THE HISTORY OF FOOD

HOF Episode 28: The Ancient History of Chefs

Everyone knows the saying about what the world’s “oldest profession” is, but you will find a very close runner up in the kitchen. The history of those who cook profession

HOF Episode 27: A Day in the Life (of a Peasant Farmer)

Have you ever wondered if there’s more to history than dates and major events, what some of the stories and daily lives of regular people looked like? Do you need a remin

HOF Episode 26: Factory Food (Industrial Revolution)

When Britain industrialized in the late 1700s and the rest of the western world soon followed, humans were transformed to a degree not seen for 10,000 years when we first

HOF Episode 25: The Soul of American Cooking (Colonial USA)

Who founded America? George Washington? Thomas Jefferson? America had founding fathers alright, but they aren’t the ones you’re thinking of. Would you believe that Africa

HOF Episode 24: The Feeling of Fullness (Sub Saharan Africa)

Is good cooking defined by ingredients, skill in preparation, style of cuisine, or is it something even more fundamental and deeply human? We left out of Africa all the w

HOF Episode 23: The Great Sobering (Coffee and Colonialism)

Save this episode to go with your morning coffee. Sip that dark and bitter brew, maybe with cream and/or sugar, maybe not, and listen along as you learn of coffee’s origi

HOF Episode 22: Melting Pots and Fusion Foods (Globalization)

The “American Melting Pot” is far older, larger, and even more diverse than most people imagine. After Columbus reconnected Eurasia and Africa with the Americas, the worl

HOF Episode 21: Umami and Kimchi (Japan and Korea)

What does it mean for one culture to “steal” from another? How often does it happen? Is it a bad thing when it does? Listen to explore those questions and more, as we vis

HOF Episode 20: The Columbian Exchange

For millions of years, the two main hemispheres of planet earth were separated by an impassible ocean. North/South America and Eurasia/Africa, two divergent ecosystems, f

HOF Episode 19: Europe Wakes Up (The Renaissance)

Did Europeans suddenly wake up one day, tired of Medieval living, and decide to change course, to rebirth themselves in modern ideas and start creating good art? Or, as u

HOF Episode 18: Crusades and Plagues (later Middle Ages)

How did Europe get out of its dark ages? It’s not a wholesome story, as the secret to their success was mainly the conquest and plunder of other peoples’ luxury goods, na

HOF Episode 17: The Power of Tradition (China revisited)

What makes humans special? What makes us rise above all the other animals across the planet, to discover and make great things? Before you answer with the obvious, ” our

HOF Episode 16: The Dark Bread Ages (Medieval Europe)

In Late Antiquity, without the Roman Empire around to control everything, forest and wilderness reclaimed Europe and its people went local. Start with that, then stir to

HOF Episode 15: Princes of Flavor (India)

Which ancient civilization made the most flavorful cuisine? Perhaps you could make a case for any of the cuisines and civilizations we’ve covered thus far, and no doubt e

HOF Episode 14: People of the Book

In what capacity can food serve a spiritual need? The answer is a whole lot! A little over two thousand years ago, the way people thought about themselves and the Univers

HOF Episode 13: Empire of Shepherds (Iran)

Many great moments in civilization happened when cultures of the Far East, interacted with those in the West.  Through all those moments, there was one region which sat b

HOF Episode 12: Herders of the Old World

Welcome to the second Season of the History of Food! To kick things off, we’ll be walking ground we’ve tread before. The history of pastoral nomadism, that is the animal

HOF Episode 11: Bread and Circuses, but Mostly Bread (Rome)

Rome. Probably what most people think of when they think “Ancient World”. In this episode, however, we discover that in terms of the culinary, the Roman Republic and then

HOF Episode 10: Hombres de Maíz (Mesoamerica)

Of all the food discoveries made across the ancient world, few are more impressive than the domestication and then nixtamlization of maize (corn) in the lands that would

HOF Episode 9: Raw and Cooked (China)

What does it mean to be a raw (barbarian) person vs. a cooked (civilized) person? To find out, our culinary and historical journey heads east. Far East, to the lands of t