Video
In a selection of talks and interviews, Fabio Parasecoli discusses on camera his research in food studies, food history, and food design, as well his work as a food writer.
Food: A Systemic Approach
Knowing where our food comes from is important to us as consumers and as citizens, allowing to make more careful choices. During this lecture I gave in Warsaw, Poland, I explore different conceptualizations of the global food system, together with the structures, flows, and stakeholders that compose it.
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Food and Film
In this talk I gave for the Sagan National Colloquium at Ohio Wesleyan University I explore the presence and meaning of food in film.
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Design in Global Brooklyn
What do the fashionable food hot spots of Cape Town, Mumbai, Copenhagen, Rio de Janeiro, and Tel Aviv have in common? Despite all their differences, consumers in each major city are drawn to a similar atmosphere: rough wooden tables in postindustrial interiors lit by edison bulbs. There, they enjoy single-origin coffee, kombucha, and artisanal bread. This is ‘Global Brooklyn,’ a new transnational aesthetic regime of urban consumption. I discuss it in this short talk at the World Food Design Day 2021, organized by Fork.
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Italy in the Global Food System
On the occasion of the presentation of my book Food (MIT, 2019) at the NYU Casa Italiana Zerilli Marimò I examine how Italy and its culinary culture have become part of the global food system, and what that means for the future.
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Al Dente: A History of Food in Italy
Listen to this short chat with author Michele Scicolone about the history of food in Italy.
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Rice in Italian Food Culture
In this video (in English, with Polish subtitles), I explain the recipe for risotto and make it together with Jarek Walczyk, president of the Polish Chef Club, The video is introduced by Toruń University professor and food historian Jarosław Dumanowski. I also discuss how rice became part of Italian food traditions, with influences from the Arabs and the Spaniards.
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Italian Food Cultures and the Environment
In this video, shot at the University of Minnesota in September 23, 2015, I speak about food culture in Italy and its relationship with the environment in conversation with Dan Philippon, Associate Professor of English and co-convener of the IAS Environmental Humanities Collaborative.
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Gnocchi and the Columbian Exchange
In this video (in English, with Polish subtitles), I give the recipes of gnocchi and make it together with Jarek Walczyk, president of the Polish Chef Club, The video is introduced by Toruń University professor and food historian Jarosław Dumanowski. I also discuss how that dish is a symbol for the Columbian Exchange and of how new products from the New World, such as potatoes and tomatoes, became part of Italian food traditions.
Mediterranean Diet, Intangible Heritage and Sustainable Tourism
Can the traditions and and the food productions connected with the Mediterranean Diet – from agriculture to fisheries – be activated to establish sustainable forms of tourism? I discussed the topic in New York, on January 15, 2019, during the Italian Mediterranean Style: One-day symposium at the John D. Calandra Italian American Institute.
Food Forward: A Geometry conversation
In an ongoing effort to stay current on today’s food landscape, Geometry sat down with me, to discuss the attitudes and behaviors that are shaping our eating and grocery shopping habits. Here are 5 key insights that came out of that conversation.
City Food: Street Food in Warsaw
In this video (you can see an update on the research project and Mateusz Halawa (Institute of Philosophy and Sociology of the Polish Academy of Sciences) are conducting in Poland. Here I share some observations on street food in Polish cities, as part of the international research project City Food.
Click here to see the video
Fascism, food, and women: totalitarism at the table
This is a draft of my review of Diana Garvin's book, Feeding Fascism: The Politics of Women’s Food Work, published on the journal MLN. Vittorio De Sica’s 1948 film Bicycle Thieves has marked world cinema with its raw representations of post-World War II poverty in...
The Makaron Case: Pasta, Poland, and Politics
Italian pasta has suddenly become very hot in Polish politics (ok, terrible pun, but bear with me…). On Wednesday October 3rd, Janusz Kowalski, the deputy minister for Agriculture and Rural Development of Poland, posted an infographic on his X account in which he...
Relaxed Woke Cooking: The Big Brunch on HBO Max
Just like a brunch is about leisure and relaxation with friends and family, The Big Brunch on HBO Max builds culinary entertainment that is good-natured, with contestants supporting each other, with less frantic rhythm and editing style, without bombast and brashness....
Gastronativism: Food as an ideological tool in a globalized world
Present-day gastronativism differs from previous manifestations. It inevitably reflects not only the structure and flows of the global food system but also the social, economic, and political power relations that underpin it and determine its mechanisms. "The way food...
Gastronativism: Food, Identity, Politics
An excerpt from my new book Gastronativism: why reflecting on the connections between food, identity, and politics is important. "IN MANY ways, this book has been in the making for a long time. I have been interested in international politics for many years: I studied...
The cost of Putin’s war: A food security plan for Central and Eastern Europe
by Agata Bachórz, Natasha Bunzl, Eszter Kovacs, Diana Mincyte, Fabio Parasecoli, Simone Piras, Mihai Varga. In Central and Eastern Europe the strain of providing for the refugees from Ukraine is affecting not only large cities but also rural areas near the Ukrainian...
Food in Popular Culture: Why does it matter?
Whatever it is that pop culture does to reach it goals, it does it right. It is a spectacle that works, building on dreams and desires. And food is pervasive in contemporary Western pop culture, influencing the way we perceive and represent ourselves as individuals...
Do we really need more Julia Child?
Five episodes into the new HBO Max series about the beginning of Julia Child’s ascent as a media celebrity and the patron goddess of all things food TV, we are left wondering if we really need yet another show about her. It is hard to find anything particularly new or...
Vodka and Pierogi: Gastronativism during Putin’s War
In the midst of a war that is reshaping the global geopolitical landscape, food has been co-opted as a symbol-–some may say a tool— to show solidarity, buttress identities, and express hostility or even enmity. Just a couple of days had passed since Putin’s attack on...
(Again) A Plea for Pleasure
I happened to reread the afterword of my 2008 book Bite Me: Food in Popular Culture. Some of the observations were naive, some were weirdly prescient (al least regarding the present state of the political discourse), others are still on point. This is (again) a Plea...