Around the Italian Table: A Roundtable Discussion of Contemporary Food Ethnography in Italy

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A Taste of Britain: From Post-Colonial Cuisine to Molecular Gastronomy

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.

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Culture and Cuisine of Québec 1.0

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.

 

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A Summer in the Field

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.

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Culture and Cuisine of Québec: Only a few seats left!

 

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.

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