Culinary History

"Food knowledge in Paris at the end of the Middle Ages: between culinary practice and food hygiene": How is food knowledge spread in Paris at the end of the Middle Ages? This is the purpose of this article. At that time, Paris was already a big city where food of all kinds poured in. Three poles disseminate and organize food knowledge: public authorities that legislate on the supply and safety of consumers; food professionals that codify manufacturing standards; and Parisians who transmit the practical knowledge of food... /

Comment se diffusent les savoirs alimentaires dans le Paris de la fin du Moyen Âge ? Tel est le propos de cet article. A cette époque, Paris est déjà une grande ville où affluent des denrées de toutes sortes. Trois pôles diffusent et organisent les savoirs alimentaires : les pouvoirs publics qui légifèrent sur l'approvisionnement et la sécurité du consommateur ; les professionnels de bouche qui codifient les normes de fabrication ; et les Parisiens qui transmettent la connaissance pratique de l'aliment...

Review of Jin Feng, Tasting paradise on earth: Jiangnan foodways (University of Washington 2019) and Guo Huiling 郭慧玲, 美味与权力: 一个华北村庄70年饮食生活变迁 [Taste and Power: 70 years of culinary transition in a north Chinese village] (China Economic Press 2020)

Forthcoming in Asian Ethnology

Anderson House at 42 Powers Court, St. John's, Newfoundland, Canada, is a familiar sight for those going up and down Signal Hill. The building was designated a Registered Heritage Structure by the Heritage Foundation of Newfoundland and Labrador on March 23, 1996. The building is named after James Anderson (c1768-1852), a sergeant in the militia, entrepreneur, and brewer of spruce beer and other temperance beverages.

"Nous gardons tous au fond d’un tiroir un menu qui nous rappelle l’heureux souvenir d’un repas convivial. Mais que savons-nous vraiment du menu ? De sa genèse, de son histoire, et de son apport à la société ? Des premiers menus du Moyen Âge aux menus dégustation des chefs d’aujourd’hui, Patrick Rambourg raconte comment le menu a migré de la cuisine à la salle pour devenir un outil de la convivialité et de la gastronomie, et un support artistique et publicitaire. Il présente une histoire inédite du menu qui témoigne de l’évolution culinaire de la société et des mœurs de table, de nos pratiques alimentaires et gastronomiques. Car le menu d’un repas est « le mémoire de ce qui doit y entrer » (Grimod de la Reynière, 1808)."

Livre préfacé par Pascal Ory.

This paper examines chocolate use in nineteenth century America, focusing on three main areas: food, drink, and medicine. It pays special attention to chocolate use during the Civil War, which remained constant despite the lack of food for soldiers on the front lines and Southerners living behind the lines. It concludes that chocolate served as an inexpensive luxury good for most Americans. Additionally, the paper examines ways that living history museum staff can demonstrate chocolate to their visitors. Finally, the paper features a lengthy appendix containing many recipes from the period.
This paper was written for Genesee Country Village & Museum, located in Mumford, NY, as part of a grant.

Über das Buch:
Vorbeugen ist besser als heilen – unter diesem Motto lässt sich die Bedeutung der Gesundheitsvorsorge in Mittelalter und Früher Neuzeit zusammenfassen. 16 Fachbeiträge von international angesehenen Wissenschaftler/innen und jungen Nachwuchsforscher/innen aus
den Fächern Germanistische Literatur- und Sprachwissenschaft, Geschichtswissenschaft/Medizingeschichte, Volkskunde, Archäologie, Kunstgeschichte und Theologie widmen sich in quellennahen Studien breit gestreuten Aspekten der Gesundheitslehre und der Kulinarik des (vorwiegend) deutschsprachigen Raums von der Antike bis in die Barockzeit. Die einzelnen Beiträge beleuchten vielfältige Fragestellungen aus unterschiedlichsten Perspektiven und wollen so diesem transdisziplinären Forschungsbereich neue, grundlegende Impulse verleihen.

Inhalt:
Inhalt: Kay Peter Jankrift: Löwenfleisch, faule Birnen und Antoniuswein. Pest, Lepra, Heiliges Feuer und die Rolle der Ernährung aus Sicht der mittelalterlich-frühneuzeitlichen Heilkunde – Melitta Weiss Adamson: Vom Arzneibuch zum Kochbuch, vom Kochbuch zum Arzneibuch: Eine diätetische Reise von der arabischen Welt und Byzanz über Italien ins spätmittelalterliche Bayern – Verena Friedl: Das Konzept
der Dynamischen Edition dargestellt am púch von den chósten (Cgm 415) – Natascha Guggi: Italienische Rezepte in der anonymen Kochrezeptsammlung der Handschrift Cgm 415 – Karl-Heinz Steinmetz: Yedoch will ich ekleren uff deine vordrungen – Pragmatisierung der Ernährungsdiätetik im Spiegel der Gesundheit des Lorenz Fries von Kolmar – Thomas Gloning: Die Platina-Übersetzung des Stephan Vigilius (1542). Kochkunst, Gesundheitslehre und sprachliche Form – Simon Edlmayr/Martina Rauchenzauner: Conrad Haggers Neues Saltzburgisches Koch=Buch von 1718/19 zwischen den Zeilen gelesen – Johanna Maria von Winter: Sind die Regimina duodecim mensium als «Mönchmedizin» zu betrachten? – Marialuisa Caparrini: Kann der Arzt auch ein guter Koch sein? Die Kochrezepte in der deutschen Bearbeitung der Epistula Anthimi de observatione ciborum – Karin Kranich: Das Tegernseer Wirtschaftsbuch: Benediktinische Kulinarik in Fasten- und Nichtfastenzeiten – Simone Kempinger: Das Tiroler Kochbuch anno 1714: Rezepte mit diätetischem Hintergrund – Helmut
W. Klug: ... und färbs ain wenig ob du wilt. Eine analytische Bestandsaufnahme der diätetischen Aspekte des Färbens von Speisen in
der spätmittelalterlichen Küche – Andrea Hofmeister-Winter: und iz als ein latwergen. Quellenstudie zu Vorkommen, Zusammensetzung
und diätetischen Wirkzuschreibungen von Latwerge in älteren deutschsprachigen Kochrezepttexten – Andreas Klumpp: Culina Historica. Möglichkeiten und Grenzen zur Rekonstruktion einer historischen Geschmackswelt – Inke Beckmann: Bilder nach Rezept? Kunstgeschichte und Kochbuchforschung – Trude Ehlert: Kochrezepte und Notizen aus dem Günterstaler Notizenbuch. Edition von fol. 11r–14v der Handschrift GLA 65 Nr. 247 aus dem Generallandesarchiv Karlsruhe.

"Rachel Laudan tells the remarkable story of the rise and fall of the world’s great cuisines—from the mastery of grain cooking some twenty thousand years ago, to the present—in this superbly researched book. Probing beneath the apparent confusion of dozens of cuisines to reveal the underlying simplicity of the culinary family tree, she shows how periodic seismic shifts in “culinary philosophy”—beliefs about health, the economy, politics, society and the gods—prompted the construction of new cuisines, a handful of which, chosen as the cuisines of empires, came to dominate the globe.

Cuisine and Empire shows how merchants, missionaries, and the military took cuisines over mountains, oceans, deserts, and across political frontiers. Laudan’s innovative narrative treats cuisine, like language, clothing, or architecture, as something constructed by humans. By emphasizing how cooking turns farm products into food and by taking the globe rather than the nation as the stage, she challenges the agrarian, romantic, and nationalistic myths that underlie the contemporary food movement."

This is the story of my late father, Chef Gilberto Smith-Duquesne and his very unique experience in Hirohito’s Japan.
After the 1959 revolution, my father recalled Fidel Castro being interested in Japanese cinema (Samurai films) and in particular, the Japanese work ethic and agricultural practices. Fidel Castro used to talk about Japan as a prosperous country of hard workers and being successful despite having few natural resources. El Comandante used to refer to Emperor Hirohito as the Maker of Modern Japan. My father used to say that Emperor Hirohito didn't drink or smoke; he liked plain food, but he tried and loved the Cuban lobster.

Throws new light on modernity and postmodernity by contrasting the cookery books of two New Zealanders: Aunt Daisy publishing in the middle and Lois Daish at the end of the twentieth-century. Daisy cooked peas for 20 minutes and Daish as few as two.
Chapter 8, pp. 155-177 & 201-203, in Helen Leach, ed, From Kai to Kiwi Kitchen—New Zealand culinary traditions and cookbooks, Dunedin: University of Otago Press, 2010

This paper argues, contrary to recent law review suggestions, that dishes-- the edible product of the written recipe-- should not be protected under copyright laws. The truly novel dish could be patented, if the inventor wished to claim exclusive rights to prepare the dish or license it to others, but copyright is ill-suited to ephemeral food.

כיצד זכו החומוס, העמבה והשקשוקה למעמדם בחברה הישראלית? מתי ולמה הפכו מאכלים ערביים למסמן של "ישראליות"? האם ניכוס ישראלי של מאכלים מן הרפרטואר הערבי הוא קולוניאליזם? ומדוע המטבח הישראלי מקפיד לשמור מרחק ממורשתו היהודית המזרח-אירופית?

https://www.ynet.co.il/articles/premium/0,7340,L-5603350,00.html
כתבה של יוגב ישראלי

The Egg Tree in America explores the origins, mythology, and class associations of egg trees in America. Although they now form innocent, middle class, and largely secular diversions at Easter, egg trees historically were mired in superstition, witchcraft, and poverty. 

Thought to have been introduced by 18th century German immigrants, egg trees originally were talismans to ward off witches and to encourage fertility in Pennsylvania Dutch communities.  In the 1870s, almost 50 years after Christmas trees were first reported in America, well to do Pennsylvanians adapted the custom for Easter, decorating trees as children’s amusements.  The practice continued through the 1970s and was popularized in cheerful children’s literature. Other affluent Americans lightheartedly used egg trees as charitable fundraisers or sickroom brighteners.  But the egg tree maintained its protective magic during the Depression in particularly hard-struck Appalachia, as poignantly described in James Still’s 1940 novel River of Earth. Perhaps it is the incompatibility between these two views of the egg tree, well-heeled frivolity versus amulets for the poor, which accounts for the failure of the egg tree to take substantial hold in American culture.

"Des premiers recueils de recettes du Moyen Âge aux discours des grands gastronomes qui font et défont les réputations, Patrick Rambourg raconte comment la cuisine française a conquis ses lettres de noblesse. Côté fourneaux, il montre que les chefs ont su moderniser les traditions en développant de nouvelles techniques. Côté salle, il retrace l'évolution de l'art de la table, depuis l'arrivée de la fourchette à celle, plus tardive, du verre. Il évoque les spécialistes du prêt-à-manger au Moyen Âge et l'émergence du restaurant, la « nouvelle cuisine » du siècle des Lumières, plus délicate que celle du Grand Siècle avec ses nombreuses garnitures et sauces au beurre ; la « cuisine décorative » de Carême ou celle des palaces d'Escoffier qui provoquera l'essor des cuisines régionales, aujourd'hui l'une des forces incontestables de notre patrimoine gastronomique. Mêlant connaissance pratique, histoire et théorie, ce livre nous entraîne dans l'aventure passionnante de la cuisine française, dont la renommée internationale n'est plus à faire."

Ce livre est une nouvelle édition (revue) du livre paru en 2005 sous le titre : "De la cuisine à la gastronomie. Histoire de la table française". 

Il a reçu le Gourmand World Cookbook Awards 2010 et le Prix littéraire Culture-Gastronomie 2010.

In this article, I critique the historical narratives surrounding the consumption of Australian native foods by European settlers. I argue that culinary historians and other commentators present the contemporary consumption of native foods as a means of rejecting the colonial attitudes of the past. In this narrative, early settlers lacked appreciation for Australian native foods and, by extension, Indigenous Australian culture and knowledge. Based on this depiction of colonial history, the current interest in native foods becomes symbolic of a wider revaluing of Australia’s previously denigrated indigenous flora and fauna and Indigenous people. However, as I relate, some early European settlers and their descendants ate a wide variety of native Australian foods. These historical episodes challenge the conventional narrative of Australian culinary history and, in particular, the idea that contemporary consumption constitutes a novel break from past culinary practices. Moreover, as I demonstrate, settler interest in native foods was often consistent with the attitudes that justified and underwrote colonisation. By drawing attention to the role that native foods played in the colonial project, I complicate the idea that recognition of these foods is sufficient to address this history.

What do deep fried mars bars, cod, and Bulgarian yogurt have in common? Each have become symbolic foods with specific connotations, located to a very specific place and country.

This book explores the role of food in society as a means of interrogating the concept of the nation-state and its sub-units, and reveals how the nation-state in its various disguises has been and is changing in response to accelerated globalisation. The chapters investigate various stages of national food: its birth, emergence, and decline, and why sometimes no national food emerges. By collecting and analysing a wide range of case studies (including Portugal, Mexico, Slovenia, the USA, Ghana, Bulgaria, Scotland, Catalonia, Palestine, Costa Rica, Chile, Canada, Ecuador, and Israel) the book illustrates ways in which various social forces work together to shape social and political realities concerning food.

The contributors, hailing from anthropology, history, sociology and political science, investigate the significance of specific food cultures, cuisines, dishes, and ingredients, and their association with national identity. In so doing, it becomes clearer how these two things interact, and demonstrates the scope and direction of the current study of food and nationalism.

Mrs W.E. Kinsey's "The 'Mems' Own Cookery Book" published in 1920 gives insights to the conditions of colonial cooking in Malaya, explores the state of colonial meals and the skills of local cooks, and provides insights to adaptations of colonial meals and recipes of Malayan food consumed by expatriate families. A brief profile of this talented housewife, her a civil-servant husband based in Malaya and his family is included

An overview of difficulties that Chinese faced in operating restaurants starting with the initial disdain and contempt for Chinese food. Racial discrimination, legal problems, financial issues, and competition were obstacles that blocked success for many operators. Robbery, assault, and even homicide were constant threats. The work was arduous and the hours were long. These factors left a sour taste for many Chinese restaurateurs and their families.

AMERICAN PEPPER, INDIAN CURRY AND HUNGARIAN PAPRIKA: LOCAL AND GLOBAL FIGURATIONS IN THE SOCIAL HISTORY OF CULINARY TASTE. The overall diffusion of foodstuffs, dishes and cooking styles of foreign origin, which are partially or entirely regarded as exotic, constitutes one of the most conspicuous phenomena of cultural globalization. The multicultural diversification of food supply is intertwined, among other things, with a shift in the sources of immigration and the transformation of modes of social integration typically expected from immigrants, the growth of tourism to the Third World and its presence in the media, the production and trade of exotic ingredients, as well as the phenomenon of “omnivorousness” identifiable in all forms of cultural consumption. Nevertheless, similar global processes have already shaped the foodways of distant but relatively well-connected societies and social groups for centuries. The article examines earlier forms of culinary globalization and attempts to identify their differences from the present one through the analysis of changes in the use of spices, especially hot spices. It describes the characteristics of flavoring food in Middle Ages and its divergence from modern culinary taste as perceivable from the seventeenth century onwards and now undergoing radical changes again; then, concentrating on one single spice, chili pepper, the article reconstructs the processes of its early diffusion and those of its becoming an exotic, as well as a national (multinational) seasoning.

Recent scholarship on John Stuart Mill has illuminated his arguments about the normative legitimacy of imperial rule. However, it has tended to ignore or downplay his extensive writings on settler colonialism: the attempt to create permanent “civilized” communities, mainly in North America and the South Pacific. Mill defended colonization throughout his life, although his arguments about its character and justification shifted over time. While initially he regarded it as a solution to the “social problem” in Britain, he increasingly came to argue that its legitimacy resided in the universal benefits—civilization, peace, and prosperity—it generated for humanity. In the final years of his life Mill seemed to lose faith in the project. Finally recognizing the prevalence of colonial violence and the difficulty of realizing his grand ambitions, yet refusing to give up on colonization altogether, his colonial romance gave way to a form of melancholia.