Gastronomica

What is tea art, and when and how did it emerge as a social practice? In this episode, Daniel Bender of Gastronomica hosts anthropologist Thiago Braga in a conversation about the aesthetics of tea in urban China. Drawing on his latest research, featured in Gastronomica’s newest issue (Summer 2023), Thiago explains how contemporary Chinese Tea Art is neither a timeless nor an invented tradition, bu...

What do eel, pie, and mash shops reveal about London's past, and what role do they play in the current moment? In this episode, Stuart Freedman talks with Signe Rousseau about his research on forgotten foods and changing urban spaces, forthcoming in Gastronomica’s newest issue (Summer 2023). Combining sensory ethnography with the concepts of nostalgia and resistance, Freedman explores working clas...

This episode brings together physical chemistry, history, and food studies in search of the origins of a colonial Mexican fudge. In conversation with Gastronomica’s Jaclyn Rohel, Patrick Charbonneau, Jeffrey Pilcher, and Kelsey Kilgore discuss their unique collaboration and share the story of how they re-created the dish in the teaching kitchen of the University of Toronto’s Culinaria Research Cen...

What roles do culture, ecology, and neuroscience play in making sense of lived experiences of eating? In this episode, Victor Valle speaks with Krishnendu Ray of Gastronomica’s Editorial Collective about his newly published personal essay, “Toward a Poetics of Chile.... in Another Mexico.” Reflecting on palatal taste, memory, family biography, and colonial history, Victor connects culinary aesthet...

How is value created in heritage food systems, and what role does the figure of the artisanal producer play? In this episode, anthropologists Lauren Crossland-Marr and Elizabeth Krause introduce a special section on authenticity, published in Gastronomica’s newest issue (Spring 2023). In conversation with Gastronomica’s Bob Valgenti, Lauren and Elizabeth share some of the most pressing questions a...

In this episode, James Edward Malin talks with Gastronomica’s Jessica Carbone about the history of seltzer in New York City. Drawing together histories of migration with histories of public health, engineering, and urban infrastructure, James sheds light on how soda water eventually came to be Jewish food icon. In discussing his new article in Issue 22.4 of Gastronomica, James takes listeners on a...

How does environmental change and water scarcity affect heritage crops? In this episode, Holly Brause discusses her newly published ethnographic research on the chile industry in southern New Mexico. In conversation with Paula Johnson of the Gastronomica Editorial Collective, Holly connects the local effects of climate change and drought to the economic and cultural value of a heritage crop. Drawi...

In this episode, Chanelle Dupuis talks with Dan Bender of the Gastronomica Editorial Collective about contaminated waterways and sensory perceptions of environmental change. Focusing on the changing smell of water and the role of the nose in sensing environmental degradation in the Peruvian Amazon, Chanelle sheds light on how bilious odors and processes of “slow smelling” affect riverine residents...

Join Gastronomica’s Editorial Collective as we discuss The Water Issue (22.4). Recorded live at the University of Toronto in November 2022, this episode offers a peek into a roundtable conversation on water across social and ecological registers, drawing connections between place, taste, and social justice. With contributions from Gastronomica editors including Paula Johnson, Irina Mihalache, Kris...

How is the war in Ukraine impacting regional food supply chains? In this episode, Gastronomica’s Bob Valgenti speaks with scholars Diana Mincyte and Fabio Parasecoli about the current state of food systems in countries that immediately border Ukraine. They shed light on crisis and resiliency in localized food networks -- from emergency aid and community food supports for refugees to smallholder fa...

Could the future of a cuisine be designed, and if so, by whom? Gastronomica Co-Chair Signe Rousseau hosts Fabio Parasecoli in a discussion of the cultural work that tastemakers do in creating new forms of value in Polish food. From potatoes and vodka, to wine, to mushrooms and other foraged plants, they explore the ways in which tastemakers – as designers – create, innovate, and prototype new culi...

How does a food come to be linked to a place when there is movement and change? In this episode, food anthropologist Ishita Dey talks with Gastronomica’s Krishnendu Ray about placemaking amidst historical, political, and ecological change in Bangladesh. Ishita shares stories and insights on the craft of sweetmaking from her research into Bogurar doi, bridging ecologies of dairy and fermentation wi...

What role could a restaurant play in defining a place? In this episode, Gastronomica Editorial Collective member Jaclyn Rohel speaks with writer Matthew Meduri about the role of the chicken house in a changing economy in Barberton, Ohio. Weaving together histories of migration, post industrialism, and urban transformation, Matthew Meduri shares memories of a Serbian-style fried poultry dish -- kno...

In this episode, Gastronomica Co-Chair Dan Bender speaks with Teresa Politano about her personal essay, “Don’t Forget the Tomatoes for My Funeral,” a finalist in the upcoming 2022 International Association of Culinary Professionals Food Writing Awards. Drawing together stories of grief and comfort through a range of care packages – from freezer casseroles, grocery store cakes, and power bars, to h...

What is Mediterranean cuisine, and who shapes its meaning and boundaries? In this episode, Gastronomica Editorial Collective member Amy Trubek speaks with Jennifer Dueck about tastemaking and gastronomic representation in American journalism. A historian of Middle Eastern culture and politics, Jennifer traces the construction of Mediterranean cuisine in the American press over the latter half of t...

How do online restaurant reviews affect foodways in an emerging migrant destination? In this episode, rhetorician Consuelo Carr Salas and geographer Colleen Hammelman unpack the intersection of digital and physical culinary contact zones. In conversation with Gastronomica Editorial Collective member Jaclyn Rohel, Consuelo and Colleen share insights on tastemaking from their new research on Latin A...

Sharing and eating food together is a common way to build connection, but how does one maintain family ties when separated by hundreds of miles? In this episode, Singapore-based anthropologist Indira Arumugam chronicles her family’s migration through a story of salt, sun, and time. In conversation with Gastronomica Editorial Collective member Krishnendu Ray, Indira shares the techniques of sun-dry...

What can food imaginaries of the past reveal about pathways towards food justice? In this episode, Gastronomica Editorial Collective member Bob Valgenti talks with sociologist Endia Louise Hayes about her newest article, featured in Gastronomica’s Summer 2022 issue. Drawing together political histories, lived experience, and collaborative discourses for future possibilities, Endia uncovers the rol...

What does it mean to “eat healthy”? Gastronomica Co-Chair Dan Bender hosts Jason Edward Pagaduan in a conversation about the moral underpinnings of food. Drawing on his newly published story in Gastronomica, Jason shares his experience in a suburban mall walkers club, where he encountered unexpected ways to care for the body. Exploring questions of diasporic identity, cross-generational connection...

​Rooftop cultivation can play an important role in feeding communities, but what is the place of animals in elevated urban gardens? In this episode, Gastronomica Editorial Collective member Lisa Haushofer talks with anthropologist Noha Fikry about the uses of home rooftops for feeding one’s family. Drawing on her ethnographic research in some of Egypt’s biggest cities, Noha explores rooftop rearin...

Food scholars have found that notions of “good taste” often distinguish people based on class and social inequality. But how do people give meaning to food and taste in a socialist economy? Join host Jaclyn Rohel, a member of the Gastronomica Editorial Collective, as she talks with food historian Krystyn Moon and biologist Jennifer Rhode Ward about their new research on the complexities of taste,...

What happens to traditions of fermentation when state regulations prohibit their sale and distribution? And can these ferments and their value to people help create more just, inclusive, and equitable food systems? Inspired by their research on the importance of fermentation for marginalized communities in Arizona, food scholars Sara El-Sayed and Christy Spackman sit down with Gastronomica Editori...

Before the 2000s, Japanese cuisine was almost absent from the Perth, Australia food scene, but within a decade, it could be found everywhere. In this episode, Gastronomica Editorial Collective member Jaclyn Rohel talks with anthropologist Satomi Fukutomi about how the increasing availability of Japanese cuisine in Perth changed how people considered what is “authentic” about these foods. Drawing o...

In this episode, Gastronomica editorial collective member Jaclyn Rohel highlights new titles from the world of food studies. She is joined by Michael Classens, Assistant Professor in the School of the Environment at the University of Toronto and author of the recently published book, From Dismal Swamp to Smiling Farms: Food, Agriculture, and Change in the Holland Marsh (UBC Press, 2021). Michael d...

In this episode, Joel Rodrigues talks with Gastronomica Editorial Collective member Signe Rousseau about the Goan dishes of his childhood and the limits of “classical” dishes. Joel reflects on nostalgia and melancholy as he tells the story of how he learned to cook. Casting aside the pursuit of perfection, he highlights how everyday experiences of cooking can shape notions of cuisine.