise of drug-resistant infections around the globe. See Privacy Policy at https://art1...

In his new book, ACID TRIP: Travels in the World of Vinegar (Abrams Books), Michael Harlan Turkell takes us on a fermented look into vinegar's soured past and bright future. He shares tales and experiences from his travels throughout North America, France, Italy, Austria, and Japan to learn about vinegar-making practices in places where the art has evolved over centuries. A Taste of the Past is po...

Most biographers pay little attention to people’s attitudes toward food, but once we ask how somebody relates to food, we find a whole world of different and provocative ways to understand her. Historian Laura Shapiro uses the lens of food to look at the lives of six women, each famous in her time, and most are still famous in ours; but until now, nobody has told their lives from the point of view...

Scents and Flavors is a 13th century Syrian cookbook which historian and Arabic scholar Charles Perry has edited and translated. Unlike many early recipe manuals this book gives us a glimpse of the social history of the medieval period in Syria. Charles talks about an inventive cuisine that elevates simple ingredients by combining various aromas of herbs, spaces, fruits and flower essences. He sha...

First patented in 1856, baking powder sparked a classic American struggle for business supremacy. For nearly a century, brands battled to win loyal consumers for the new leavening miracle, transforming American commerce and advertising even as they touched off a chemical revolution in the world's kitchens. Linda Civitello chronicles the titanic struggle that reshaped America's diet and rewrote its...

From early trading posts to retail chains and superstores, award winning author Michael Ruhlman-- The Soul of a Chef, The Elements of Cooking --traces the history and evolution of the American grocery store in his new book, Grocery: The Buying and Selling of Food in America . On this episode Ruhlman shares his views of grocery stores as a reflection of our culture. He examines how rapidly supermar...

John T. Edge joins Linda today for a conversation about his new book, The Potlikker Papers: A Food History of the Modern South . John T., an esteemed writer of Southern food, traces how the food of the poorest Southerners has become the signature trend of modern American haute cuisine. He puts names and faces on the familiar dishes as he examines the food, race and politics in the South over the p...

Since 2013, David Shields has been the chairman of Slow Food's Ark of Taste Committee for the South, and will be a participant in Slow Food Nations Festival in Denver, July 14-16. There he will talk about the heirloom grains which have been revived with the help of farmers and chefs. He spoke with Linda about his work reviving many of the heirloom ingredients that made up the original flavors of s...

Author Megan Elias explores the role words play in the creation of taste on both a personal and a national level. From Fannie Farmer to The Joy of Cooking to food blogs, she argues, American cookbook writers have commented on national cuisine while tempting their readers to the table. By taking cookbooks seriously as a genre and by tracing their genealogy, her new book, Food on the Page , explains...

It’s been 111 years since the publication of The Jungle , Upton Sinclair’s groundbreaking book on the cattle industry. Though improvements in animal welfare have been made since then, the industry has evolved to include issues Sinclair could never have foreseen. In her new book, What’s the Matter with Meat? , Katy Keiffer, host of What Doesn’t Kill You here on HRN, leads readers though a crash cou...

Roses are indigenous to Iran and distilling the essential oils of the flower to make rose water has been practiced there for over 2,500 years. Every May, when the city of Kashan is enveloped in pink and a sweet floral scent, there is a festival that honors this ancient tradition of boiling petals in barrels of water and collecting and condensing the rising steam. Cookbook author Yasmin Khan attend...

On the season premiere of A Taste of the Past , host Linda Pelaccio is joined by Elizabeth Federici and Kathleen Squires, the director/producer and producer, respectively, of the new documentary film James Beard: America's First Foodie . The name of James Beard has become synonymous with culinary excellence, and each year thousands gather in New York City for the James Beard Foundation Awards, whi...

For years Food History remained the purview of a few researchers writing papers for academic journals. But recently interest has grown in knowing what we ate in times past, and where certain foods in different cuisines came from. Emelyn Rude joins Linda to talk about a start-up magazine on the horizon called REPAST that aims to tell the interesting stories about food history that will appeal to ev...

This week on  A Taste of the Past , host Linda Pelaccio is joined by tea sommelier for the historic St. Regis Hotel in New York City, Elizabeth Knight. Widely recognized as one of the country’s foremost authorities on tea and entertaining, Knight shares her passion as the founder of Tea with Friends , a website devoted to all things tea. A certified English Tea Master, she is the author of bests...

The countries in the Persian culinary region are home to diverse religions, cultures, languages, and politics, but they are linked by captivating food traditions. The intrepid traveler, food writer and photographer Naomi Duguid covered the vast region to capture the cuisine. She uncovers the flavors of herbs, spices, fruit and tart that transcend the divisive borders and give a picture of ancient...

Everyone is a little bit Irish on St. Patrick's Day, or so the saying goes. It's a celebration that's been going on in America since the mid 1700's. And except for the soda bread, the food of the day is anything but Irish. Irish-American cookbook author Margaret Johnson joins us to talk about the background of some of these dishes and others that have stayed true to their roots. See Privacy Policy...