New Students, Fall 2016
It's almost "back to school" season again. Approximately 25 new students will be enrolling as new candidates for the MLA in Gastronomy or the Food Studies Graduate Certificate. Here is an introduction to three of them.
Michelle Estades Santiago 
was born in Arecibo, one of the largest cities in the northern coast of Puerto Rico. In May 2016 she completed a BA in Journalism with a second concentration in Radio Production at the University of Puerto Rico Río Piedras Campus. From 2013 to 2016 she worked as a web journalist in the newspaper Metro Puerto Rico, and from 2014 to 2016 she also served as a journalist in Diálogo, the newspaper of the University of Puerto Rico, where she wrote many stories related to food. Since she was 17 years old Michelle has prepared birthday cakes and desserts for all occasions. So when she read about the master's program in Gastronomy at Boston University she knew it was perfect for her because it combined her two professional areas. With this master she intends to specialize in food journalism and work that concept in her country.
Anastasia Nicolaou was born and raised
(for the most part) in Silicon Valley, and is lucky to have a mother who loves cooking and traveling, and fervently exposed her to both from a young age. Anastasia came to Boston to attend Simmons College, graduating with honors in Economics and Political Science. While working her first day job out of school for Governor Deval Patrick, she worked weekends, waiting tables and getting to know the industry. This fostered a passion for cooking and food culture that had long been a hobby. Now the Communications Coordinator for an office focused on women’s parity in American politics, Anastasia joins the Gastronomy program’s Food Policy track to learn about food security and emerging markets, as well as explore the role of food in our collective cultural identity.
Donna Lopez is a California and Austin, Texas transplant to Boston and have family members in Chile. She has travelled extensively -- from Peru, Colombia, Mexico, Venezuela, and Panama to Western Europe, especially Spain. Donna is an MGH 
graduate with years of work in clinical nursing and education. She has an undergraduate degree from UCLA in International Relations and a graduate degree from Tufts Medical School PHPD program in Pain Research, Education and Policy. She has also studied the intersection of immunology, nutrition and infectious diseases in a global world. Ultimately, she came to the conclusion that aesthetics and nutritive value in meals along with good company are the foundation to health and well-being in human lives. Donna also spent a few years studying Traditional Chinese Medicine and Asian concepts of nutrition. In TCM the foundation of health comes ancestrally before birth, but after birth, the stomach (and the TCM concept of spleen) are at the center of human health. Thus, nutrition is critical to the health and longevity of our species.
Donna plans to focus on food policy as well as history and culture and notes that the Gastronomy Program has been timed to an era when we need to reflect on our generation's food supply from a lens on political, economic and food science/marketing policy perspective. She writes: “One of my favorite foods in the last few years are dishes made with quinoa which I was alarmed to learn that the Andean people who have grown and been nourished by this staple for a millennia can no longer afford the price, high on world market prices. Their food substitution of less healthy grains and refined carbohydrates have led to increase in diabetes and heart disease in this population. We are an intimately linked globalized world and I hope to raise at least my own consciousness and hopefully many others through the work in this program and in years after. Julia Child and Jacques Pepin created the innovative idea of combining food study with academia and I think I have found the right place to study and contribute what I know.”
Course Spotlight: Local to Global Food Values: Policy, Practice and Performance
Local to Global Food Values: Policy Practice and Performance will be offered through Boston University’s Summer Term 2. This class will meet on Monday and Wednesday evenings, beginning on July 6 with a final class on August 10. To register, please visit http://www.bu.edu/summer/courses/gastronomy/ .
What are "good" foods and trustworthy standards and measurements of value? Who regulates or labels claims such as "local," "natural," "sustainable," or "(non)GMO" and why should consumers care? These are the basic policy (government), practice (food-industry), and performance (case study) issues course participants systematically probe and debate during this six-week Summer Term II BU Gastronomy seminar. Each week clarifies and compares distinct environmental, economic, cultural, political, and nutritional frameworks of value. Readings, discussions, and hands-on exercises aim to develop professional and personal knowledge and skills for those working in food research, production, marketing, or advocacy, or more generally interested in understanding the science and technology, language and cultural politics, guiding U.S. and global food systems. The course is open to master's level or advanced undergraduates.
Professor Ellen Messer is a Food and Nutrition Anthropologist heading BU Gastronomy's Food Policy track.
Dinner and Dialogue at the Eucharistic Table
By Kendall Vanderslice
photo credit: Alethia Williams
A new trend is emerging in Christian communities across the country. Modeled after the gatherings of first century Christians and grounded in the language of the Eucharist (a meal of bread and wine instituted by Jesus during his final Passover supper), dinner church communities gather to hold their church service over the course of a meal.
Summer Course Spotlight: Culture and Cuisine of New England
Looking to add another course to your summer schedule, but unsure how to choose? You might consider Netta Davis's course, Culture and Cuisine of New England. Without fail, this course receives rave reviews from all who take it -- from students who have lived in the region for years to those who moved here just for school.
Fast Food: A Global Perspective
Last night, BU’s Food and Wine program hosted The New School’s Andrew Smith for the final installment of the semester’s Pepin Lectures. The grandfather of culinary historians, and author or editor of 28 books on the subject, Mr. Smith captivated his audience during an hour-long journey through the history of fast food.
Styling: At the Intersection of Photography and Food
By Daryl Mogilewsky
I took a photography course last year while I was living in Austin, Texas. A few classes in, a fellow student asked the instructor if we would be covering “food photography” in the course material. Austin is a food hub, after all. The instructor replied with a slight smirk and a quip to the effect of, “there’s not much to go over.”
A Vegetarian Butcher
by Sonia Dovedy
I suppose I consider myself a flexitarian. Vegetarian most hours of the day, but always willing to expose my tastebuds to something other than what I know. That is, if it feels right.
Growing up in an Indian household, I was exposed to the smell of fresh mustard seeds toasting in the pan, the soothing hand-feel of smooth chappati dough, and lots of chillies! No one was allowed to leave home without nourishment. Food, as I understood it then, translated into love.
Bringing Food History to Nutrition
This is the third post in a series highlighting the ways students utilize Boston University’s many resources to cater the Gastronomy program to fit their own unique interests and needs. Don't miss Carlos' post on Entrepreneurship or Debra's on Technology.
by Kelly Toups
As an eager, young registered dietitian, I quickly realized I’d rather spend my time talking about the “food” aspect of nutrition than insulin and tube feedings. The BU Gastronomy program, which focused on issues of culture, policy, food systems, and cuisine, was exactly the kind of education I that I needed to specialize within my field, and transition to a more food-focused career.
Putting Gastronomy Theories into Action
This is the second post in a series highlighting the ways students utilize Boston University's many resources to cater the Gastronomy program to fit their own unique interests and needs. Read the first post here.
by Debra Zides
As a Gastronomy student who has grown up in a world very far from the foodies, I continually get asked the question, “Deb, what do you do with a Gastronomy degree?” During my time here at Boston University, I have developed two speeches that answer the question. My first answer ties back to why I entered the degree program in the first place – I wanted to turn my interest in starting up a small, artisanal tequila business into a reality. My second answer…well that is the story for this blog. I am going to tell you how I gained an appreciation for the current challenges and issues in our Food System, and how I am in the process of undertaking steps to solve one small problem leveraging technology to make the world a little better than when I found it. In short, how I am developing a capability that will allow households to circumvent “big” agribusiness, bringing decisive information to the people.
Course Spotlight: Cultural Entrepreneurship
This post is the first in a series highlighting the ways students utilize Boston University's many resources to cater the Gastronomy program to their own interests and needs.
by Carlos Olaechea
I’m sure many if not all Gastronomy students have run into a situation in which you are discussing your degree program with family, friends, or relatives and someone brings up this question: “What are you going to do with that degree?” Sure, there are many opportunities to find careers with employers in both the public and private sectors, but a good number of us also have ideas to start our own businesses or projects. Throughout our time as students, we receive a solid foundation in the theoretical aspects of food studies, and some of us supplement the core curriculum with courses in food writing, business, marketing, and culinary arts. Nevertheless, sometimes we need some extra insight into how to take our post-graduation plans from a concept to a viable venture. It was this need that led me to enroll in the Cultural Entrepreneurship class in the Arts Administration Department.