Gastronomy Alumna: Hungry in Hungary
by Meg Jones Wall
The past few years have held some wonderful, life-changing experiences for me. I got married. I realized that working in retail does not suit my personality. I entered the BU Gastronomy program. I even had some food that I helped prepare and style published in the Boston Globe’s Thanksgiving cover story.
And as thankful as I am for these experiences, nothing quite compares to picking up your life, grabbing your crisp new master’s degree, and moving to Budapest for almost four months.
Crazy? Yup. Difficult? Incredibly. Worth it? Without a doubt.
As a foodie, a writer, and a photographer, having the opportunity to spend several months living in and traveling through Europe was something of a dream come true. This was my very first time in Europe, and I was determined to take advantage of it — particularly by using my blog to record all of our adventures. I traveled to incredible cities like Barcelona, Rome, Dublin, and Vienna. I took a road trip through Prague, Paris, Lyon, Nice, Venice... I even got to see the beautiful Alps.
But one of the coolest parts of our European adventure was the fact that we were living in a small apartment in Budapest, a city that I really never thought I would see. Most people talk about their dreams of visiting Western Europe (and trust me, I’m thrilled that we saw countries such as France, Italy, and Spain), but having the opportunity to live, work, and eat in Eastern Europe was something I’ll never forget.
Hungarian food is different than anything I’ve had in the States. Meat-based, creamy, rich, and filling, this cuisine focuses on poultry, pork, spices, and a lot of sour cream. Most of the more well-known dishes, like stuffed peppers, chicken paprikas, and potato stew, are fairly inexpensive to prepare, but are filling enough to feed a family for several meals — or in the case of my husband and I, almost a week. I had a blast collecting family recipes from people that I met, trying to get an “authentic” cooking experience in between sampling some of the city’s best restaurants. Of course, there were also plenty of American fast food chains - Burger King, Starbucks, and (to my surprise) T.G.I. Fridays.
Food shopping was such a joy. Beautiful farmer’s markets are everywhere, bursting with produce — huge potatoes, bright cabbage, and a surprising amount of fruit. The small market that I went to most often, just a mile from the apartment we were living in, even had a butcher shop, spice shop, and several cheese shops inside, making it easy for me to get most of the things I needed for any recipe I could come up with. Of course, certain things just aren’t available, and it’s odd what I found myself missing — peanut butter, spinach, and bagels were essentially impossible to find.
One unexpected benefit of being surrounded by meat and dairy products in almost every meal? I found myself spending a lot of time considering my own diet and food choices, especially after taking Warren Belasco’s The Many Meanings of Meat course in my last semester at BU. With such a severe language barrier, I found it extremely difficult to know where the food I was purchasing came from. Additionally, I found myself eating much more meat and dairy that I was used to, and wrestled with the plant-based diet that we had talked so much about in Belasco’s course. Food and diet considerations aren’t always reached overnight, or even over the course of several months, but I now find myself moving towards a vegetarian diet — something I may not have seriously considered before arriving in Budapest.
Now that I’m back in Boston, settled back at home and searching for the food career of my dreams, it seems a bit surreal that I lived in a country where I didn’t speak the language and didn’t know a soul for several months. But I made a few great friends, had some incredible adventures, and learned at least a few Hungarian words.
And now that I can easily buy peanut butter again, I find myself really missing spaetzle.
Meg Jones Wall is a recent graduate of Boston University's MLA Gastronomy program, and worked as Communications Graduate Assistant and blog editor during the fall semester of 2011. You can find her recipes, photographs, and thoughts on food at her blog, ginger-snapped.
Alumna Profile: Vivian Liberman
by Emily Contois
When I asked Vivian Liberman when she first became interested in food, she exclaimed, “Always!” Liberman grew up in Colombia and loved going food shopping as a child with her mother. “Two things were my job,” she says, “to pick out the fruit and to shuck the peas.” She followed her love of food to culinary school, but at the behest of her mother also pursued undergraduate and graduate degrees in Hospitality Management. She has worked in restaurants, hotels, and spas across the United States, but she credits her studies in gastronomy for showing her food in a different light.
Liberman began the Gastronomy program in 2004, focusing her research broadly, but linked by the common thread of nutrition. She endorses a more practical approach to nutrition education, contending that teaching nutrition through culinary application is a more effective and realistic approach. In pondering her coursework at BU, Dr. Thomas Glick’s Readings in Food History course had a lasting effect on Liberman. “He taught me how to write and inspired me to continue the work that became my thesis,” she recalls. For her thesis, she researched the evolution of food advertising mascots, analyzing a variety of factors, such as social class, gender, and economics, shedding new light on the psychology of nutrition and consumer behavior.
Upon completing her MLA in Gastronomy, Liberman worked at Le Cordon Bleu in Miami for five and a half years. She currently works as the Training Manager at the Hotel Sofitel Cartagena Santa Clara in Cartagena de Indias, Colombia. Her current research explores public perception of molecular gastronomy and is authoring an entry for an encyclopedia on the topic and co-authoring a book chapter on food studies and foodservice with Jonathan Deutsch, Associate Professor, Kingsborough Community College, City University of New York.
When pondering the influence of the Gastronomy program on her career, Liberman says, “The program really opened things up for me and gave me a more well-rounded view point. It made me a writer, taught me how to read, and to think from a different perspective. It changed my entire outlook on the food world. I am more than a cook now. The Gastronomy program has changed my life. It’s really made it better.”
Emily is a current gastronomy student and graduate assistant, editing the Gastronomy at BU blog, January-August, 2012. Check out her research in food studies, nutrition, and public health on her blog, emilycontois.com.
Chicken Fricasee Face-Off: 18th Century Haute Cuisine versus 1950s Can-Opener Cooking
by Emily Contois
In the course, A Survey of Food History (ML 622), we were given a most delightful final exam question this semester: to compare and contrast two Chicken Fricasée recipes...
While it may appear at first glance that Francois Massialot’s recipe, “Poulets en Fricasée au Vin de Champagn” from Le Nouveau Cuisinier Royal et Bourgeois (1748),is the culinary superior of Poppy Cannon’s “Chicken with White Wine and White Grapes” from The Can-Opener Cookbook (1953), such an assumption ignores the complexity of each recipe as a unique product of a particular time and place. As Anne Bower contends, a cookbook can be read as a “fragmented autobiography” (Bower 1997: 32) that reveals unique details not only of the author’s experience, but also those of his or her time. Cannon’s recipe in particular fulfills Bower’s assertion that the main theme of cookbooks is the “breaking of silence” (1997: 46-47), as it reveals the struggles and desires of the 1950s American housewife.
Both of these recipes provide examples of period food trends. For example, first published in 1691 and in revised additions throughout the early eighteenth century, Le Nouveau Cuisinier Royal et Bourgeois featured haute cuisine, a new culinary tradition first articulated in seventeenth century France. Rather than the strong, 
heavily spiced flavors that had previously characterized European court cuisine, haute cuisine featured harmonious flavors, derived from the foods themselves. For example, the “Poulets en Fricasée” recipe does not include exotic spices or sugar, but instead showcases the flavors of the new cuisine with a sauce based on butter, aromatics, such as the onion and mushrooms that accompany the chicken, and sparse use of salt and parsley.
American cuisine of the 1950s also emphasized simplicity, though in a different way. Following World War II, manufacturers sought domestic markets for products, such as ready-made foods, that had been developed for military use during the war. Home economics texts, women’s magazines, product-sponsored recipe booklets, and advertising alike aggressively promoted processed “convenience foods” as time and energy saving wonders, ideally suited to simplify the busy housewife’s labors. More
Two Recipes for Chicken Fricasée
In A Survey of Food History (ML 622), we were assigned a most delightful final exam essay question — compare and contrast two recipes for the same dish:
Poulets en Fricasée au Vin de Champagne
Recipe from: Francois Massialot, Le Nouveau Cuisinier Royal et Bourgeois. vol. II Paris: Joseph Saugrain 1748. p. 246.
Take your chickens, gut them, and remove the skin. Cut the legs beneath the joint, and the little tips of the wings, remove the thighs, and chop where the bone meets the thigh, and remove the bone. Place the thighs in water, remove the wings and the stomach, then clean the rest of the carcasse, and cut it all around. Wash the chickens two or three times in water, and blanch them on the stove. Being blanched, place them in cold water, and clean well over a sieve or on a plate; place them in a casserole with a little melted lard and a bit of butter and a bouquet garnis, an onion stuck with two or three cloves, some small mushrooms, some truffles cut in slices, and some cockscombs seasoned with salt. Put the whole mixture in an oven, being cooked, sprinkle with flour, and pass two or three times on the stove, and moisten with a little bouillon. Boil two glasses of champagne, and put into the fricasée, and let cook on a low fire. Mix two or three egg yolks with a little veal stock, and a bit of parsley. When the fricasée is done, reduce a little, mixing the liason you have prepared with the egg yolks and veal stock. Being mixed, see that it has a good flavor, and dress properly in the plate in which you will serve it, and serve hot as an entree or hors-d’oeuvre.
Chicken with White Wine and White Grapes
Recipe from: Poppy Cannon, The Can-Opener Cookbook NY: Thomas Y. Crowell Company, 1953, p. 131.
You will need:
- Canned chicken fricasee
- Dry white table wine
- curry or turmeric
- Seedless white grapes, fresh or canned
Open and empty a can of chicken fricasee with its gravy into a pan. Rinse the tin with 4 tablespoons dry white table wine such as Reisling, hick, Rhine wine , or Moselle. Add ½ teaspoon curry powder or turmeric. Season with a little extra salt, freshly ground black pepper. Mix thoroughly,. Bring to a boil, simmer about 2 minutes but do not boil. Add ½ cups tiny white seedless grapes. If canned seedless grapes are used, drain them first and heat for a minute in 2 tablespoons of butter.
At Serving time: For the utmost in elegance serve with wild rice, which can be bouht canned and ready for heating, or saffron rice. Serves 2 or 3.
Read "Chicken Fricasée Face-Off: 18th Century Haute Cuisine versus 1950s Can-Opener Cooking"
Tracie McMillan Speaks at BU Gastronomy on The American Way of Eating
by Emily Contois
No, you're not in a Memorial Day Weekend time warp. I am indeed posting about an event that occurred in March in, ahem, May. I can tell you the boring story of what I was buried under when this fabulous event took place, or I can simply get to the heart of the matter — with lots of great photos by Lucia Austria no less.
Sandwiched between her book tour dates in California and Detroit, the Gastronomy program hosted Tracie McMillan on March 29 at Boston University for a lecture and book signing.
The oldest of three girls, Tracie grew up in rural Michigan. After working her way through NYU, Tracie began her writing career as managing editor at City Limits, where she also began writing on what interested her: the stories of how working families make a living.
Already an award-winning journalist, the now New York Times best selling, The American Way of Eating, is Tracie’s first book, which has earned a plethora of positive reviews from literary critics and food scholars alike. While summarized as a nonfiction project examining food and class in America, this is a work that addresses in a highly accessible way nearly every aspect of eating in this country.
The American Way of Eating contains inalienable truths of eating in America, among them:
- The true cost of our food, especially to farm workers paid a piece rate
- The true reason people eat at Applebee’s that has little to do with the food
- The truth that all Americans want to eat well
- And the fact that Hamburger Helper is expensive
The Gastronomy program was honored to host this important contributor to the ongoing discussion of how we can improve the American food system.
Learn More about The American Way of Eating
Emily is a current gastronomy student and graduate assistant, editing the Gastronomy at BU blog, January-August, 2012. Check out her research in food studies, nutrition, and public health on her blog, emilycontois.com.
Gastronomy Faculty Member Merry White’s New Book: Coffee Life in Japan
Merry White, a Professor of Anthropology who also teaches in the Gastronomy Program, has a new book available now:
This fascinating book--part ethnography, part memoir--traces Japan's vibrant café society over one hundred and thirty years. Merry White traces Japan's coffee craze from the turn of the twentieth century, when Japan helped to launch the Brazilian coffee industry, to the present day, as uniquely Japanese ways with coffee surface in Europe and America. White's book takes up themes as diverse as gender, privacy, perfectionism, and urbanism. She shows how coffee and coffee spaces have been central to the formation of Japanese notions about the uses of public space, social change, modernity, and pleasure. White describes how the café in Japan, from its start in 1888, has been a place to encounter new ideas and experiments in thought, behavior, sexuality , dress, and taste. It is where a person can be socially, artistically, or philosophically engaged or politically vocal. It is also, importantly, an urban oasis, where one can be private in public.
Gastronomy Professor Rachel Black’s New Book | Porta Palazzo: The Anthropology of an Italian Market
Rachel Black, Assistant Professor and Gastronomy Program Coordinator, has a new book available now:
In an age of supermarkets and online commerce, markets offer unique social and cultural opportunities and bring together urban and rural worldviews. While often overlooked in traditional economic studies of food distribution, anthropologist Rachel Black contends that social relations are essential for building and maintaining valuable links between production and consumption. Porta Palazzo, arguably Western Europe's largest open-air market, is a central economic, social, and cultural hub for Italians and migrants in the city of Turin.
From the history of Porta Palazzo to the current growing pains of the market, this book concentrates on points where trade meets cultural identities and cuisine. Its detailed and perceptive portraits of the market bring into relief the lives of the vendors, shoppers, and passersby. Black's ethnography illuminates the daily work of market-going and the anxieties of shoppers as they navigate the market. It examines migration, the link between cuisine and cultural identity, culinary tourism, the connection between the farmers' market and the production of local food, and the urban planning issues negotiated by the city of Turin and market users during a recent renovation.
This vibrant study, featuring a foreword by Slow Food Movement founder Carlo Petrini, makes a strong case for why markets like Porta Palazzo are critical for fostering culinary culture and social life in cities.
- Learn more about Rachel Black's research
- Order from University of Pennsylvania Press
- Order from Amazon
Gastronomy Program Congratulates 29 Graduates for Spring 2012 Commencement
The Boston University Gastronomy Program is thrilled to congratulate our largest group of graduates yet.
After completing core course work in theory and methodology, history, food and the senses, and anthropology, as well as self-selected electives, these students now go forth, armed with a unique interdisciplinary speciality in food.
We sincerely congratulate the following graduates:
- Katie Allen
- Mark Banville
- Ilona Baughman
- Rachel Bennett
- Danielle Ceribo
- Stephanie Chatelanat Marmier
- Annaliese Denooyer
- Colleen Harrison
- Whitney Johndro
- Anne Knopf
- Michael Kostyo
- Joyce Krystofolski
- Sarah Kurobe
- Nicole Leavenworth
- Tiesha Lewis
- Christopher Malloy
- Rudolf Manabat
- Leah Mawson
- Libby McCann
- Jennifer McJunkin
- Rona Moser
- Emily Olson
- Ashley Pardo
- Erin Powell
- Mabel Ramirez Reyes
- Daniel Remar
- Erin Ross
- Sarah Sholes
- Jason Sobocinski
The following students also completed a graduating project as part of their course work:
- Danielle Ceribo: "Soy Sauce and Coconut Milk: The Effects of Colonialism and Globalization on Guamanian Foodways"
- Annaliese DeNooyer: "Kitchen for Three"
- Anina Kostecki: "Nona Soup Business Plan …because everyone needs a Nona: Preparing to Launch a Food Service Business Focused on Soup and the Elderly"
- Joyce Krystofolski: "The Oral Transmission of Culinary Practices Among Italian Immigrant and Italian-American Women: The Relevance of the Cooking Process in the Formation of The Italian Female Identity"
- Libby McCann: "Always better when someone else makes it: Eating Culture in the Kitchen"
- Kristen Merrill: "The Habitant and the Hamsteak: The Preservation of Historic French-Canadian Foodways and New England Migration"
- Kristen Richards: "Using Food to Feed Minds: How Courses in Food and Culture Could Enhance the Potential of Future Hospitality Industry Leaders"
We wish all of our graduates well as they make their way in the world of food.
Alumnus Profile: Charles Shelton Earns Cocktail Celebrity
by Emily Contois
Charles Shelton’s love of the sensory experience of food (a.k.a. eating delicious food) grew over time into a gastronomic intellectual curiosity. “Food embodies values,” he says. “By studying food, we can experience the diversity of how people have engaged with food over time.”
After attending Ithaca College, Charles' intellectual food yearnings were satiated when he began the MLA Gastronomy program in June 2008. After completing the culinary certificate, studies in cheese, and a variety of courses in which he explored the aesthetic dimension of gastronomy, he graduated in May 2010. He credits Rebecca Alssid for engaging the best of Boston in the Gastronomy program, which greatly contributed to the quality of his education. After working at L’Espalier in Boston, Charles relocated to Austin, Texas, where he most recently worked at Uchi, a 2011 James Beard Award Winner.
Charles has also earned cocktail celebrity. He competed at the San Antonio Cocktail Conference held Saturday January 28, 2012. Among stiff drinks and even stiffer competition, he earned third place in the Original Cocktail Competition. The event attracted more than 150 spectators who enjoyed the spirited competition, featuring 32 amateur and professional contestants from across the country.
The final contestant to prepare his drink for a local panel of blind taste testers, Charles was the only winner who is not a bartender by trade. When creating a new cocktail, he starts with a classic and applies a new perspective. He enjoys using inspired ingredients and flavors that have symmetry and complement one another, such as his winning cocktail, a twist on the classic Manhattan.
The Protestant
- 1 ¼ oz. Sazerac Rye (or your favorite Rye)
- 1 ¼ oz. Hendrick's Gin
- ½ oz. Carpano Antica Vermouth
- ½ oz. Simple Syrup
- 4 dashes Angostura Bitters
- 2 dashes Orange Bitters
- Crème d'Yvette (Crème de Violette)
Chill a coupe glass with ice. Rinse coupe with Crème d'Yvette, discarding excess. Combine ingredients in mixer, shake vigorously with ice, strain into chilled rinsed coupe. Twist and flame orange rind over cocktail, wiping the rim with the flamed rind. Discard rind.
While we certainly wish we were like Shelton’s roommates who get to taste each of his cocktail experiments, we anticipate his future successes in the kitchen, behind the bar, and elsewhere in the world of food.
Emily is a current gastronomy student and graduate assistant, editing the Gastronomy at BU blog, January-August, 2012. Check out her research in food studies, nutrition, and public health on her blog, emilycontois.com.
Fall 2012 Course Spotlight – Culture & Cuisine: Quebec
The fall 2012 semester will bring not only New England's breathtaking fall foliage, but also a new course, Culture & Cuisine: Québec (ML 639 EL) taught by Rachel Black, PhD.
In this course, students will:
- Study the history of the Canadian province of Québec from a culinary perspective
- Investigate the native foodways of Québec
- Explore the multi-cultural heritage of this province through farming, cooking, and eating
- Experience firsthand the dynamic cuisine and products that make Québec a world-class culinary destination
- Have the guidance of one of Canada’s top food and wine writers, Rémy Charest
- Eat historic native and French Canadian dishes
- Visit farms and fisheries in the Kamouraska and Eastern Townships, including ice cider producers, eel interpretation center, and lamb producers
- Take part in a cheesemaking workshop
- Have dinner at Joe Beef and meet renowned chefs David MacMillan & Frédéric Morin
Course Logistics
- Course is open to graduate and undergraduate students
- ‘Blended’ course, with face-to-face and distance options
- Meets on campus in Boston: September 13, October 11, November 1 & November 29
- For distance students, there will be online content, recordings of lectures, and discussion in place of in-class meetings
- Travel to Québec: October 13-21, 2012
Course Cost
- $3,040 includes:
- 4 credits of graduate course work
- Transportation during the trip
- Daily meals: breakfast, lunch or dinner, and snacks
- Museum visits, guest lectures, and workshops
- Additional costs:
- Transportation to and from Québec
- Lodging
- Additional meals
- Healthcare coverage
For more information, contact Rachel Black