Tag: food media

Podcast Dispatches from Issue 21.3: Sucharita Kanjilal

Gastronomica

For our sixth season 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 third issue of 2021, edited by Krishnendu Ray, and featuring articles and creative pieces which collectively address the issue of “gastropolitics,” as described in that issue’s editorial letter.

For this episode, Krishnendu is joined by Sucharita Kanjilal to discuss her recently published article, “Beyond Bourdieu: What Tomatoes in Indian Recipes Tell Us about ‘Taste’,” which explores how this now staple ingredient became incorporated into Indian pantries in the 20th century. Weaving together the histories of two British imports – the tomato and the recipe – she discusses the fluidity of taste-making in postcolonial India.

Image courtesy of the author.

Podcast Dispatches from Issue 21.2: Alison Hope Alkon & Rafi Grosglik

Gastronomica

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.

For this episode, Editorial Collective member Krishnendu Ray welcomes co-authors of “Eating (with) the Other: Race in American Food Television“ Alison Hope Alkon and Rafi Grosglik to discuss representations of race in North American food media. Drawing on examples from contemporary popular culture (specifically Marcus Samuelsson and the late Anthony Bourdain), they explore how the medium of television engages with racial inequalities and how it could act as a critical intervention for social change.

Alison Hope Alkon
Rafi Grosglik

Podcast Dispatches from Issue 20.4: Adrienne Bitar

Gastronomica

For our third series of podcasts produced in collaboration with Meant to Be Eaten on Heritage Radio Network, we sit down (virtually) with authors who contributed to our final issue of 2020, which continues to feature COVID-19 Dispatches, but also original research articles around the themes of “Working with Ingredients”, “Taste and Technology in East Asia”, “Excursions”, and “Dolce”.

For this episode, Editorial Collective member Lisa Haushofer is joined by Adrienne Bitar to discuss her article, “Decoding Miracle Food Cures for COVID-19”, in which she investigates the many “miracle” food cures for COVID-19 that continue to circulate on social media, such as “Israeli lemon baking soda tea” and “Yoruba pepper stew”, both presented as simple recipes for the complex disease that crippled the planet in 2020. While “miracle” cures are nothing new, the changing roles and perceptions of authority, food and new media are arguably more urgently in need of attention at a time when the pandemic is far from over, and consumers ever more desperate for a quick-fix return to “normal”. As Adrienne importantly underscores, while there’s little danger for most in consuming small daily amounts of lemon juice or pepper stew, there is more at stake in following a recommendation to ingest bleach, or in simply believing that lemon juice can be as protective as any scientifically tested and approved recommendation (also typically subject to peer-review before social media dissemination).