Food has long been a national symbol—an identifier—of places, cultures, and people. And it seems everyone has their own idea of which dish of food best represents their own country or one they have visited and come to know. But it’s not so simple or straightforward.
In her new book National Dish: Around the World in Search of Food, History, and the Meaning of Home, the award-winning writer Anya von Bremzen explores six of the world’s most fascinating culinary cultures—France, Italy, Japan, Spain, Mexico, and Turkey. Through the web of food, history, and politics, she explains her choices of their national dishes, such as the pot au feu of France and pasta al pomodoro of Italy. In a conversation with Linda Pelaccio, host of Heritage Radio’s A Taste of the Past and longtime CHNY member, she’ll take a deeper look into how food defines us and why it is important to our national identity.
Anya von Bremzen is one of the most accomplished food writers of her generation: the winner of three James Beard awards; a contributing writer at AFAR magazine; and the author of six acclaimed cookbooks, among them The New Spanish Table, The Greatest Dishes: Around the World in 80 Recipes, and Please to the Table: The Russian Cookbook. Her memoir, Mastering the Art of Soviet Cooking has been translated into nineteen languages. Anya has written for Food & Wine, Saveur, the New Yorker, and Foreign Policymagazines, among other publications. When she’s not on the road, Anya divides her time between New York and Istanbul.