This course was a big success last fall so we have decided to run it again. Some of the highlights during our trip to Québec last year included having dinner at Côté Est with culinary artisans in Kamouraska, wrestling eels, lunch at Touqué in Montréal (including meeting Normand Laprise, touring the kitchen, and a surprise visit from sommelier François Chartier), a roundtable discussion on Québecois cuisine at McGill University, and late-night bagels at St. Viateur.

Gastronomy students enjoying oysters at the Marché Jean-Talon in Montréal

This is a graduate-level course that is open to BU and non-BU students. Exceptional undergraduates will also be considered. Culture and Cuisine of Québec counts as 4-credits (72 credit hours) of graduate course work that should be transferable to most American and Canadian universities. It is a great course for those interested in Canadian culture, history, cuisine and foodways. There is an emphasis on experiential learning and student engagement in all activities.

The course work portion can be taken on line and there will be a week-long trip to Québec from Oct. 5-13, 2013

Lunch at the Wendake Huron Village.

Course Description: MET ML 639EL Culture & Cuisine: Québec

Moving beyond the stereotypes of poutine and maple syrup, this course will explore the rich contemporary and historical foodscapes of Québec. The cuisine of this predominantly French-speaking area of Canada has been marked by the lasting legacies of French, British and a variety of immigrant cultures. The result is a combination of fascinating traditions and some of the most exciting new culinary trends in the Northeast—from ice cider to head-to-tail eating. This course will look at questions of identity politics, heritage preservation and the development of sustainable local food systems, as well as the everyday culture and life of this unique Canadian province. Offered in a blended format, class will meet once a month face-to-face (optional – on-line format available for distance students) before and after a weeklong trip to Québec City, Montréal and surrounding rural areas. While in Québec, students will have a chance to meet farmers, artisans and culinary professionals and engage in a number of hands-on activities. Our guide in during the trip will be renowned Québecois food and wine journalistRémy Charest.

Register here or contact the Gastronomy Program for more details. Class starts Sept. 18, 2013.

On Wednesday, March 20, I will be talking about my book Porta Palazzo: The Anthropology of an Italian Market on the show “Thinking Allowed” on BBC Radio 4.

I will be presenting my book Porta Palazzo: The Anthropology of an Italian Market as part of the de Bosis Colloquium in Italian Studies at Harvard University. This event is open to the public.

March 25, 5-7pm at Boylston Hall, Room 403, Harvard University

I am grinning at the camera but my body is awkward in my big winter coat. I look out of place and foreign. I am much taller than Luigi and Rosella. There is something generally uncomfortable about the photo. Despite its forced nature, I cherish this image. It is one of the few photos I have of myself in the field.

The photographer is a prominent Czech anthropologist who came to speak at my department at the Università degli Studi di Torino. Paolo, my dissertation advisor, suggested that I take Peter to Porta Palazzo, my field. This honor fell to me because I was one of the few doctoral students doing research in the city.

Taking an outsider into the field is always a bit of a sticky situation for an anthropologist. I had spent months building my rapport with the various vendors, clients, barmen, and illegal immigrants with whom I was working. I was trying to gain an insider’s view of the market. What would they think of me bringing a foreigner into our world? Would it break the trust I had worked so hard to develop?

Bundled up in winter coats and scarves, Peter and I walked down via Milano toward the Porta Palazzo market. We chatted about anthropology and the challenges of doing fieldwork. I was trying hard to relax but I felt nervous talking to such an important scholar. What would he think of my ideas, my research? I felt even tenser when I pondered what people at the market would think of my new role as tour guide.

When we reached the market square, Peter raised his camera (like a good anthropologist) and snapped a shot of the market. He continued to take photos all throughout our visit. I tried not to pay this photographic shooting spree any attention. I say this because I have always been very sensitive about taking photos of people I did not know well. Not all anthropologists feel this way: to them documentation is more important than anything else.

One of our first stops was at a candy stand where I had been working for several months. We stopped and I said hello to Luigi and Rosella, a son and mother team, and I introduced them to Peter. I explained that he was visiting from Germany, where he was a professor of anthropology. It had been hard to get to know Luigi and Rosella very well. They were very Piedmontese about their relationships. Some people say that the Piedmontese “Sono falsi e cortesi” (Are false and courteous). I saw this guarded attitude more as a cautious distance to newcomers—it just took time to get to know people. It had taken me hours of sweat and hard work at this stand to get to know these two people. I really hoped I was not undoing it all at this very moment.

Peter asked me if he could take a photo of me with Luigi and Rosella. They ushered me behind the stand, and we crowded together in the space between the table and their car. In this photo we are grinning like tourists for the camera.

I will be taking part in the conversation at the Food, the City, and Innovation roundtable conference about the global food system on Feb. 1 & 2. This event is hosted by the University of Texas at Austin’s Food Lab. Check it out here.

I will be giving at talk at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts on Wednesday, Nov. 14 from 1-2:30pm. This will be a romp through twentieth-century British history using food to look at social and political change.

You can reserve a ticket here.

This week I am with my Culture and Cuisine of Québec class explore the foodways of the ‘belle province’. Experiential learning meets ethnography on this week-long gastronomical journey of discovery. It is all about being here.

Silvio reached up and pulled down a curled up leaf from one of his vines. He unfurled the leaf to reveal the larva of a leafroller (Platynota  stultana). Pests like this, he explained, could do serious damage to a vineyard. He named off the various fungal diseases he regularly has to combat as the grape growing season progresses. Winegrowing was starting to seem more like chemical warfare than some bucolic agricultural activity. Walking through the steep vineyards of Donnas on a warm June day, I learned a great deal about vineyard management, changing traditions, and one man’s reality as he worked amongst the vines—all things that are difficult to learn from only reading books …

Read more on the Gastronomy at BU blog.

There are only a few seats left in my Culture and Cuisine of Québec course this fall at Boston University. This is a graduate-level course that is open to BU and non-BU students. Exceptional undergraduates will also be considered. This course counts as 4-credits (72 credit hours) of graduate course work that should be transferable to most American and Canadian universities. It is a great course for those interested in Canadian culture, history and foodways. There will be an emphasis on experiential learning and student engagement in all activities.

The course can be taken on line and it includes a week-long trip to Québec.

Course Description: MET ML 639EL Culture & Cuisine: Québec

Moving beyond the stereotypes of poutine and maple syrup, this course will explore the rich contemporary and historical foodscapes of Québec. The cuisine of this predominantly French-speaking area of Canada has been marked by the lasting legacies of French, British and a variety of immigrant cultures. The result is a combination of fascinating traditions and some of the most exciting new culinary trends in the Northeast—from ice cider to head-to-tail eating. This course will look at questions of identity politics, heritage preservation and the development of sustainable local food systems, as well as the everyday culture and life of this unique Canadian province. Offered in a blended format, class will meet once a month face-to-face (optional – on-line format available for distance students) before and after a weeklong trip to Québec City, Montréal and surrounding rural areas. While in Québec, students will have a chance to meet farmers, artisans and culinary professionals and engage in a number of hands-on activities. Our guide in during the trip will be renowned Québecois food and wine journalist Rémy Charest.

Register here or contact the Gastronomy Program for more details. Class starts Sept. 13, 2012 and the class will be going to Québec from Oct. 13-21.