Welcome to Season 2: Historians! Dr. Shantel George visits Esculent from the University of Glasgow to discuss the history of the Kola nut, West African spirituality in food history, and community in research. 

Tasting: Coca-cola

Viewing: Series finale of Mad Men, Season 7, Episode 14 (AMC)

Read more about Dr. George’s research and publications

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Host: Elizabeth McQueen

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

We are back! Season 2: Historians, is here. Join us for six episodes exploring food history: from research methods to turning points in the history of chefs to influential commodities and more. 

Read more about Dr. Amr Shahat's research.

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.

A belated season trailer - we're still getting the hang of it. Listen to find out why season one begins with chefs, and get a hint at what is coming up in 2025!

Stay up to date with Esculent on Instagram

Host: Elizabeth McQueen

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

Our first live podcast welcomes Chefs Norma LIstman and Saqib Keval. Join us as we taste their historically complex dish of fermented peanuts, the first dish served at their restaurant, Masala y Maiz. Our conversation covers their commitments to radical transparency and rethinking the restaurant model, as well as the limits of representation in a capitalist system, including in their most recent appearance on Netflix's Chef's Table. This one is extra long, and extra good.

Check out Masala y Maiz and stay up to date on their Instagram.

Stay up to date with Esculent on Instagram

Host: Elizabeth McQueen

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

What does esculent mean? Why is it the title of this podcast? And what is the seminar that is funding this project? Professor Daniela Gutiérrez-Flores joins Elizabeth McQueen to unpack the word, and why thinking about the esculent might be useful in approaches to food justice, especially in humanities research. This episode is also a preview for the in-person research colloquium, Reimagining the Past through Food Justice, at UC Davis, December 6-7, 2024.

Tasting: Handheld Pies, Davis

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Host: Elizabeth McQueen

A pinch of this and a pinch of that captures my conversation with Chef and Artist Minh Phan. We discuss her methods of fermentation all the way to rethinking efficiency in her anti-colonialist mindset. 

Tasting: Los Angeles River Wine Company, Palomino, 2022

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Host: Elizabeth McQueen

Our inaugural episode features a tasting and conversation with Chef Martin Draluck of the Black Pot Supper Club, with a tasting of the inaugural whiskey from Uncle Nearest, the first black-owned whiskey distillery in the U.S.. It honors Nathan 'Nearest' Green, a formative distiller enslaved to Dan Call. Join us as our host Elizabeth McQueen talks with Chef Martin Draluck about the hearth in early American cooking techniques, performing for the camera in Netflix's High on the Hog, and what it means to reconstruct enslaved culinary histories.

Tasting: Uncle Nearest 1856

High on the Hog, Season 1 Episode 3: Our Founding Fathers

Black Pot Supper Club

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Stay up to date on Esculent's podcast on our Instagram

Host: Elizabeth McQueen

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