Gastronomica

In this episode, cultural anthropologist Lauren Crossland-Marr returns to the Gastronomica podcast to discuss her new project on gene-edited foods and science communication. In conversation with Dan Bender of Gastronomica’s editorial collective, Lauren shares her evolving research interests in food studies and how she transitioned from studying local “authentic” foods to researching the rollout of a new technology in global food and agricultural commodity systems with the GEAP3 network. Lauren introduces her most recent work, a podcast series called A CRIPSR Bite, that tells the story of a new gene editing technology through case studies of tomatoes, soy, cattle, and wine.

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Gastronomica’s Dan Bender and Jaclyn Rohel explore wines from Italy’s Alto Piemonte region in this discussion on taste, livelihoods, and a changing environment. In his newly published creative nonfiction article, Dan writes that “Wine is good for thinking ruins.” This episode connects abandoned factories, overgrown terraces, vineyards, cellars, and local memory of “The Great Hailstorm of 1905” to tell a larger story about how past, present, and future collide in the wineglass.

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In this episode, Nancy Sommers discusses her new creative nonfiction article, “Things Left Behind,” in conversation with Signe Rousseau, Co-Chair of Gastronomica’s Editorial Collective. Nancy shares the personal story of sorting through the family keepsakes that her mother had meticulously preserved over the span of many decades. Recipes, menus, seating plans, accounts of household meals, drawings and diagrams and other ephemera – all classified, archived, and saved – come to new light against the backdrop of dementia. Nancy highlights the complex layers of remembering and forgetting, the surprises, and the unexpected gifts.

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What does it mean to be a “sustainable” chef? In this episode, Gastronomica’s Jaclyn Rohel talks with anthropologist Jed Hilton about his latest research on culinary labor in the hospitality industry. Drawing on his ethnography of British chefs, Jed shares some of the ways that chefs navigate notions of sustainability through the craft of cooking. Connecting expertise, ethics, and the market, the conversation highlights the tensions that surround the meaning of sustainability in fine dining restaurants.

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In this episode, Gastronomica’s Bob Valgenti talks with Chelsea Fisher and Clara Albacete about their new article on food justice and civilizations in the supermarket. Drawing on superfoods such as quinoa and chia, they unpack the process of ancient greenwashing and the notion of long-term sustainability. Their conversation connects the contemporary moment to pre-colonial civilizations to reveal how social inequities in global food systems live on through storied food.

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In this episode, Gastronomica’s Alyshia Gálvez hosts historian Camille Bégin in a discussion on a family food archive. Drawing on her recent piece, Bégin stitches together a collage of memories from the 1948-49 letters of her great-grandfather, who traveled through Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia as an inspector of the French lycées. Bégin explains how she came to spin a narrative of food, family, and the French colonial empire through her great-grandfather's ephemera and three subsequent generations of family cooks.

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What is the social value of a daytime street market? In this episode, sociologist Ellen Meiser talks with Gastronomica’s Dan Bender about the meaning and value of Taiwan’s caishichang. Drawing on her early memories of these vegetable street markets and her participant observations of the same lively streets in the contemporary moment, Ellen explains the important roles that caishichang play in the local food system and in social, economic, and political life. Listeners can learn more about caishichang in Ellen’s photo essay, featured in Gastronomica’s newest issue (23.2).

Photo by Ellen Meiser

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In this episode, Irina Mihalache of Gastronomica’s Editorial Collective hosts Cristina Fernández Recasens in a conversation about women’s domestic labor in coastal Catalonia. Cristina shares some of the findings from their work on fish consumption and gendered work in the local fishing industry, highlighting how the research eventually led them to a recipe for pebbles omelet. Listeners can learn more about the pebbles omelet and find the recipe for this subversive dish in Cristina’s newest piece, featured in Gastronomica’s upcoming issue (Summer 2023).

Photo by Maria Fernández Recasens.

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In this episode, anthropologist and registered dietician Annie Koempel discusses her research on the sociality of eating behaviors in conversation with Gastronomica’s Jaclyn Rohel. Drawing on her latest article, available in Gastronomica’s Summer 2023 issue, Annie explains the differences between disordered eating, eating disorders, and dieting. Situating surveys and stories of eating behaviors within the broader phenomenon of food sharing, Annie describes how disordered eating can move between bodies.

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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, but a complex social phenomenon.

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