Originally published on January 14, 2016 (Episode 44)
Introduction
My guest this week is Rachel Laudan, a historian of science and technology turned food historian. Living in Hawaii, she grew interested in the local cuisines of the islands. After writing a book about that, she began to focus on broader questions of food. “Everything I had learned teaching history of science and technology,” she writes, “I applied to one of humankind’s greatest technological products, food.” The result was her book Cuisine and Empire: Cooking in World History, in which Laudan explores how culinary philosophies across 20,000 years shaped empires, cultures, and everyday life.
Along the way, she has a few admonitions for gluten-free advocates, paleo-dieters, and locavores. We also discuss how “normal people” can begin collecting their family recipes and contributing to food history. Guten appetit!
About the Guest
Rachel Laudan is a historian of science become historian of food. She earned a PhD in the Philosophy and History of Science at University College London. Her first book was From Mineralogy to Geology: The Foundations of a Science, 1650-1830 (Chicago, 1994). She has since pursued different directions of investigation!
For Further Investigation
Rachel Laudan, Cuisine and Empire: Cooking in World History (California, 2013)
—, From Mineralogy to Geology: The Foundations of a Science, 1650-1830 (Chicago, 1994)
—, The Food of Paradise: Exploring Hawaii’s Culinary Heritage (Hawaii, 1996)
Listen & Discuss
How does food tell the story of history? And how can recording recipes be a form of history? If this episode made you hungry for more, share it with someone who loves to cook—or just loves to eat.
