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, Krishnendu Ray, Signe Rousseau, Bob Valgenti, Jessica Carbone, and moderated by Dan Bender, the...

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 farming -- and on what may lie ahead for food security in Eastern Europe more broadly. Listeners...

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 culinary experiences by working across the past, present, and future. Fabio shares insights and...

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 with human geographies of migration, labor, and caste.

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 -- known locally as Barberton chicken -- and reflects on the Magic City as a place in search of its...

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 homemade potato salads, freshly baked cookies and bread, and sun-ripened garden tomatoes – Teresa...

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 American and Caribbean food businesses in Charlotte, North Carolina, one the America’s fastest...

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-drying goat meat and fish from her family’s village in Tamil Nadu and weighs in on culinary labor,...

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 role of African American food imaginaries in creating sustainable foodways. In spotlighting the work...

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, and health, this episode offers a fresh take on the meaning of fast food.

​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 rearing as a gendered practice of caregiving -- what she calls “bread-nurturing” -- and shows how it...

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, identity, and food access in Cuba. Krystyn and Jennifer shed light on why hierarchies 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 Editorial Collective member Dan Bender to explain what happens in the microbial and cultural world of...

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 on social media analysis and fieldwork at eateries in Perth, Fukutomi discusses why authenticity...

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 digs into the historical, social, and environmental processes that enabled the transformation of a...

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.

Does technology change local eating? In this episode, Gastronomica Editorial Collective member Krishnendu Ray and anthropologist Tulasi Srinivas consider how taste connects material, spatial, and virtual worlds. Drawing on her ethnography of "gastro apps" in Bangalore during the Covid-19 pandemic, Tulasi sheds light on how online food delivery has changed what it means to eat locally in India. Photo courtesy of the Radcliffe Institute.

Can the language of a menu help produce food system change? In this episode, Gastronomica Editorial Collective member Melissa Fuster hosts Carole Counihan in a discussion on activism and alimentary language. Drawing on her research on Italian food activism and the Slow Food Movement, Carole explores how a dinner menu can promote critical consumption and a commitment to food democracy.

Is Amy Trubek still mad about the ducks? One year ago, Gastronomica Editorial Collective member Amy Trubek chanced upon a gift of raw duck parts. In this episode, Amy traces the circulation of the duck parts through her local community and shares how a series of unexpected exchanges landed them on her dinner plate at home. Amy is joined in this episode by her husband, Brad, who talks about how he drew on his culinary training to craft a plethora of delicious dishes out of the gifted...

In this special Gastronomica episode, Chef Malcolm Mitchell talks about his experience as a chef, a culinary artist, and an advocate for Black chefs in the American hospitality industry. In conversation with Daniel Bender, a member of Gastronomica's Editorial Collective and a professor of food studies, labor, and American history, Chef Mitchell shares his story of becoming a chef, discusses what motivated him to publish his June 2021 open letter to Black Chefs in The Progressive magazine and...