Stories
With my Hands in the Gnocchi Dough: a Cooking Demonstration
When cooking, I often use no recipe. I rarely can tell quantities. I can more or less explain what I am doing, but it is just a way to rationalize and make sense of movements and gestures that I have internalized. Both the embodied and the rational aspects of my...
Traveling in Poland through Place and Time
Poland keeps on providing remarkable surprises. Its food scene is changing surprisingly fast, an impression that was confirmed during my last stay in January. The revaluation of local specialties and the rediscovery of the country’s culinary past creates opportunities...
Food, History, and Time: How the Past is never Past
Thinking about the past helps us define ourselves. And understanding how we locate ourselves in time and how we create connections between our perceptions of the past, our experience in the present, and our expectations of the future, can provide insights on the...
Food, Heritage, and Intellectual Property
My chapter in Food heritage and Nationalism in Europe, edited by Ilaria Porciani, reflects on how connections between tradition, heritage and intellectual property have been activated in the global food market. In the chapter, I also discuss the role and function of...
What garbage are you? Food waste and recycling in Shanghai
As China is changing its recycling policies, cities are trying to adapt to the new regulatory landscape. Community initiatives are considered central in teaching citizens how to rethink their relationship to garbage and food waste, just as their levels of consumption...
Savoring Words: How Can We Write about Food?
As a journalist earlier and a scholar later, I have been reflecting about how to best write about food, especially when I am not developing arguments or explaining facts. How can words convey the sensory or emotional elements that shape our eating experiences and...