The traditional Italian meal—the all-day affair with (at least) seven courses—has always fascinated me because it is not just a meal but a way of
Category: Contemporary Food Culture
Commodified Nostalgia: When Heritage Becomes Product
We’ve been living through a boom market in heritage for many years. Nonna fonts on sauce labels, “since 19–” stamped on everything, reclaimed barn wood
Roast the Algorithms; Then the Vegetables
We live under the regime of instrumental reason—the worldview that treats everything as a means to something else, preferably something quantifiable. What is the value
Are Taste/Shape or Taste/Sound Matchups Universal—and Do They Last?
Among the more interesting results to come out of the field of research called gastrophysics is the discovery that what we taste can be influenced
What the Hell is Data-driven Cooking?
There is a lot of hype among some sectors of the food industry about data-driven cooking (aka computational gastronomy). It is the practice of using
Food’s Fragility is an Aesthetic Gift
Food is ephemeral. You taste it, and in moments—sometimes even before the thought of tasting registers—it vanishes, leaving only memory and an empty plate. Unlike
