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.
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Food, Pleasure, Community: Slow Food and Pope Francis
In their emphasis on personal responsibility and the central role of community Slow Food and Pope Francis appear to be less distant that one may think. Food and pleasure provide a shared terrain to discuss sustainability, biodiversity, and other urgent issues. “There...
Where is Global Brooklyn really from?
with Mateusz Halawa Our edited book Global Brooklyn: Designing Food Experiences in World Cities (Bloomsbury Academic) is on presale! To celebrate this (for us) exciting milestone, we are sharing a short excerpt from our introduction, where we explain why we chose to...
Heidegger, care, and the messiness of food
Design approaches that can be applied to food and food systems are inherently political. No design project, no interaction with things, is free of judgment about what kind of world we want to live in. I have continued to take notes on Heidegger’s Being and Time,...
No Woke-Washing, Please: Race, Food Studies, and Design
It is impossible to ignore the topic of race and structural racism when talking about food systems and food culture. And we should not shy from those conversations, least of all in our classrooms. The worst thing that could happen is for schools and institutions of...
Beans Battles: Goya, the Trumps, and the Power of Food
Food is inevitably political, and the food of immigrants is even more so, as it gets drawn into debates about who belongs and who doesn’t. We have got used to a lot in these past few years, but I must say that last week, when Ivanka Trump tweeted a picture of herself...
Food Systems, Design, Things: Reading Heidegger
Facing the shortcomings in the food system in the past few months, many of us have shared the troubling feeling that something we felt was solid and secure is really not so. Martin Heidegger’s reflection on “average everydayness” and how we navigate it may help us be...
Food, Contagions, and Geopolitics
COVID-19 has severely tested the global food system, revealing its weaknesses. The pandemic has caused surpluses in some countries, due to lack of exports, and the specter of scarcity in others. Concerns about food amplify fears of contagion, connecting personal...
Just Cheese? The Place of Twaróg in Polish Cuisine
Pictures courtesy of Gieno Mientkiewicz At a time when the food scene in Poland has been severely hit by COVID-19, a group of food professionals is trying to draw attention to a humble but symbolically important product: a cheese called twaróg, straddling tradition...
Food and the Fear of Invisible Invaders
Covid-19 has shown how fears of Otherness impinge on our experience of food. The metaphors of infection and contagion become particularly powerful and effective when they are connected to food, which we know penetrates the depths of our body and which can therefore be...
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...