Food and Culture
Until recently, producing, cooking, and eating were not a common topic for civic debates, let alone polite conversations and educated discussions. These aspect of everyday life used to run almost invisibly in the background, except in the case of crisis. That is no longer the case. Featured in media, popular culture, advertising, literature, and film, food is now visible in cultural considerations, social movements, and political negotiations. The urgency of these phenomena have also brought food into academia. Since the late 1980s, food studies have matured into a field of interdisciplinary and trans-disciplinary research and teaching that explores biological, cultural, social, economic, technical and political issues concerning the production, distribution, consumption, and disposal of food in its material and immaterial aspects. It is increasingly evident that the study of food can provide us with the tools to approach complex problems while imagining innovative scenarios of what our daily lives could be. It can support our choices as consumers and our agency as citizens. With a background in food journalism, I have always been attuned to the cultural and social undercurrents that shape and shift the global food system. Over the years I have researched and published about food in popular culture, in contemporary media, in film,and in political debates. In this page I will share updates on my research projects and my thoughts on current issues.
Random things I may remember about food in the pandemic
The famed architectural critic and designer Michael Sorkin died on March 26, 2020, from COVID-19 complications. I briefly met him for a project at his firm Terreform, and I was impressed by his drive and his faith in the possibility of tangible and beautiful...
Food Chronicles from the Pandemic: Quasi-Poetry Edition
Researching, writing about, and discussing the impact of Covid-19 on our foodways and the food system, as necessary as it is, does not begin to describe the emotional experiences connected with the new normal of social distancing. Food has taken on different meanings....
Food chronicles from the Covid-19 captivity (1)
A collection of random thoughts that popped up during my power walks, accompanied by more structured reflections and brain flare-ups caused by, or at least correlated to, the ridiculous amount of media we are consuming these days (well, at least I am). As graffiti...
Food (systems) in the time of Coronavirus
What will the global food system look like as the Coronavirus pandemia spreads? What is the impact on stakeholders and infrastructures? It is definitely too early to have answers, but it may be time to start thinking ahead. As we are still experiencing the onset of...
Gentefied: Mexican Food Culture in the US, Gentrification, and Migration
Who doesn’t love tacos? But again, what is a taco? What are our expectations for what has become an American staple? Who determined them? And have all expectations equal importance and visibility on the food scene? These are some of the topics that constitute the...
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...
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...
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...
Bong Joon-ho’s Parasite: Food and Inequality
Irony and a keen sense of the absurdity of contemporary consumer society allow Korean filmmaker Bong Joon-ho, director of the global hit film Parasite, to deal with surreal plot lines while emphasizing the tangible elements of everyday life - including food - as...
Building community in a Shanghai neighborhood garden
China is still in flux, a complex country with layers and layers of history and stories. In any metropolis, upscale real estate and old buildings coexist. Affluent citizens may live in proximity of rural migrants, while ignoring their existence. A community garden in...