Program summary by Christine Dzujna & Cathy Kaufman Claire Alsup loves anchovies, fermented food, and Italian cuisine, so when she first encountered colatura di alici, a piquant fish sauce made from salted anchovies, in a specialty food shop in Naples in 2015, she immediately was hooked. But she was also slightly embarrassed and intrigued: she […]
Program summary by Christine Dzujna According to the authors of Halal Food: A History (Oxford University Press, 2018), there is one constant in the history of the rules regarding what is halal (permitted) food and drink for the Islamic faithful, and that is that there are no constants. Halal criteria have been debated, adjusted and […]
Corin Hirsch’s fascination with the drinks of colonial New England began as an off-shoot of her interest in the artisanal food and beverage scene of Vermont and its environs. When an offer came her way to investigate the drinks scene from an historical perspective, she jumped at the chance to delve into the stories of […]
November 11, 1918, a date familiar to all students of history, as The Great War (to end all wars) was finally at an end. But for students of culinary history, that date has additional significance: it is the birth day of Karen Hess, who would become one of the earliest American culinary historians and mentor […]
CHNY Scholar’s Grant recipient, Professor Elizabeth Zanoni, opened our 2018-19 season with a fascinating talk about the origins and evolution of airline food service. Although nowadays we may think of airplane food of something to be endured at best (assuming today’s airlines even offer a hot meal, rather than a processed cheese sandwich on cold, […]
The archives at Mount Vernon hold a trove of records relating to the day-to-day operation of George Washington’s plantation. While many of these rich documents have been examined for details of the culinary life at Mount Vernon, such as the cookery manuscript owned by Martha Washington, already an antique when she inherited it, with recipes […]
Garum, the fish-based saucy condiment ubiquitous in ancient Roman cookery, shows up in many places, such as the epigrams of Martial, the scientific treatises of Pliny, and the medicinal writings of Galen. Astute students of ancient culinary history will have noticed, however, that the cookery book attributed to Apicius tends to use the term liquamen […]
In 1989, David Rosengarten and Joshua Wesson published the provocatively titled, Red Wine with Fish: The New Art of Matching Wine with Food. Designed to ease the stress of pairing wines and foods to a generation of Americans proudly describing themselves as “foodies” (and, without the least bit of self-conscious awkwardness, “Yuppies”), the title slyly […]
“Chocolate Making in New York: A Colonial History” ~Michael Laiskonis ~ Institute for Culinary Education, New York, February 12, 2018 On chocolate: “If you’re not enjoying yourself, there’s something wrong.” Ed Seguine, President, Seguine Cacao Cocoa & Chocolate Advisors Former Executive Pastry Chef at Le Bernardin and IACP’s 2014 Culinary Professional of the Year, Michael Laiskonis is […]
Sacred Sweet Tooth: The Symbolism and Function of Candy and Sweets in Religious Traditions With Constance Kirker, January 15, 2018 How does the concept of sweets function in the rituals of religion? This was the question posed by speaker Constance Kirker to the audience after they tasted an abundant array of international sweets associated with […]
