POSTPONED NEW DATE TBC: Why Food Matters: A Public Lecture by Paul Freedman
Exeter Food Network welcomes Paul Freedman to discuss the topic of his recent book: Why Food Matters
Why does food matter? Beyond the obvious fact that food is biologically necessary, it also has historical and political importance. Paul Freedman is a Professor of History at Yale University. His teaching and research has concentrated on the history of the Middle Ages and history of food and cuisine is a relatively recent interest. In 2021 he published a short book for Yale University Press entitled “Why Food Matters.”
| An Exeter Food lecture | |
|---|---|
| Date | 21 March 2023 |
| Place | Streatham Court Old D |
| Provider | Exeter Food |
| Organizer | Harry West |
Event details
Why does food matter? Beyond the obvious fact that food is biologically necessary, it also has historical and political importance. This is manifested through basic commodities (the significance of wheat in the current Russian war against Ukraine, for example). Some of the major shifts in the past thousand years were the result of demand for luxuries, for non-strategic products such as spices which motivated European voyages of discovery and colonization. Food also defines us culturally, as nations (fish and chips), regions (mushy peas) and by class divisions (caviar).
About Paul Freedman
Paul Freedman is a Professor of History at Yale University where he has taught since 1997. Before that he was at Vanderbilt University. His teaching and research over many years has concentrated on the history of the Middle Ages (particularly in Catalonia). The history of food and cuisine is a relatively recent interest. In 2007 Freedman edited Food: The History of Taste, translated into ten languages. He is the author of Ten Restaurants that Changed America, (2016), American Cuisine and How It Got This Way, (2019) and in 2021 published a short book for Yale University Press entitled “Why Food Matters.”
Location:
Streatham Court Old D
