A Taste of the Past

I enjoy listening to this show sometimes, but I wish the host would allow the guests to speak without interruption. Ask the short leading questions, let them take it from there. This seems to happen especially when people who are minorities are guests. Because they are less likely to take back the floor in an aggressive way, the host ends up sounding like it’s about her. And her witticisms sound disingenuous after these power moves. That can be so triggering that I often end up stopping before the episode ends.

I absolutely love this podcast. I am a home cook and I listen while cooking and drinking tea or coffee. Linda is obviously so kind and curious, and I feel like I am spending time with an equally fascinated friend, “nerding out.” Warm and wonderful!

As an avid consumer of food media as well as an accomplished and widely traveled home cook, I have tried to like this show. The recent Bean episode is a good example. I’ve cooked beans from scratch all my life. I’ve lived, worked and traveled in Asia and Latin America, we are beans are part of nearly every meal in some form or another. The perspective given in the show was that “civilization” arose because of the benefits of farmed legumes in Mesopotamia. It seems like a bit of willful ignorance to fail to note that the ancient Inca, Maya, Mexica and Aztec cultures thrived around the same periods of time - and cultivated beans. Archaeological records also indicate that legumes were extensively farmed in what is now northern Korea and China. Perhaps legumes had some impact on the rise of those civilizations as well? Or the several varieties of beans and peas grown in sub-Saharan Africa? Or are they simply not included because they don’t bear on a Eurocentric identity? I know this sounds like nitpicking, but it reflects a larger pattern of Eurocentric bias in this show. Food history happened everywhere human beings ate. Either be more clear in your statements, for example, “Mediterranean and European cultural development benefited from Mesopotamian cultivation of legumes”, or touch on the other civilizations also. The time is over for non-European cultures to be relegated to the “ethnic aisle. “

There are a lot of fascinating topics brought up in this podcast. In the past few days I’ve really enjoyed some older episodes like Eat Your Words (about the linguistic and historical changes that some of our food names in English have undergone), the one about Mark Twain’s favorite American foods, and the one about the Libyan Jewish cuisine in Rome. I’ve learned fun and interesting facts and usually have my browser open to read further into some of the facts brought up. With that said, I have to agree with some other commenters in a few points. Some guests seem out of their element, particularly up and coming authors. I’m sure the book about beans, for example, was interesting—but the author doesn’t seem like she’s done any sort of podcast or public speaking. I’ve come across several other episodes like this as well. I’m not sure what the solution to this would be, but some episodes are hard to listen. It unfortunately also does tend to come off as very Western-centric. Especially in a place like New York, one would expect to find authors and cooks from all over the world, yet the guests are more often than not white Americans. As a white American who is fascinated by the Middle Eastern cultures, languages, and cuisines and has lived in Israel/Palestine and Jordan, I had been hoping to hear more from the people who actually grew up in that region and were steeped in the culture and cuisines—rather than other Westerners who are interested in these topics but only know about them by proxy. Add some diversity, not for diversity’s sake alone but to make the podcasts richer and deeper. I personally don’t mind Linda’s delivery—but it’s clear when she’s interested in a topic and when she’s bored. The latter point is something to consider working on, but I actually really like the episodes where she jokes with the guests and is actively engaged in the conversation. Overall I enjoy this podcast a lot, but I’d like to see more diversity in guests and fewer unprepared guests. Thank you for making this show!

I really want to like this podcast as I listen to a variety of pods about food, splendid table, sporkful, and my favorite food history podcast - the anthrochef. I am disappointed in the quality of the interviews, production quality, and what many commenters are saying is a very Eurocentric perspective. You absolutely cannot have a good podcast without an engaged host, decent production, and a structured format. The sound quality of the phone calls is absolutely horrible, I wanted to listen to the Paris episode and could not deal with the background noise after about 3 minutes, and I usually like to give podcasts a good chance before I decide it’s not for me. Do better Heritage!!! Listen to the feedback!!! :(

To be fair, I’ve okay listened to the Peruvian episode. But even being one episode in I know I won’t be revisiting. I loved the guest. He had incredible knowledge and sounded very excited to discuss immigrant history and its impact on food. And the host was trying to hurry him along, and redirect him to talk about the food, but his build up was great! I wanted to hear more about the immigrant history. I’m glad he continued with his story and then connected it to food. The host is also very bland, unapproachable, condescending and doesn’t seem to bring any energy, excitement or in-depth food knowledge.