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 and Indigenous communities in and around the Nanay River. Drawing from her article in Gastronomica’s newest issue (22.4), Chanelle connects the odors of pollution to ways of living that have come under threat, elaborating on the implications for community identity, local livelihoods, health and the sourcing of local foods, and spiritual connections to the waterways.
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In this episode, Gastronomica’s Jaclyn Rohel talks with author Lillian Tsay about her latest research on the rise of the confectionery industry in the early 20th century, from banana caramels to chocolate. Focusing on sweetness and power in Japan and colonial Taiwan, Lillian connects the early commercial success of Western-style confectionery to histories of empire, industrialization, and commoditization.
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What is “sweetness,” and how does its meaning change in communities over time? In this episode, Eric C. Rath and Takeshi Watanabe introduce some of the sweet substances of Japanese history, the subject of a special section on “The Power of Japanese Sweets and Sweeteners” in Gastronomica’s latest issue. In conversation with Gastronomica’s Dan Bender, Eric and Takeshi explore the theme of continuity and change in a culture by taking listeners through the complex history of sweets.
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What does food sustain? Elora Halim Chowdhury joins Gastronomica’s Signe Rousseau to discuss her new article on family, class, and culture in South Asian identity-making. Reflecting on her food nostalgia for the family mealtimes of her childhood in Rajshahi, Dhaka, and New Delhi, Elora discusses how time, labor, and transnational connections shape identity and community.
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In this episode, Gastronomica’s Krishnendu Ray talks with Sean Wyer about the 21st century transformation of Rome’s Jewish Quarter. Drawing on his latest research, recently published in Gastronomica, Sean considers how a range of factors – from heritage tourism and cosmopolitan innovation to religious dietary laws and diasporic migration – helped shape Jewish-Roman cuisine and the evolving character of a historic neighborhood.
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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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