Special Roundtable: Translating the Foods of the World, 14 December, 9.30am (ET)

A color book of sweets from the early modern period in Japan (1600-1868) called Illustrated Catalog of Confections (Kashi zufu) in the collection of the Ajinomoto Dietary Culture Library.

We’re excited to share this special event, co-hosted by the Culinaria Research Centre at the University of Toronto and the Center for East Asian Studies at The University of Kansas. This follows our recent call for submissions on the same theme, published both on this site and in extended form in our latest issue, 21.4 (open access), so will be invaluable to both early-career and established scholars considering working towards such a publication.

Hosted by Krishnendu Ray, and featuring Eric C. Rath, Robert Valgenti, Miranda Brown, and Saumya Gupta, this was a virtual event dedicated to critical questions such as:

What does it mean to translate food texts? What are the challenges and opportunities relating to such translations? How must translators develop new vocabularies to express Indigenous concepts? How do translators engage with historical non-English texts like recipes that may assume more information and insight than they provide, and how has culinary terminology changed over time in tandem with other historical developments?

What does it mean to translate food and culinary knowledge? How do we all translate food in everyday ways, through oral transmission, adaptation, food experiences, etc.? How are oral traditions translated into text? How should translators consider their audience, including those seeking culinary application?

For anyone who was not able to attend, please enjoy the recording below of a fascinating conversation between our host and panelists:

Thank you to everyone who joined us, and we look forward to exciting culinary translation submissions!

Podcast Dispatches from Issue 21.2: Eric Funabashi

For our fifth series of podcasts produced in collaboration with Meant to Be Eaten on Heritage Radio Network, we sit down (virtually) with authors who have contributed to our recently published second issue of 2021, featuring articles on topics including commensality and creative collaboration, the politics of food systems, and race and representation.

In this episode, Editorial Collective member Bob Valgenti welcomes Eric Funabashi to discuss culinary experiences in Brazil following the initial migration of Japanese workers to São Paulo’s coffee farms in 1908 (as he explores in his recently published article, “Japanese Immigrants’ Pantry: Creating Eating Habits and Identities with Brazilian Ingredients”). Drawing on published cookbooks and immigrants’ private diaries, Funabashi shows how Japanese immigrants forged new culinary practices and identities in Brazil over the course of the 20th century.

Podcast Dispatches from Issue 21.1: Jayeeta Sharma and Bryan Dale

For our fourth series of podcasts produced in collaboration with Meant to Be Eaten on Heritage Radio Network, we sit down (virtually) with authors who have contributed to our upcoming first issue of 2021, which continues to feature COVID-19 Dispatches, but also original research articles around the themes of the relationship between food, power and politics, cultivating relationships, and sustaining memories.

For this episode, Jayeeta (Jo) Sharma and Bryan Dale join Editorial Collective member Bob Valgenti to discuss their project (and subject of their upcoming COVID-19 Research Dispatch) “Feeding the City, Pandemic and Beyond”, which has developed a model of public scholarship that documents food system experiences, community challenges and local resilience. By engaging grassroots voices, from farmers and urban growers to school food advocates, market provisioners and other local stakeholders, they highlight actions toward sustainable food solutions for building a socially just and resilient global city.

Jo Sharma
Bryan Dale

Podcast: COVID-19 Dispatches #7

For the seventh episode of our podcast series, produced in collaboration with “Meant to be Eaten” on Heritage Radio Network and dedicated to dispatches from the food world in reaction to the first months of the pandemic (the focus of recently published 20.3 issue), issue editor Bob Valgenti is joined by Dr. Saumya Gupta to discuss her essay, Lockdown Destitution: Delhi, March 2020, in which she describes the enormous challenges faced by millions of working class people in response to India’s national lockdown in March this year, many of whom were forced to flee their cities – places of informal employment (much of it related to selling food, but not deemed “essential” under lockdown) – and the precariousness of education in a country marked by a stark divide in access to the technologies required to accomplish remote learning.

For 30% off single-print issues of “Food in the Time of COVID-19”, use promo code GASTROAUG2020 at checkout.

Podcast: COVID-19 Dispatches #6

For the sixth episode of our podcast series, produced in collaboration with “Meant to be Eaten” on Heritage Radio Network and dedicated to dispatches from the food world in reaction to the first months of the pandemic (the focus of recently published 20.3 issue), issue editor Bob Valgenti is joined by Ashley Rose Young (author of “A COVID-19 Relief Kitchen Created by an Unexpected Advocate”) to discuss the importance of giving voice to and documenting often unseen and unheard – but indispensable – employees in the retail sector and hospitality industry, such as restaurant servers and grocery store employees, many of whom either lost jobs or had no choice but to risk their own health by continuing to work through the pandemic.

For 30% off single print-issues of “Food in the Time of COVID-19”, use promo code GASTROAUG2020 at checkout.