Podcast Dispatches from Issue 21.3: Raúl Matta and Padma Panchapakesan

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.

In this inaugural episode, Editorial Collective member Josée Johnston is joined by the co-authors of “Deflated Michelin: An Exploration of the Changes in Values in the Culinary Profession and Industry” to discuss how ideas of “good taste” – ‘what good food should be, mean, and look like’ – have changed over time, and particularly how these are now less defined by “traditional” metrics such as the (once-revered) Michelin Guide. Focusing on the role of chefs, they unpack the sociology of tastemakers amidst the changing landscape of the restaurant industry.

Padma Panchapakesan
Raúl Matta

Podcast Dispatches from Issue 21.1: John Broadway

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, Editorial Collective Co-Chair Daniel Bender is joined by John Broadway to discuss his forthcoming article, “Around the World in 50 Restaurants: The Curious Irony of Hyperlocal Food,” which examines the paradox generated by a global restaurant ranking system which (at least in the years prior to the pandemic) promoted haute cuisine to elite, “hypermobile” customers travelling the world to eat “hyperlocal” food in celebrated restaurants. Commenting on restaurant rankings, access and exclusivity, Broadway positions this phenomenon in light of staggering inequality in contemporary food systems.