Sarah Duignan

AnthroDish

A Food , Arts and Society & Culture podcast

About the show

AnthroDish is a podcast that explores the powerful relationships between between food, culture, and identity through the lens of anthropology. Hosted by anthropologist Dr. Sarah Duignan, each episode explores the stories behind what we eat and drink, reflecting larger social, political, and historical systems. Featuring conversations with chefs, scholars, writers, and food experts, each episode blends current issues with anthropological ideas to highlight how food shapes (and is shaped by) the world around us. AnthroDish invites you to look at food not only as nourishment, but as a window into our ever-shifting world.

Newest episodes

188: Decolonizing the Chai Story with Malav Naik

Nov 10, 2026 46 min

WATCH THE CHAI TUTORIAL HERE: https://youtu.be/QrdFSeDIpSk Today, my dear friend, Chai mistress and culinary history enthusiast Malav Naik, is here to talk about how chai is really a form of resistance in a cup. Malav dives into the rich, storied history of how Chai came to be, its customs, and the tea trading industry of the 16th century that shaped relationships between India and tea trading for centuries after. Malav explores tea taxations, indentured servitude and plantation labour by the British, and why it's important to learn how to make a good cup of Chai to avoid colonizing it twice (here's looking at you, unnamed corporate coffee chai). As a special extra bonus, Malav is also demonstrating how to make a perfect cup of Chai. Resources: Instagram: @the_khalnaik People can get in touch with Malav if they would like to organize the Chai Masterclass for their organization/workplace/birthday party. It's an interactive workshop that is just as suited for a bridal shower as it is for a corporate team building exercise, and it is customized by them for every occasion! Get in touch with Malav at malavnaik13@gmail.com. Corrections: Malav says at 13:35 that the Chinese were addicted to tea but what they meant to say is Opium. The East India Company caused an opium addiction epidemic in China. Malav mentions at 38:10 that the 2026 Delhi Jantar Mantar protests against Modi in India were the largest, but has clarified that they were actually one of the largest, with the largest likely being the farmer protests in 2020 to 2021. Here's a Wikipedia link of the protests. [This collaboration is part of an advertising campaign led by the Podpass agency for Canadian Reserve] Discover Canadian Reserve's premium Gouda range, available at major grocery stores across Canada 👉 https://bit.ly/canadianreserve-anthrodish

187: Reframing the Plate to Centre Plant-Based Dishes in Restaurants with Chef Ed Harris

Nov 3, 2026 35 min

There's a lot of misconceptions that persist about making the transition toward more plant-based eating, particularly when it comes to ideas around flavour and lifestyle and how to bring your kids into the journey. My guest this week, chef Ed Harris, is here to unpack some of these misconceptions, and provide some ideas to get people inspired. Hailing from the Caribbean island of St. Lucia, Ed credits his love for great cuisine to his Guyanese upbringing. His passion blossomed in his parent's kitchen, and ultimately was what drove him to New York City to pursue his career as a professional chef. He served in many roles ranging from executive chef, tournant, expediter, and saucier across some of the finest kitchens, like Jean George, Buddakan and River Cafe. Now with Atlanta as his home base, Chef Ed has launched a line of products through KnifeNSpoon and Flavour Bombe that include specialty spices, vegan recipes, breakfast foods, and cookbooks, in addition to a line of designer aprons. If he isn't crafting a new flavor fusion in the kitchen, at times he can be found behind the camera, as Ed has appeared on several food shows. He was the winner of Food Network's CHOPPED "Turbot Powered" competition and has been on "Beat Bobby Flay", "Chef Wanted" with Anne Burrell, and a few others. In today's conversation, we're exploring some of chef Ed's work as a consulting chef and the impact he has on shaping restaurant's menu designs to include more plant based and sustainable options – and some of the considerations within that, such as costing and value, how to reconsider the structure of a plate (like the conventional Western meat and potatoes) to create culturally rooted plant-based dishes where plants take centre stage, and the importance of bringing your kids into the kitchen when making vegetarian foods. Resources: Instagram: @chefedharris Tiktok: @chef.ed.harris Youtube: @ChefEdHarris Flavor Bomb KnifeNSpoon Links to the Mauril app & website : Download on iO...

186: Black Pudding Reveals Ireland's Hidden Food Histories with Kate Ryan

Oct 27, 2026 1 hr 0 min

This week we have a very special episode for you, as it's in collaboration with GUTS magazine helmed by Jake Mike Boy, and it's a discussion on reconnecting to the lost Irish recipes and tradition of black pudding making. I'm interview Kate Ryan, a multi-award-winning food writer and founder of Flavour.ie, which is a platform dedicated to championing Irish food and food culture. Originally from Bristol in South England, Kate moved to Ireland in 2005 and began writing about Irish food in 2011. She specializes in longform food features, with her writing regularly appearing for The Echo, BBC, Irish Examiner, and Business Post's Food and Wine Magazine (Ireland). Her writing has also appeared in Scoop Food Magazine, Vittles, TheTaste.ie, Irish Foodie Magazine, and more. Her new book, Blood, Guts, and Black Pudding: Ireland's Dying Art of Blood as Food, charts the complete history of Ireland's pudding tradition, from pre-Christian times to the modern era, celebrating the many ways that blood has been cooked, eaten, and enjoyed. For those interested in reading her book, Kate and her publishing team at Nine Bean Rows have generously given AnthroDish listeners a special discount code to purchase – use ANTHRODISH20 to receive 20% off Blood, Guts, and Black Pudding when you purchase directly from Nine Bean Rows. Resources: Kate's Book: Blood, Guts, and Black Pudding Flavour.ie Instagram: @flavour.ie Guts Magazine on Substack: https://gutsmagazine.substack.com/ Links to the Mauril app & website : Download on iOS | Download on Android | mauril.ca This collaboration is part of an advertising campaign managed by the agency Podpass for Mauril, developed by CBC/Radio-Canada.

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All episodes

188: Decolonizing the Chai Story with Malav Naik

Nov 10, 2026 46 min

187: Reframing the Plate to Centre Plant-Based Dishes in Restaurants with Chef Ed Harris

Nov 3, 2026 35 min

186: Black Pudding Reveals Ireland's Hidden Food Histories with Kate Ryan

Oct 27, 2026 1 hr 0 min

185: Preserving and Canning Isn't Just for Doomsday Bunkers with Julia Skinner

Oct 20, 2026 33 min

This week, Julia Skinner is back to talk about what shapes food security can take, beyond the academic metrics we're used to. Julia is a former librarian and Library Science PhD turned food historian and fermentation expert. She is the author of the award-winning book Our Fermented Lives: A History of How Fermented Foods Have Shapes Cultures & Communities. She also runs workshops, events, and a newsletter through Root, which was born from a deep love for community and a belief in the power of food to tell stories, connect us to place, and build a bridge to the past. She's on the show today to talk about some of the themes in her new cookbook, Essential Food Preserving: The Comprehensive Guide to Canning, Freezing, Drying, and Fermenting Vegetables, Fruits, Grains, Nuts, Beans, Meat, Dairy, and Eggs. In today's conversation, we explore the differences between fermentation and preserving, the ways that people with limited kitchen space or budget can integrate food preservation into their routines, why practices such as canning fell out of favour after WWII, and why we need to stop thinking about food preservation as a doomsday bunker strategy, but rather a practice of community. Resources: Website: https://root-kitchens.com/ Julia's Book: Essential Food Preserving Instagram: @rootkitchens or @bookishjulia Substack Newsletter: Root Kitchens Links to the Mauril app & website : Download on iOS | Download on Android | mauril.ca This collaboration is part of an advertising campaign managed by the agency Podpass for Mauril, developed by CBC/Radio-Canada.

184: How Ghanaian Plant-Based Cooking Resists Western Categorization with Afia Amoako

Oct 13, 2026 46 min

When looking at a cookbook, how often do you stop to consider its structure, language, and cultural influences when thinking about how the narrative of recipes is presented? It's easy to overlook how powerful the overarching Western perspectives are in shaping cookbook storytelling, thinking though sections focused on breakfast, lunch, snack, dinner, and then dessert. But for many cultures, that's not as relevant or applicable to their culinary heritages. My guest this week, Afia Amoako, unpacks some of these overlooked considerations in conversation today. Afia runs Eat with Afia (@eatwithafia), a social media platform where she highlights Ghanaian food through culture, history, and tradition. With her platform, Afia tries to underscore the diversity of culinary traditions as a product of centuries of meticulous food science, agriculture, and understanding of the land. Outside of her blog, Afia Amoako earned her doctorate in Epidemiology and is passionate about the social context of health. She recently released her first cookbook, Eat with Afia: A Celebration of Plant-Based Ghanaian Cooking, which is as gorgeous as it is comprehensive and rigorous. In today's conversation, Afia explores how she maintained her cultural roots with Ghanaian cuisines during her transition to plant-based eating, the importance of highlighting diverse and indigenous Ghanaian plant-based foods, the role of fermentation in Ghanaian cooking extending beyond a preservation method, and how she navigated the Western notions of categorization in cookbook development that do not fit the diverse Ghanaian modes of eating. Resources: Instagram: @eatwithafia Cookbook: Eat with Afia Newsletter: https://eatwithafia.substack.com/ Website: https://eatwithafia.com/ Mauril links to the app & website : Download on iOS | Download on Android | mauril.ca This collaboration is part of an advertising campaign managed by the agency Podpass for Mauril, developed by CBC/Radio-Canada.

183: How MAHA Testosterone Supplement Shilajit Plays into Masculine Wellness Myths with Adam Popescu

Oct 6, 2026 37 min

Wellness as both a culture and industry tend to visually skew more feminine—or at least the critiques and cultural assessments of it do. In some ways, this also leads to a superficial exploration of why people feel compelled to choose wellness alternatives, be it supplements or injections or beauty products. But there's more nuance needed, especially given how wellness influencers and media advocating for masculinity through magical, mystical, foreign products. What exactly goes into these cure-alls, and what consequences does it have globally? My guest today, Adam Popescu, explores these themes through his reporting and writing. Adam is a journalist and author who writes about power and our changing world, often exploring the impacts of business on biodiversity, and commerce on culture and climate. He's here today to unpack some of the fascinating work he did for Bloomberg Business on shilajit, a supplement that has recently been favourited by the likes of MAHA proponents and Joe Rogan, but its sourcing has become contentious for many reasons. In today's conversation, Adam talks about the traditional uses of shilajit, and how its been commodified to fit the wellness industry, explores the dynamic between power and masculinity and how it plays out in wellness superfoods, the issues surrounding sourcing shilajit from the Himalayas and what the end products in the West get cut with, and the complexities of whether or not shilajit can be sustainably sourced. Resources: Adam's article in Bloomberg Business on shilajit Adam's website: https://www.adampopescu.com/ Adam is leading a wildlife writing retreat next May in the Indian Himalayas with the writers Deepa Anappara, Jonathan Miles, and Kullu Suryawanshi. Basic setup is half the day we look for wildlife and the other half is writing focused with lessons covering fiction, non-fiction and memoir and nature writing. Email him for more here: Adampopescu@gmail.com

182: Depression Cooking Under Capitalism with Sonali Menezes

Sep 29, 2026 34 min

Scroll through social media these days, and you can easily get hit with a wave of overwhelming expectations around what you should be eating, how much you should be eating, how meals should be plated and styled perfectly for internet audiences, all while trying to make a living and stay afloat. But what happens if we pause from these narratives, and reframe our cooking experiences? Today's guest, Sonali Menezes, explores just that with me today. Sonali is an artist, zinester, and writer. She lives in Hamilton, Ontario with her husband, cat, and houseplants. She loves food, and eats it every day in celebration. Her first book, Depression Cooking: Feeding Yourself When It All Feels Too Hard, is out officially as of today through ECW Press. In today's conversation, Sonali explores what it means to depression cook and how she structures her recipes to maintain accessibility for those navigating mental health, disabilities, and challenging phases of life, how messages around appetite and hunger in her younger years living in Scarborough and North York informed her anti-diet and approachable writing and recipe-crafting, how the art world she came up in understands eating (or not eating) and its relationship to her illustrations, and establishing gentler relationships with eating and cooking. Resources: Instagram: @sonaleeeeeee Depression Cooking book

181: What Can Vegetables Teach Us About the Future? with Ali Francis

Sep 22, 2026 36 min

Industrialization has undoubtedly and profoundly shifted our relationship with food globally, and it can be hard to remember the work being done outside of commercialized growing to remain connected to the land through vegetables. What stories are held in the diversity of vegetable species across the globe? Today's guest, Ali Francis, is here to explore their fascinating and curious lives! Ali is an Australian-born journalist and former Bon Appétit reporter living in Salt Lake City, Utah. Her work has appeared in The Atlantic, The Cut, BBC, The Guardian, TASTE, and other publications. She's the co-founder of Best Food Blog, a journalist-owned publication about eating. Ali also writes Anyway!, a newsletter about building meaningful lives in these bizarre modern times. Her first book, The Curious Lives of Vegetables: An Artful Exploration of the Wonderful World of Edible Plants, Their History, and Their Crucial Role in Our Future is out now, and is a wild quest to uncover the stories we don't usually hear about plants. In today's conversation, Ali touches on how her and the book's artist Adriana Picker tackled such an immense and robust task of sharing plant narratives through writing and gorgeous illustrations, what factors have contributed to the declining biodiversity of vegetables in the world, how colonial naming conventions shaped our relationship to vegetable varieties, and the important role that seed savers play in building more vibrant, flavourful futures. Resources: Ali's Website The Curious Lives of Vegetables Anyway! Newsletter Best Food Blog Instagram: @alifrancis.me

180: Season 11 Launch [Solo Episode]

Sep 15, 2026 9 min

As we start up season 11 of the podcast, I wanted to share some life and technological updates, as well as what you can expect of this season. We're in a landscape where the steakhouse is back, big meat, wellness, and Ozempic are in, there's recalls abounding across America that are spiralling into Canada for lettuce and berries and jalapenos and eggs. I'm frustrated about the state of global food systems, and the imperialist and fascist leadership that is swiftly impacting everyday lives. My focus this season is to look at what's going wrong, how it's impacting everyday people, and also how different cultures and experiences across the world are grappling with these imperialist changes. Maybe it feels as heavy to you as it does to me. Maybe it feels like it's too much. But it iss underpinning my decisions about which guests to have on this season. Fight fire with really great people doing really important, practical work. We've got a new look, a powerful line up of guests, and a really fruitful series of conversations for you! Follow Sarah/AnthroDish: Website: https://www.anthrodish.com/ Substack: https://sarahduignan.substack.com/ Instagram: @anthrodishpodcast TikTok: @anthrodish Sarah's New TV Show, Mysteries of Ancient Medicine

179: Looking at How We Eat to Understand Power & Social Movements with Amber Husain

Apr 28, 2026 31 min

When it comes to talking about food, we often to choose to look at what people are eating rather than how. And it's this distinction that today's guest, Amber Husain, explores more fully in her new book, Tell Me How You Eat: Food, Power and the Will to Live. Amber is a writer based in South London, UK. In addition to Tell Me How You Eat, she has also written Meat Love and Replace Me. Her essays on politics, literature, and art have been published in Granta, The New York Times, Baffler, and more. She has a PhD from UCL in the history of art and mind-body medicine in the late 20th-century Britain. She teaches history of art, creative writing, and criticism. In today's conversation, Amber explores some of the ways that appetites can be re-examined, and challenge persistent tropes of eating that narrow down to individual choices. Using socialist and feminist lenses, she speaks to food movements and moments in history that have revealed reasons to eat and live, and the empowerment that comes from using food as a question rather than an answer. Resources: Book: Tell Me How You Eat: Food, Power and the Will to Live Amber's Website: https://amberhusain.com/ Instagram: @amberhusa1n

178: What Makes for "Good Food" for Immigrant Women in British Columbia? with Isabela Bonnevera

Apr 21, 2026 38 min

Sustainability is a word you hear a lot, but it tends to go uncritically examined in application. So what can it encompass when it comes to food experiences, particularly for immigrants and newcomers to Canada? My guest this week, Isabela Bonnevera, is here to unpack this further. Isabela is currently a doctoral researcher at ICTA-UAB and engages with participatory methods to explore how immigrants are shaping sustainable food transitions in cities. She also examines how sustainable food policies impact food justice outcomes for immigrant communities. She's the co-founder of Feminist Food Journal, and we work together on Feminist Food Friend events as well. This week, Isabela is here to explore the more participatory elements to her research. Using a method called photovoice, she has worked with a group of immigrant women in the Vancouver area to dig into the question of what makes food sustainable—or more accurately, what is "good food" and what does sustainable really look like when the word doesn't always translate into diverse cultural experiences with food? We speak to how this bottom-up approach ties into the broader policy frameworks, the findings of their photovoice explorations, and its implications for filling policy gaps. Resources: LinkedIn Good Food Document and Videos Feminist Food Journal Previous AnthroDish episode!

177: How Can Appetites Be Shaped for the Future? with Alicia Kennedy

Apr 14, 2026 35 min

When it comes to thinking about the future of food, is it possible to re-imagine our individual and collective appetites around what we want it to be? Taste is subjective, sure, but it's also deeply embedded in the land, histories, politics, and sociocultural dynamics we navigate throughout our lives. And as my guest this week, Alicia Kennedy, writes, our tastes are also shaped by how we value (or don't value) ingredients and their own histories. Alicia is a writer from Long Island. She is the author of No Meat Required: The Cultural History and Culinary Future of Plant-Based Eating, and On Eating: The Making and Unmaking of My Appetites, which is out officially as of today through Hachette. Her newsletter, From the Desk, covers food, culture, politics, and media, and she is launching Tomato Tomato, a literary journal of food writing, in 2026. Alicia is back on the show today to speak about On Eating, exploring the process of weaving the personal and cultural histories of ingredients through her chapters, the interrogation of early appetites and their influence on her food writing, the dynamics of feminine appetites in food media, and the importance of properly considering the labour of growing and producing food as a way to unpack Western appetites. Resources: Book: On Eating: The Making and Unmaking of My Appetites From the Desk newsletter Website Tomato Tomato magazine Instagram: @aliciadkennedy

176: The Forgotten History of Wheat in North Texas with Rebecca Sharpless

Apr 7, 2026 35 min

When thinking about the food and agricultural landscape of Texas, the mind immediately goes to cattle, corn, and cotton—certainly not wheat. But as my guest this week, Dr. Rebecca Sharpless, shares, the region of North Texas had a robust wheat culture from the 1840s until the post-World War Two period. So what made North Texas a great place for wheat? And what are the implications of wheat as culture and cultivator? Rebecca is here today to talk about her new book, People of the Wheat: Culture and Cultivation in North Texas, out now through Univeristy of Texas Press. She is a professor of history at Texas Christian University, and writes on food, labour, and women. She is also the author of Fertile Ground, Narrow Choices: Women on Texas Cotton Farms, Cooking in Other Women's Kitchens: Domestic Workers in the South, and Grain and Fire: A History of Baking in the American South. In today's conversation, we're exploring the forgotten history of wheat harvesting in North Texas, including how it complicates the story of plantation economies and enslavement histories in the south, the profound impact of mechanization on milling and distributing wheat, and the post-war influences that led to wheat's decline, despite having lasting cultural importance for Western appetites and baking. Resources: People of the Wheat book Rebecca's university website

175: Food, Value, and Heritage in Singapore's Hawker Centres with TW Lim

Mar 31, 2026 33 min

My guest today, TW Lim, is here to explore how nation food constructions have played out in Singapore through the hawker centres the country is known for. TW writes on the relationships between politics, history, and culture and how they have shaped eating habits in Singapore. By day, he writes about technology, but he also writes about food and value, or the "regard that something is held to deserve; the importance, worth, or usefulness of something." While known to many other countries as a "food paradise" over the last 50 years, TW unpacks how Singaporean food worth and value is decided upon in a country where is food identity. In his new book, Little Perfections: Eating in Singapore, he looks at the development of hawker centres, home kitchens, and restaurants of Singapore that gets at the culture and business of food in Singapore. In today's conversation, we look at the early government policy of Singapore and its lasting impact on the development and maintenance of hawker centres, grappling with notions of authenticity as economic and cultural values around food and eating shift through time, labour and wages for multi-generational hawker workers, and how Singapore as a food paradise holds up a mirror to the food habits of USA and Asia. Resources: Website: https://humblescrivener.com/ Newsletter: Let Them Eat Cake

174: The History and Symbolism of Canada's Maple Syrup Production with Peter Kuitenbrouwer

Mar 24, 2026 39 min

My guest this week, Peter Kuitenbrouwer, is here to share some of the ways that our relationship with maple syrup is linked to culture, religion, and land in Canada. Peter is the author of the recent book, Maple Syrup: A Short History of Canada's Sweetest Obsession. Peter grew up on a farm in Quebec, with his career as a journalist taking him to jobs in Montreal, Ottawa, Mexico City, New York, and Toronto. Among other adventures, he covered the Oka Crisis in Quebec, crossed the Atlantic on a container ship, sailed the Great Lakes on a bulk grain carrier, and was detained by guerillas in the forests of Chiapas, Mexico. In 2021, he became a Registered Professional Forester. He presently works as a journalist, teacher, and forester. His family makes maple syrup in their sugar bush in Madoc, Ontario. Today, Peter speaks to some of the important foundations in appreciating the history of maple syrup, including historical and contemporary Indigenous maple-syrup making practices, the specific cultural and religious elements that made Quebec the largest producer of maple syrup in the world, what the "maple syrup mafia" really is, the impacts of technology and climate change on flavour, and more. Resources: Maple Syrup: A Short History of Canada's Sweetest Obsession Peter's Website

173: Bringing Caribbean Flavours to European Fine-Dining Menus with Chef India Doris

Mar 17, 2026 29 min

When heard about the work that chef India Doris is doing with her new restaurant, Markette, in bringing Caribbean heritage and flavours to European-style fine dining, I was delighted to have the chance to speak with her. India is the co-owner and Executive Chef at Markette, which is a modern European restaurant based in Chelsea, New York, along with The Argyle, a cocktail lounge located directly below the restaurant. This past fall, she was awarded the Young Chef Award at the 2025 Northeast Michelin ceremony. Originally from London, India has lived and cooked throughout Europe at acclaimed restaurants in Spain, France, and the UK, such as London's La Trompette and Bibendum at the Michelin House, in addition to time spent studying butchery in Scotland. Upon settling in New York City over ten years ago, India worked as Chef de Partie at The NoMad before joining renowned, late Chef James Kent at his debut restaurant, NYC's MICHELIN-starred Crown Shy, and later rising to Executive Sous Chef at sister concept, two MICHELIN-starred SAGA. At Markette, India's seasonally-rotating menu is heavily inspired by her time spent in Europe and upbringing in the UK, as well as by her Caribbean heritage – showcasing her creative, yet timeless point of view. India has accomplished so much, and it's clear in chatting with her that this is only the beginning. In today's conversation, we explore her early days in the culinary world and its lasting influence on how she approaches her work, the ways she navigates fine dining culture in her Markette menu by infusing autobiographical elements into dishes that reflect Caribbean culture, flavours, and histories, and how she built a sustainable environment for her staff through a respect-first approach to the kitchen. Resources: Markette Website: https://www.marketterestaurant.com/ Instagram: @marketterestaurant and @indiadoris

172: Learning to Cook in Front of the Entire Internet with Jamie Tracey

Mar 10, 2026 29 min

For anyone that grew up without a strong sense of connection to cooking or eating cultural foods, it can be daunting to get into the kitchen and make your own relationship with food. But for today's guest, Jamie Tracey, that lack of relationship was enough incentive to try an honest approach to building something that would last. Jamie is a self-taught creator and Canadian cook that created Anti-Chef, a culinary experiment that plays out in real time on his YouTube series. It captures the good, bad, chaos, and triumph that comes with learning and loving to cook. With more than half a million subscribers, Anti-Chef follows Jamie as he dives headfirst into the hilarious, messy, and human side of trying something new. From Julia Child's most intimidating recipes to Michelin-level masterpieces and celebrity "cage matches," Jamie takes his audience along for the ride—mistakes, meltdowns, and all. In today's conversation, Jamie discusses what food disconnects can look like, how he leveraged his film background and lack of cooking skills to create his heartfelt and entertaining YouTube series, the Canadian food culture and its impact on shaping how he thought about food and eating in the 90s, the process of self-taught cooking and its impact when you have an audience watching your highs and lows, and the lessons he's learned from cooking through Julia Child recipes for the show. Resources: ANTI-CHEF on YouTube Instagram: @antichefjamie TikTok: @antichef

171: Breaking Down the Myth of a Singular Caribbean Foodway with Chef Leigh-Ann Martin

Mar 3, 2026 47 min

When it comes to Caribbean food, there tends to be a viewpoint that it can be a monolithic culinary experience. And particularly as those living in countries like Jamaica, Cuba, Trinidad and Tobago, Bahamas, or other Caribbean countries move in the diaspora, it necessitates a nuanced look at how culinary traditions and knowledges are shared, shifted, and expanded with new generations. My guest today, chef Leigh-Ann Martin, reminds us that there is such a rich regional diversity and abundance that needs to be explored more fully. Leigh-Ann is a trained chef, thought leader, and senior administrative professional based in the New York City area. She has worked at top finance and accounting firms, and continues her corporate career while consulting on the coursework for the No Words Project, or being featured in food media such as The New York Times, Eater, Washington Post, Food Insider, Vittles, and A Hungry Society podcast. Leigh-Ann has contributed meaningful words that echo Caribbean abundance and delicious recipes for While Entertaining, Ark Republic, Cooking Sense, and Tenderly Magazine. She worked as a line cook at Butter Restaurant and the Darby Supper Club upon her graduation from culinary school, and launched A Table For Four in 2018. This pop-up is an intimate dinner series that merges her Trini upbringing with her culinary training. Most recently, Leigh-Ann was invited to lead a workshop at the World of Flavors International Conference and Festival hosted by the Culinary Institute of America in Napa Valley, CA. and has served on the board of Kind Kitchen Group, which aims to drive social change through food, education, and community empowerment. In today's conversation, we explore her upbringing in Trinidad and its lasting influences on how she thinks about ingredient sourcing and culinary experiences, the navigation of personal and collective histories in creating tasting menus, and breaking down the myth of a singular Caribbean culinary foodway. I've...

170: Ingredients for Building a Community Through a Cottage Bakery with Teresa Finney

Feb 24, 2026 41 min

What does it take to make the most out of the internet when you're building a micro or cottage bakery? My guest today, Teresa Finney, is here to explore this through her journey building At Heart Panadería. Teresa is a pastry chef and writer from the Bay Area in California, with family roots in Guadalajara, Mexico. Now based in Atlanta, Georgia, she runs At Heart Panadería, a contemporary Mexican bakery. She is also the author of Panadería: A Cookbook Zine, which contains five thoughtfully crafted original recipes from her cottage bakery. In today's discussion, we explore how she began her cottage bakery in her at-home kitchen, the shifting relationship with the internet to spread the word of her new bakes, the importance of sourcing seasonal and local ingredients, the relationship between baking and the body, and the role she sees bakers playing in serving their communities. Resources: Teresa's Website At Heart Panadería Newsletter Cookbook Zine Instagram: @atheartpanaderia

169: Do Food Justice Movements Understand Community Needs? with Dr. Hanna Garth

Feb 17, 2026 44 min

My guest this week, Dr. Hanna Garth, is here to speak to how food justice movements are affected by long-term misconceptions and assumptions about the communities they work with. Hanna is a sociocultural and medical anthropologist, and Assistant Professor of Anthropology at Princeton University, who studies food access and the global food system. Drawing on 15 years of research on the food justice movement in South Central Los Angeles, her second book Food Justice Undone: Lessons for Building a Better Movement is out now with the University of California Press. In today's conversation, we're discussing some of the central themes in her latest book, Food Justice Undone, such as the roles of liberalism and whiteness in maintaining power structures and dynamics in food justice movements, the racialized differences in food justice work, and the power of language, statistics, and small moments in shaping the landscape and politics of food movements. Resources: Hanna's Website: http://www.hannagarth.com/ Instagram: @hgarth Book: Food Justice Undone

168: What is the Relationship Between Nutrition and Intuition? with Stephanie Voytek

Feb 10, 2026 31 min

My guest this week, Stephanie Voytek, is a registered dietician here to walk through some of the key issues around nutrition and anxiety in our current social media landscape. She has with a range of experience working in the field of nutrition, from providing education to the community through food access programs, working in the fields and kitchens on farms, and counseling folks with eating disorders. Her range of work experience allows her to understand people, and find the entry point for nutrition-related behavior change in each community and individual. Her work emphasizes pleasure as central to nutrition education, replacing nutrition prescription with food connection as a central intervention. In today's conversation, we're diving further into the idea of pleasure and intuition as it relates to nutrition. These are terms that can get thrown around a bit willy-nilly in wellness spheres, but as Stephanie points out, there's actually a lot of scientific and evolutionary value in these concepts as they relate to our appetites and eating behaviours. We also speak to the significant impact that industrialized and post-WWII era food systems have had on our modern reckonings with food, and she provides tips on finding a supportive and good match when you're looking for a dietician service provider. Resources: Stephanie's Newsletter, A Spoonful of Stories

167: Rethinking Cultural Food Security in UK School Systems with Sarah Oresnik

Feb 3, 2026 38 min

My guest today, Sarah Oresnik, is a PhD candidate in the Department of Anthropology at McMaster University. Their research interests centre around food insecurity and its impact on our health and wellbeing. Within their PhD, their focus is on how youth navigate food insecurity, looking at youth experiences in Southampton, UK. Sarah grew up in the kitchen learning recipes from their parents and grandparents, which has translated to their continued investigations and reflections on their own food environment. In our conversation, Sarah shares about their current research working with teens in the UK to explore the merits and challenges of their school nutrition programs. They highlight the limitations of daily food allowances and electronic payment options, the impacts that food insecurity and cultural experiences have on shaping food preferences and values, and does a brilliant deep dive challenge the very idea of what "cultural foods" can be for teens in diasporic communities. Resources: Email: oresniks@mcmaster.ca Open access paper: A syndemic perspective on food insecurity, gestational diabetes, and mental health disorders during pregnancy in Social Science & Medicine

166: How Daily Bread is Tackling Toronto's Food Insecurity Crisis with Mike Greenberg

Jan 27, 2026 29 min

Here in Canada, we have a food security crisis—and a cost-of-living crisis. While there are many, many factors that are shaping this continued issue across the country, one of the challenges of navigating food insecurity here is that we rely primarily on non-profit food banks to support those in need. One non-profit food organization in Toronto, Daily Bread, is on a mission to eliminate food insecurity and advocate for solutions to end poverty. Daily Bread prepares over 250,000 meals annually, including more than 43,000 heat-and-eat meals delivered through the Red Cross Mobile Food bank to individuals facing barriers like mobility challenges, inadequate housing, or mental health conditions that make traditional food access difficult. In 2024, Toronto food bank visits hit an all time high of 4.1 million, and Toronto declared a state of emergency about food insecurity. In response, Daily Bread has seen their visits increase, with their Food Services Manager Michael Greenberg overseeing a kitchen that produced more than 270,000 meals between 2024-2025. Mike is on the show today to speak about the work he and his team do at Daily Bread to ensure that their food bank kitchen can logistically maintain itself with such high demands, the nutritional and social impact of food insecurity for clients who cannot prepare their own meals, and the vital role food banks play in advancing equity and dignity in food access. Resources: Daily Bread website Who's Hungry Report 2025 Instagram: @dailybreadto

165: Terroir, Taste, and Wine Pairing for the People with Cha McCoy

Jan 20, 2026 50 min

To kickstart the second half of AnthroDish season 10, we're shifting to a topic I generally feel very intimidated by: wine. But, as my guest Cha McCoy reveals this week, there is a lot to unearth in making sense of why wine feels intimidating or harder to access. Cha is an entrepreneur, educator, and event producer. As a certified sommelier, she developed The Communion, a wine dinner series that offers an inviting, accessible approach to gathering and enjoying wine. This experience inspired her to open her first brick-and-mortar store, The Communion Wine & Spirits. Today, Cha talks about her new book, Wine Pairing for the People: The Communion of Wine, Food, and Culture from Africa and Beyond. This book is unique in how it approaches the concepts of terroir, and the pairing ideology of what grows together goes together. Cha expands wine pairings, where traditional foods and cuisines from Africa, Asia, and the Americas are given pairings of wines that celebrate heat, tang, spice. In our conversation, Cha shares her refreshing approach to terroir for regions of the world that aren't known for their grape wines, and describes how certain taste preferences are shaped, what flavours are valued or looked over under colonial approaches to wine pairings. Resources: Book: Wine Pairing for the People Cha's Website Instagram: @chasquared LinkedIn: Cha McCoy

164: Embracing Seasonality in Edomae-Style Sushi with Chef Cheng Lin

Dec 16, 2025 28 min

Edomae sushi is an Edo style of sushi making that underscores marinating, curing, and aging techniques. Within that, there is one chef, Cheng Lin, standing out for his attention not only to these techniques, but bringing an emphasis on seasonality and sourcing of ingredients. Born and raised in Fujian, China, chef Cheng Lin began his culinary career in 1997 when he moved to New York City and worked in restaurants such as Hatsuhana, Sushi Seki, and Blue Ribbon. Continuously looking to refine his skills at trailblazing culinary concepts, he eventually joined Chef Masa Ito and Kevin Kim at ITO Tribeca. Chef Cheng Lin was captivated by the comic "Shota No Sushi," a tale of a boy whose passion for sushi mirrored his own, and dreamt of creating a haven for sushi enthusiasts that he would call Shōta. Now, over two decades later, Chef Cheng Lin helms Shōta Omakase in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, and it is the culmination of his near 30-year commitment to perfecting the art of sushi making. Combining traditional Edomae-style sushi with modern flair, and a painstaking dedication to sourcing the highest quality ingredients, Chef Cheng Lin shares his love through attention to detail, refined technique, and unmatched flavor. In today's conversation, we explore his commitment to sourcing ingredients that honour the traditional techniques used in Edomae-style sushi, considerations of seasonality when selecting which fish to incorporate on the menu, and how Cheng and his staff have adjusted to their dining services in the wake of receiving a Michelin star within one year of opening. Resources: Shōta Omakase Restaurant Website Instagram: @shotaomakase Chef Cheng's Instagram: @sushi.chef.cheng.lin

163: How Community Supported Fisheries Promote Sustainable Seafood with Sonia Strobel

Dec 9, 2025 32 min

My guest today, Sonia Strobel, is here to explore the idea of community-supported fisheries. Sonia is co-founder and CEO of Skipper Otto, a Community Supported Fishery based in Vancouver, BC, Canada. Through her innovative, sustainable seafood subscription model, members pre-purchase a share in the catch before the fishing season. This unique partnership between fishers and consumers guarantees harvesters a fair price for their catch, protects a traditional way of life in BC's coastal and Indigenous fishing communities, and disrupts a seafood system fraught with social and environmental injustice. Skipper Otto is a certified B Corp and certified Living Wage employer. They educate consumers about important issues in fisheries and the value of eating with the ecosystem while advocating for just policy reform. Today, we discuss these vital themes, and Sonia shares stories from her own family's fishery as well as the additional challenges faced by Indigenous-owned fisheries in Canada. We speak about some of the main challenges facing the seafood industry in Canada amidst climate change and American tariffs, how Skipper Otto is navigating these challenges to support their fishing families, the proactive measures they are taking to increase transparency and build more sustainable fishery management, and considerations that the public should bring with them the next time they're seeking out fish foods for dinner. Resources: Skipper Otto Website Instagram: @skipperotto

162: Behind the Rise of Non-Alcoholic Drinks with Ren Navarro

Dec 2, 2025 42 min

Why are we seeing such a boom in non-alcoholic drink options, and how do they stand out from wellness beverages as their own specific category? I invited my dear friend Ren Navarro back to AnthroDish to explore these trends in the beverage industry. Ren is a culture consultant, drinks expert, and founder of B. Diversity Group. With over 20 years of experience in corporate management and over a dozen years in the beer industry, she's helped everyone from family-run breweries to multinational brands build spaces people want to be a part of. What started as honest conversations over pints has evolved into company-wide transformations: policy audits, inclusive hiring systems, value statement creations, and real community engagement across industries. Whether she's teaching, advising, or helping revamp policies, her mission stays the same—build cultures that reflect the values people say they believe in. She loves tattoos, goats, and gives pretty good hugs. Today, Ren and I explore some of the experiences, tastes, and forms that non-alcoholic beverages are taking, what hop water is, and why these non-alcoholic options offer much more inclusive and diverse experiences than their wellness counterparts. Resources: Website: https://bdiversitygroup.com/ Instagram: @bdiversitygroup Previous episodes: On Craft Beer's Diversity Problem Creating Safer Communities for Breweris and Vulnerable Neighbours Beer (and Everyone) Still Has a Diversity Problem

161: Are Our Fridges Designed for Food Waste? with Emma Atkins

Nov 25, 2025 31 min

My guest this week, Emma Atkins, is here to explore the role that refrigeration has played in our food waste. Emma is a PhD researcher at the University of Bristol in the UK. Her research looks at how fridges influence food waste, whether through design or its place in a food system geared towards overconsumption. She has a background in policy and advocacy, and recently wrote two reports tackling policy solutions for food waste and quality of food donations with Foodrise, which is a UK and EU-based NGO. Her website Food Waste Stories features articles about food waste in art, culture, policy, and academia, and advocates for a sustainable food system. In today's conversation, I speak with Emma about how fridges have evolved from earliest 1920s designs to become embedded in our modern food culture, the relationship between fridges and Costco hauls, the extreme fridge organization trends on TikTok, and the possibilities of more sustainably-minded fridge designs to reduce food waste in the future. Resources: Food Waste Stories website Instagram: @foodwaste_emma Policy Document: Used By - How businesses dump their food waste on charities Policy Document: Actions to End Food Waste

160: Exploring Nigerian Culinary Histories through Recipes with Ozoz Sokoh

Nov 18, 2025 42 min

In Nigeria, the word chop is used for food and feasting, and to say "come chop" is an invitation into sharing and community. This is precisely how Ozoz Sokoh's debut cookbook, Chop Chop: Cooking the Food of Nigeria begins. It is warm, inviting, and open to all those who are interested in learning about Nigerian cuisine, and the role of home cooks in creating the most beloved classic Nigerian dishes. Ozoz herself is a food explorer, educator, and traveler by plate. She is a professor of Food and Tourism Studies at Centennial College, and makes her home with her three teenage children in Mississauga, part of the Treaty Lands and Territory of the Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation in Ontario, Canada. Her work documents and celebrates Nigerian and West African cuisine, and she is particularly fascinated by all the ways we're similar. Be it through dishes, drinks, material culture or more, Ozoz explores these across geographies, cultures, and histories, in spite of our apparent differences. In today's conversation, we explore a wide range of the history and future of Nigerian cuisine, including the stories of how ingredients came to be in Nigerian dishes, the homegrown love of protein (and why it's not the relationship to protein you'd expect in a Western lens), and how Ozoz approaches exploring the histories of recipes and cuisine across Nigeria. Resources: Ozoz's Website Kitchen Butterfly Blog Instagram: @kitchenbutterfly Feast Afrique Website TikTok: @ozozsokoh

159: What Could a Just Food System Really Look Like? with Dr. Bryan Dale

Nov 11, 2025 31 min

My guest today, Dr. Bryan Dale, is here to explore these nuances. Bryan is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Environment, Agriculture, and Geography at Bishop's University. His research interests include food sovereignty, agroecology, climate change, environmental justice, social movements, and alternative economic initiatives (especially in food and farming). He completed a postdoctoral fellowship with the Culinaria Research Centre at the University of Toronto Scarborough, and a PhD and MA in Human Geography with a specialization in Environmental Studies at the University of Toronto's Department of Geography & Planning. He has a new paper out in Canadian Food Studies on consumers' roles in a just food system transition, going beyond individualistic or household behaviours to explore the broader frameworks required to achieve these goals in post-capitalistic food systems. These observations are based on his research and interviews with farmers and alternative food organizations in Ontario and Québec. Today, we explore these ideas, the tensions between farmers and consumers, and the role of state interventions in these food system potentials. Resources: Bryan's Website Article on Just Food Systems via CFS

158: Honouring Asian Ingredients in Cookie Baking with Kat Lieu

Nov 4, 2025 26 min

My guest today, Kat Lieu, is a Vietnamese-Chinese cookbook author, and here to share more about how she's challenging this through her new cookbook, 108 Asian Cookies: Not-too-Sweet Treats from a Third Culture Kitchen. Kat is the founder of the popular online community, Subtle Asian Baking, and is the author of best-selling cookbook, Modern Asian Baking at Home as well as two others. Kat brings a third culture approach to Asian baking, baking and cooking by blending Asian ingredients with Western techniques. She also is an activist, donating her cakes and cookies to various events in Seatle, and raising thousands of dollars for charities and causes important to her. This year alone, she raised $10k for charity selling cookies through Instagram stories. In today's episode, Kat shares how she approached 108 Asian Cookies as a cookbook that breaks down barriers being the first Asian-themed cookie cookbook. The cookbook incorporates savory ingredients and playful, incorporating matcha, black sesame cookies, pandan, ube, as well as more savoury and spicy cookies that feature fish sauce, MSG, miso, soy sauce, and Gochujang. Our conversation looks at how Kat has found healing through baking during challenging life moments, how her third culture identity infuses creativity into her kitchen experience, and the importance of challenging misrepresentation of Asian ingredients through a celebration of their culinary adaptations in cookies and the global community this shapes. Resources: Buy 108 Asian Cookies Kat's Website: Modern Asian Baking Private Facebook Group: Subtle Asian Baking Substack: https://katlieu.substack.com/ Threads: @katlieu Instagram: @katlieu

157: Preserving Palestinian Cuisine During Genocide with Lama Obeid

Oct 28, 2025 44 min

As this episode airs, it has been just over two years of Israel's ongoing genocide in Gaza. Tens of thousands of Palestinian people have been killed, and entire cities have been reduced to rubble. And with this, there is a slow and brutal erasure of the rich histories of Palestinian gastronomy. My guest today, Lama Obeid, is here to explore the state of Palestinian food culture and the impact of the genocide on how people eat and break bread. Lama is a Palestinian writer residing in Palestine, with her writing focused on gastronomy, politics, culture, and travel. Lama's food writing before the genocide speaks to the vibrancy and communal nature of Palestinian cooking and hospitality, though she has since shifted to document the impact of the genocide, and speak to other Palestinian chefs, activists, and cookbook authors through her podcast and newsletter I Come From There. In today's conversation, we talk about the role that hospitality has played in Palestinian cooking and eating, the ways that preservation of food and recipes is maintained as resistance by Palestinians at home and in the diaspora, andhow the genocide has affected traditions around bread baking and eating, and how to look out for Palestinian food being appropriated by Zionist and Western attempts to make it vague and just Middle Eastern. Resources: I Come From There newsletter by Lama Other writing by Lama: https://www.newarab.com/author/72243/lama-obeid

156: Cooking through the Silk Roads with Anna Ansari

Oct 21, 2025 42 min

If you grew up in the Western world, it's entirely possible you've heard of a singular Silk Road used for trade between two major entities, Europe and China. And maaaybe Marco Polo. But the reality is so much more deeply textured and layered with transitions of food, spices, ideas, and cultures along along a wide array of travel and trading routes across Asia. My guest this week, Anna Ansari, speaks to this through her new cookbook-cum-memoir Silk Roads: A Flavour Odyssey with Recipes from Baku to Beijing. In this thoughtful and rich cookbook, Anna celebrates her Iranian-American heritage with the world's most storied trade routes through 90 recipes and essays. Anna is an Iranian-American writer, cook, and former international trade lawyer whose work explores the intersections of food, family, and history. Her work as appeared in Pit Magazine, Eaten, and Fillerzine. She lives in London with her husband, son, and cat. In today's conversation, Anna talks about her own journey into writing Silk Roads and researching culinary narratives across Asian trade routes, the expansive history of food and ideas travelling along the Silk Roads, and why the apple isn't so quintessentially American as people would think. Learn More From Anna! Buy her book, Silk Roads Website Instagram: @thisplacetastesdelicious Substack Newsletter: Where in the World is Anna Ansari

155: Queers at the Table with Dr. Alex Ketchum and Dr. Megan Elias

Oct 14, 2025 32 min

What makes food queer? Is it possible to name and list it out as simple, clearcut elements? In their new co-edited volume, Queers at the Table, Drs. Alex Ketchum and Megan Elias explore this question with a community of writers, illustrators, and recipe creators. As an anthology of essays, comics, and recipes, the book reveals the dynamic and transformative ways that queerness informs food production and restaurant culture, and how food empowers, transforms, and unites queer and trans folk. Alex is an Associate Professor at McGill University's Institute for Gender, Sexuality, and Feminist Studies, and the co-organizer of the Queer Food Conference. Since she was last on the show to discuss her DIY zine, How to Start a Feminist Restaurant, she's also written Ingredients for a Revolution: A History of American Feminist Restaurants, Cafes, and Coffeehouses, and Engage in Public Scholarship! A Guide to Feminist and Accessible Community. Megan is the director of Food Studies Programs at Boston University, and a historian of American foodways. They are the author of five books about food history, with the most recent being Food on the Page: Cookbooks and American Culture. She teaches courses in food history, food and gender, and food memories, and the Introduction to Gastronomy. Together, they share behind-the-scenes about how Queers at the Table came to be after the Queer Food Conference, the intersections of queer identity and food culture, including the important of community in queer food work, challenging traditional culinary and gastronomic norms and binaries through cooking and sharing food, safety in cooking and kitchen spaces, and expansive considerations for queering food spaces in the future. Resources: Queer Food Conference Alex Ketchum Website Megan Elias Website Instagram @queerfoodconference

154: Episode 10 Launch! [SOLO Episode]

Oct 7, 2025 8 min

A solo episode to kickstart season 10 of AnthroDish - exploring diverse themes of community this year relating to food, culture, and identity. Website: https://www.anthrodish.com Newsletter: https://sarahduignan.substack.com/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/anthrodishpodcast/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@anthrodishpodcast

153: Setting a Place for Recipes of Displacement & Community with Hawa Hassan

May 20, 2025 32 min

As season 9 of the podcast draws to a close, it's feeling like a full circle moment thematically. The conversations began this season around what it means to value labour, specifically whose labour is and isn't valued to power a global food supply, and an exposé of the cruel treatment of migrant workers coming to the U.S. But the process of migrating, and the experiences that come with it, are incredibly important stories. What does it mean to carry culture through food when you've been displaced, and how can food serve as the foundation to continue resilience and pass along important cultural heritage through recipes? I spoke with Hawa Hassan today to explore these questions. Hawa is a James Beard Award winner and culinary triple threat: dynamic chef, TV personality, and entrepreneur. She's the founder of Basbaas, a line of sauce and condiments inspired by her home country of Somalia, a fast-growing brand that has been featured in Forbes, the New York Times, Eater, and more. Her first cookbook-meets-travelogue, In Bibi's Kitchen, shares recipes and stories from grandmothers—or bibis—in eight African countries bordering the Indian Ocean. In our conversation, Hawa talks about her latest cookbook, Setting a Place for Us, and how she built this stunning series of recipes from eight countries impacted by war and conflict. Hawa explores how she structured the recipes for the pantry, working with photographers and local experts to shape the stories conveyed through the recipes, and the importance of challenging single-origin stories about conflict and its impact on culture, food, and identity. Learn More from Hawa: Buy Setting a Place for Us Cookbook Instagram: @hawahassan

152: Documenting the Undocumented through Food with Jill Damatac

May 6, 2025 30 min

The idea of a pristine kitchen with clean countertops feels distinctively American, or an all-American idealist. However, the concept of the American ideal, or the American dream, desperately needs to be challenged. How better to do that than through food? My guest this week, author and filmmaker Jill Damatac, does just that in her new memoir, Dirty Kitchen: A Memoir of Food and Family. Jill was born in the Philippines, raised in the US, and is now a UK citizen living in the San Francisco Bay Area. Her film and photography work has been featured on the BBC and in Time, and at film festivals worldwide; her short documentary film Blood and Ink (Dugo at Tinta), about the Indigenous Filipino tattooist Apo Whang Od, was an official selection at the Academy Award–qualifying DOC NYC and won Best Documentary at Ireland's Kerry Film Festival. Jill holds an MSt in Creative Writing from the University of Cambridge and an MA in Documentary Film from the University of the Arts London. Her new book, Dirty Kitchen, is a food memoir of 22 years undocumented in the United States. In today's episode, we explore her memoir as a unique narrative that combines recipes, Filipino histories and mythologies, American immigration experiences, food writing, and personal narratives. Jill describes how she structured the book, how Filipino diasporic recipes relate to diasporic and migrant experiences, and the relationship between American foods and rebuilding a sense of self through Filipino foods after living undocumented for many years. Resources: Buy Dirty Kitchen: A Memoir of Food and Family Website: https://www.jilldamatac.com/ Instagram: @jilldamatac

151: What Can Local and Seasonal Food Networks Look Like? with Colin Fontaine

Apr 29, 2025 28 min

Perhaps now more than ever, there's renewed appreciation for the intricacies of our food systems' deep dependence on a global supply chain. However, that also raises challenges around our relationships with producers and understanding of food value. My guest today, Colin Fontaine, is here to discuss how to reorient American concepts of food and culture to be grounded in seasonal and local approaches. Colin examines food production solutions to achieve more local and seasonal foods, arguing that this issue is more of a cultural problem in need of cultural solutions. Colin has worked in produce procurement, including wholesale distribution, and as an East Coast local produce category manager for Sprouts Farmers Market. Colin is based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and has an undergraduate degree in anthropology from Bridgewater State University. Through his newsletter Northeast Cuisine, Colin writes about how to localize the food system in the northeastern US, considering past, present, and future lessons about the region and its climate, producers, cultures, and produce availability to build a better and more equitable food system. Learn More About Colin: Newsletter: Northeast Cuisine Instagram: @northeastcuisine

150: Italian Pasta Nights with an American Accent with Renato Poliafito

Apr 22, 2025 31 min

Throughout this season, we've been exploring immigrant narratives around food: roles in food systems, labour, and diasporic food stories. Part of this is making sense of the "ish" elements to identities through food, which my guest this week, Renato Poliafito, does beautifully. Renato is a James Beard-nominated restaurateur, pastry chef, cookbook author, designer, and entrepreneur based in Brooklyn, NY. After a graphic design and advertising career, Renato pivoted to food, training as a barista to learn more about the industry, eventually opening Baked in 2005. This kicked off a culinary renaissance in the waterfront neighbourhood, resulting in several cookbooks, a line of mixes, granola, bakeware, a location in Tokyo, and multiple James Beard nominations. After over a decade at Baked, Renato embarked on a new project. He opened Ciao, Gloria in Prospect Heights in 2019, a daytime café and neighbourhood bakery steeped in his Italian-American upbringing and heritage. Inspired by the monthly pasta events he did briefly at Ciao, Gloria, pre-pandemic, Renato opened a sister concept on Vanderbilt Avenue called Pasta Night, a casual pasta concept, in October 2024. He is also the author of Dolci!: American Baking with an Italian Accent, his first solo cookbook featuring Italian and "Italian American-ish" cakes, cookies, pies, and pastries for any occasion. In this conversation, Renato explores how he infused his culture and background into Ciao, Gloria, and Pasta Nights, how he switches between his Italian and American heritages to build their menus, and his perspectives on creating community in Brooklyn and Italian-American eating experiences that speak to American-style dining. Learn More About Renato: Book: Dolci! American Baking with an Italian Accent Pasta Night Website Instagram: @pastanightbk @ciaogloria and @renatoinbrooklyn

149: Unbottling the Problems of Bottled Water with Daniel Jaffee

Apr 15, 2025 57 min

A plastic bottle of water powerfully represents the state of our current environmental and health priorities. That water can become commodified while being an essential public service means that who gets access to water can be deeply challenged. How is water justice reached when plastic water privatization has become so embedded in our systems? My guest today, Dr. Daniel Jaffee, is here to explore the depths of these two important parts of the water spectrum. Dan is an environmental and rural sociologist, and a professor of Sociology at Portland State University. His research examines conflicts over water privatization and commodification, the social, economic, and environmental impacts of bottled and packaged water, and the social movements that form around bottled water and water justice in the global North and South. He is also the author of Unbottled: The Fight Against Plastic Water and for Water Justice, and Brewing Justice: Fair Trade Coffee, Sustainability, and Survival. In today's episode, we're talking about how cultural and economic shifts shaped the success of bottled water, what its commodification means for the municipal water systems that serve us, and how the global water crisis becomes socially produced. Resources: Unbottled Book Dan's Website

148: Masala, Maíz, and Movement - Ingredients for Decolonizing Plates with Norma Listman and Saqib Keval

Apr 1, 2025 38 min

On the show today are Norma Listman and Saqib Keval, looking at the solutions and communities that can be built when activism and ethical values are at the forefront of food creation. Norma and Saqib are the chefs and restauranteurs behind Masala y Maíz, which TIME Magazine named as one of the top destinations to visit worldwide, and its slightly more casual Indian-Mexican sister restaurant, Mari Gold. Norma and Saqib were also just featured in the most recent season of Chef's Table on Netflix. Masala y Maíz seamlessly blends Indian, East African, and Mexican flavours inspired by the cultures of the husband-wife team. In addition to being renowned globally for its genre-bending and deeply personal cuisine, Masala y Maíz champions a movement of social justice through food, prioritizing quality of life for their staff and farmers and serving as a testament to the idea that a values-based workplace can also be a thriving workplace. In today's conversation, Norma and Saqib share how they moved the idea of Masala y Maíz from a research concept into a full restaurant, even after not being so sure about staying in the industry for all its shortcomings), how experiences with local flavours on a menu can f**k with your brain and decolonize how you think about ingredients, and the importance of corn in cultural, social, and decolonial approaches to food. Resources: Social Media: @masalaymaiz @normalistman @saqibkeval Website for Masala y Maíz Eastern Standard Times interview Book mentioned: México Between Feast and Famine: Food, Corporate Power, and Inequality by Enrique Ochoa

147: What Canada Ate - The Role of Cookbooks in Culinary History with Dr. Rebecca Beausaert

Mar 18, 2025 34 min

As most historians will tell you, the past can help make sense of a lot of the present, but maybe in unexpected or novel ways—like through cookbooks! We're living in an intense period (I probably always say this, but it feels particularly challenging right now). With the new Trump presidency, shifts to Canada's economic stability and food security are top of mind for many—how are we going to afford eating, how can we support Canadian-focused food systems, and who is at the centre of these domestic pursuits? My guest today is Dr. Rebecca Beausaert, here to explore how historical food cookbooks can provide valuable insights into how we make sense of food as a country. Rebecca is an adjunct professor in the history department at the University of Guelph. She is also the co-founder and co-director of the increased What Canada Atewebsite, which is an online repository of digitized historical cookbooks. She is also the author of Pursuing Play: Women's Leisure in Small-Town Ontario, 1870-1914. In today's conversation, we explore the history of Canadian cookbooks from the first Canadian cookbook published in 1825 to today. She looks at how different agricultural, technological, social, and economic shifts impacted what recipes and ingredients appeared on cookbook pages, the untold stories of domestic handbooks and the women that fed farmers, and how cookbooks can paint the story of the ever-complex question around defining Canadian cuisine. Learn More from Rebecca: What Canada Ate cookbook repository Rebecca Beausaert on Bluesky Faculty Page

146: Flavour's Role in Food System Fixes with Franco Fubini

Mar 12, 2025 36 min

The idea of industrial food systems is flat, heavy, and feels complex to access. It brings up connotations of very bland, hyper-processed foods made to reach a large number of people at a low cost. There are important consequences to these food systems choices, though some are louder ones than others. My guest today, Franco Fubini, tackles an often under-appreciated one: flavours of ingredients. Franco Fubini is the founder and CEO of Natoora, and takes a unique approach to seasonality and sourcing for chefs and consumers across London, Paris, Milan, Copenhagen, Malmo, New York, LA, Miami, and Melbourne. He is also a professor of Sustainability Management at Columbia University in NYC. Franco is driven by his belief that engaging people with the real flavour of fruits and vegetables, arguing that we can collectively transform how food is being farmed and supplied if we focus more on a supply chain rooted in flavour, transparency, and direct relationships. He is also the author of In Search of the Perfect Peach: Why Flavour Holds the Answer to Fixing Our Food System. In today's episode, we look at the role that flavour plays in our food systems, and how flavour's decline has been connected to wartime economies and contemporary agricultural systems. Franco speaks to the work he's doing through Natoora, and how both old and new strategies are needed to model more sustainable, resilient, and locally-grounded food systems for the future. Learn More About Franco In Search of the Perfect Peach Natoora Website Instagram: @natoora and @francofubini

145: Exploring the Biodiversity of Climate-Smart Crops with Shreema Mehta

Mar 4, 2025 25 min

Industrial food systems tend to use mono-crop and unilinear approaches to supplying the Global North with food. But what happens when we consider more diverse crops? My guest today, Shreema Mehta, will discuss the traditional, climate-smart crops that are overlooked by the industrial food system. She started Climate Cookery selling tamarind hot sauce and has since expanded it to a newsletter that explores increasing biodiversity and supporting knowledge of underutilized crops. Resources: Climate Cookery newsletter Instagram: @climatecookery

144: The Rich History of Georgian Wines with Sarah May Grunwald

Feb 25, 2025 53 min

When it comes to wine, I have a tendency to retreat and panic: I don't know anything, and I certainly don't feel like I have the means to access the knowledge. I often wonder if that's a common experience for people, based on the connotations that come with its consumption. My guest this week, Sarah May Grunwald, is someone I find quite admirable for the barriers she breaks down in communication about wine and winemaking practices. Sarah May Grunwald is a wine, food, and travel writer originally from California. She is a certified sommelier, WSET level 3 certificate holder, and former professor of wine. Sarah practices permaculture and keeps bees in the Roman countryside, where she produces olive oil and has seven rescue dogs and five cats. She leads wine and food tours in Rome and the country of Georgia and co-owns a Tbilisi-based food and wine tour company called Taste Georgia. She has been working in Georgia since 2014. Today, she's on the show to discuss Georgian wines' rich, deep, and fascinating history. Despite more attention being given to Italian or French traditions of wine, Sarah May taught me that wine's birthplace is long considered to be in Georgia during the Neolithic. What makes us skip over this key piece of wine history? We explore the role of the qvervi vessel in the specific practices of winemaking in Georgia. These sociopolitical and geographic influences have informed how and where Georgian wine is made, and delve into the future of winemaking with climate change. Learn More About Sarah May Grunwald: Taste Georgia Contadina (Sarah May's Newsletter)

143: Unpacking the Absent Food Citizen in Policy with Isabela Bonnevera

Feb 18, 2025 39 min

This week, we're exploring the idea of the food citizen, or perhaps more accurately, the absent food citizen, with Isabela Bonnevera. Isabela is a doctoral researcher at ICTA-UAB, and engages with participatory methods to explore how immigrants are shaping sustainable food transitions in cities. She also examines how sustainable food policies impact food justice outcomes for immigrant communities. I met Isabela through her work as the co-founder of Feminist Food Journal, which is an award-winning magazine and podcast. Additionally, she is an editor of Urban Agriculture and Forced Displacement, a forthcoming volume for the Springer Urban Agriculture Series. In today's episode, Isabela unpacks the idea of food citizenship: who is involved in defining it, how immigrants are often framed or defined in food policies, the power of language to shape meanings of "healthy" and "cultural" foods, and the consequences of exclusion in food policy writing. I could quite honestly speak with Isabela forever on this topic, as she has really illuminated some under-considered elements to these issues. Resources: Feminist Food Journal Isabela's Article on Food Citizenship in Agriculture and Human Values The Good Food Project LinkedIn

142: What Role Does Food Play in Fiction Writing? with Margaux Vialleron

Nov 26, 2024 32 min

One of the most frustrating parts of watching Gossip Girl growing up was witnessing the elaborate breakfast spreads that the families had each morning, only for the main characters to grab a piece of toast and run away with anguish. When we think about fiction, food isn't always central to how a story is told. But what happens when it is? My guest this week is Margaux Vialleron, a French-born and Glasgow-based interdisciplinary writer and cook. She is the author of two novels: Breaststrokes (May 2024) and The Yellow Kitchen (July 2022). Her story, Fernanda's Fish Soup, was runner-up in the 2022 Harper's Bazaar short story competition. She also writes The Onion Papers, a hybrid newsletter about storytelling in the kitchen. Margaux's work explores the landscapes of remembrance, the links between inner spaces and wild outer spaces, and food and seasonality as communal experiences. In today's episode, Margaux unpacks the power of food as a storytelling device in fiction, the consequences of character development relating to appetite and economics, and the power of the kitchen in writing and real life. Margaux is a beautiful writer, and I know a lot of the warmth in her work comes from the time she dedicates to food and eating in her character development, so it is a special treat to hear her perspectives on incorporating this into fictional worlds. Learn More About Margaux: Website: https://margauxvialleron.com/ The Onion Papers Newsletter: https://theonionpapers.substack.com/ Breaststrokes Novel The Yellow Kitchen Novel Instagram: @margauxvlln

141: Uncovering Medieval Pictish Foodways through Paleobotany with Dr. Shalen Prado

Nov 19, 2024 33 min

Oftentimes, when we think about plant-human relationships, we're thinking about our contemporary lives and how plants factor into it – be it North American plant-based diets or what we're growing in our apartments. But our relationship with plants goes back for millennia, and accessing this historical and prehistoric knowledge is a glimpse into what life looked like for ancient humans. My guest this week is Dr. Shalen Prado, who is here to explore what we know about plant-based eating during the medieval period of Scotland. Shalen is a settler-archaeologist living in Saskatoon and originally from the East Coast (Mi'kma'ki or Prince Edward Island). She researches ancient human-plant relationships and foodways. Shalen currently works as a Living Skies Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Saskatchewan and collaborates with the Bridge To Land Water Sky Living Lab. In today's episode, Shalen shares some of her research on the elusive Picts of Scotland and how she uses phytoliths and ceramic sherds to uncover what plant-based eating looked like for this group of people during the medieval period of Great Britain. Learn More from Shalen: Instagram: @spradoplants Recent open-access article: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jasrep.2024.104695 Microbotanical research database: macmicrobot.omeka.net

140: Recovering from Restrictive Online Diet Myths with Dr. Sarah Ballantyne

Nov 12, 2024 42 min

Diet culture on the internet is excellent at sensationalizing our food to the point of panic. I'm sure many of you have seen the videos across TikTok and Instagram where someone positions themselves as an expert and demonizes strawberries, bread, or my beloved potatoes. But what happens when we take a more proactive and less restrictive approach to looking at food? My guest today is the delightful Dr. Sarah Ballantyne, the founder of Nutrivore.com and the New York Times bestselling author of Nutrivore: The Radical New Science for Getting the Nutrients You Need from the Food You Eat. She creates educational resources to help people improve their diet and lifestyle choices, empowered and informed by the most current evidence-based scientific research. With Nutrivore, Dr. Sarah has created a positive and inclusive approach to dietary guidance, based on science and devoid of dogma, using nutrient density and sufficiency as its basic principles: Nourishment, not judgment. On today's show, we're breaking down why diet-centric approaches don't work, busting myths around food fears, and Dr. Sarah explains her Nutrivore mindset. It is an immense pleasure to have a conversation with someone with such nutritional knowledge and an approach to eating that is sustainable and realistic, so I am very excited to share this with you all. Learn More from Dr. Sarah! Book: Nutrivore Website: https://nutrivore.com/ Instagram: @drsarahballantyne Threads: @drsarahballantyne TikTok: @drsarahballantyne YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/drsarahballantyne/ Get one of five free Nutrivore Guides Here! https://nutrivore.com/thankyou/?aff=49

139: What Makes for Good Food Policy? with Chef Joshna Maharaj

Nov 5, 2024 48 min

One downside I find when I spend too much time on the internet is that there's an overwhelming viewpoint that the system is broken and there's not much we can do to change that – or that food, in general, is disconnected from all other components of our lives. But I think these attitudes forget that a lot of empowerment comes through advocating for better policies across the board. My guest today is absolutely LEGENDARY when it comes to just that: Joshna Maharaj. Joshna sees food as our common denominator as humans and understands it holds the power to solve many problems we're facing. As she sees it, good food policy automatically means good health, agriculture, labour, and environmental relationships. Joshna Maharaj is a chef, speaker, author & activist who wants to help everyone have a better relationship with their food. She believes strongly in the power of chefs & social gastronomy to bring values of hospitality, sustainability, & social justice to the table. Joshna works with institutions in Canada to build new models for food service. Her first book, entitled Take Back the Tray (May 2020), captures the lessons & experience from her work in changing institutional food systems around the globe. She is an enthusiastic instructor of both culinary and academic students, constantly finding ways to make food stories come alive. Joshna has just started a Master's in Gastronomy in Dublin, Ireland and is enjoying the delights of being a student once again. In our conversation today, we talk about how to tackle the prickliness of food policy and what happens when we break down the silos of industry, government, and hospitality to build better values and relationships with food. Learn More from Joshna: Instagram: @joshnamaharaj Book: Take Back the Tray

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188: Decolonizing the Chai Story with Malav Naik

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Podcast details

Created by: Sarah Duignan
Status: Active
Latest episode: Nov 10, 2026
Episodes: 195
Release period: Weekly
Avg. episode length: 38 min
Explicit: No
Language: English

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