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

Esculent is brought to you by Professor Charlotte Bitekoff and the Darrel Corti Endowed Professorship in Food, Wine and Culture at University of California, Davis.

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 his archive with UC Davis Library. We are joined by Food & Wine Curator Audrey Russek, and just barely scratch the surface on all the mediums, stories, and impacts that Chef Martin Yan has made throughout his career, including his time as a UC Davis student.

Tasting: Wolfskill Reserve Olive Oil from UC Davis Olive Center

Viewing: Yan Can Cook: Winter Melon, Steamed Sea Bass, and Black Bean Chicken, aired on PBS in the 1980s

Host: Elizabeth McQueen

This podcast is supported by the UC Davis Library and the Mellon Foundation Sawyer Seminar, Thinking Food at the Intersections.

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 de Carabasses by Mestre Robert in Libre del Coch

Host: Elizabeth McQueen

This podcast is supported by the UC Davis Mellon Foundation Sawyer Seminar, Thinking Food at the Intersections.

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, just like a whiff of a good loaf.

Jim Franks’ book is out now, with a cover designed by podcast favourite Jordan Rundle of Dazer!

Tasting: Minh Phan’s Jujube Blossom Shrub

Viewing: ‘Portraits of Women with Their Weight in Dough’ by Santina Amato (2019- ) and the 1947 Animated Short, Mickey and the Beanstalk

Host: Elizabeth McQueen

This podcast is supported by the UC Davis Mellon Foundation Sawyer Seminar, Thinking Food at the Intersections.

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’s Pinot Noir

Viewing: “Memory,” the dish with tortillas from The Menu (2022)

Host: Elizabeth McQueen

This podcast is supported by the UC Davis Mellon Foundation Sawyer Seminar, Thinking Food at the Intersections.

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 UC Davis Special Collections

Viewing: Yan Can Cook: Winter Melon, Steamed Sea Bass, and Black Bean Chicken, aired on PBS in the 1980s

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Host: Elizabeth McQueen

This podcast is supported by the UC Davis Mellon Foundation Sawyer Seminar, Thinking Food at the Intersections.

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).

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Host: Elizabeth McQueen

This podcast is supported by the UC Davis Mellon Foundation Sawyer Seminar, Thinking Food at the Intersections.

Can baking brownies save the planet? I’m a little embarrassed I even wrote this question out, but this rhetoric exemplifies the argument of our esteemed guest’s new book: The Problem with Solutions: Why Silicon Valley Can't Hack the Future of Food (UC Press, 2024). For our final episode of this season, we are joined by Julie Guthman, Distinguished Professor of Community Studies Emerita at the University of California, Santa Cruz. We discuss my favorite food film, shifts in university pedagogy, and how to conceive of doing good while maintaining critical thinking.

Tasting: Renewal Mill Brownie Mix

Viewing: Bong Joon-Ho’s Okja (2017)

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Host: Elizabeth McQueen

This podcast is supported by the UC Davis Mellon Foundation Sawyer Seminar, Thinking Food at the Intersections. Season 3 is supported by Professor Daniela Gutiérrez-Flores.

Authenticity. An idea that has plagued many conversations on food. This week, we are joined by Professor Ignacio M. Sánchez Prado, the Jarvis Thurston and Mona van Duyn Professor in Humanities at Washington University in St. Louis. We interrogate the role of authenticity in constructing Mexican national identity through another culinary idea: that of the taco. We discuss the taco’s malleable history across regions, including Taco Bell. Stay tuned for Professor Sánchez Prado’s upcoming book on the taco and modernity!

Tasting: Taco de machado con huevo by special guest Professor Daniela Gutiérrez-Flores

Viewing: Viral Tiktok: White People Taco Night by Keith Habersberger and the Try Guys and MC Luka’s Lupita’s Taco Shop

Stay up to date with Esculent on our Instagram

Host: Elizabeth McQueen

This podcast is supported by the UC Davis Mellon Foundation Sawyer Seminar, Thinking Food at the Intersections. Season 3 is supported by Professor Daniela Gutiérrez-Flores.

How are processed and natural contested categories - rather than objective definitions- of food? These questions are at the center of Professor Charlotte Biltekoff’s new book, Real Food, Real Facts: Processed Food and the Politics of Knowledge. Joined by a special guest, Dan Polsby of Best Friends Wine, to introduce our tasting and complicate “real” wine, we discuss food science, industry, and the Food Inc. documentaries.

Tasting: Sfera Bianco, 250mL can 

Viewing: Trailers for Food Inc. (2006) and Food Inc. 2 (2024) 

Stay up to date with Esculent on our Instagram

Host: Elizabeth McQueen

This podcast is supported by the UC Davis Mellon Foundation Sawyer Seminar, Thinking Food at the Intersections. Season 3 is supported by Professor Daniela Gutiérrez-Flores.