Season 5, Artists is finally here. We launch into conversations with artists whose medium is food, matter, and other things esculent.  Host: Dr. Elizabeth McQueenProducer: Stace BaranTheme by Ronan DelisleAudio Support from Jenevieve Bohmann Esculent is brought to you by Professor Charlotte Bitekoff and the Darrel Corti Endowed Professorship in Food, Wine and Culture at University of California, Davis.

Thousands of television episodes leave a mark – not only on digital archives of our food media-saturated world – but on the host, the performer, as well. In the final episode of our second season with chefs, we speak with Chef Martin Yan, the host of Yan Can Cook. We discuss Chef Yan’s decades of work wth PBS, the importance of culinary education, not only entertainment, and the development of his archive with UC Davis Library. We are joined by Food & Wine Curator Audrey Russek, and just barely scratch the surface on all the mediums, stories, and impacts that Chef Martin Yan has made throughout his career, including his time as a UC Davis student. Tasting: Wolfskill Reserve Olive Oil from UC Davis Olive Center Viewing: Yan Can Cook: Winter Melon, Steamed Sea Bass, and Black Bean Chicken, aired on PBS in the 1980s Host: Elizabeth McQueenProducer: Stace BaranTheme by Ronan DelisleAudio Support from Jenevieve Bohmann This podcast is supported by the UC Davis Library and the Mellon Foundation Sawyer Seminar, Thinking Food at the Intersections.

Can we tell the story of a chef from 1490? Join podcast regular Professor Daniela Gutiérrez Flores as we attempt to recreate a recipe from Mestre Robert, a 15th-century chef and the author of Libre del Coch, the first printed cookbook. Join our reenactment where we speculate salt use, concern over squash cooking, and a huge sensory disagreement over rose water. Tasting & Viewing: Menjar Blanc de Carabasses by Mestre Robert in Libre del Coch Host: Elizabeth McQueenProducer: Stace BaranTheme by Ronan DelisleAudio Support from Jenevieve Bohmann This podcast is supported by the UC Davis Mellon Foundation Sawyer Seminar, Thinking Food at the Intersections.

Well-baked bread is an art in and of itself, but in this episode, we look at a few representational mediums of yeasty dough: poetry, photography, and animation, as forms that give new light to a thousand-year-old practice. Baker Jim Franks discusses his new book of poetry, Existential Bread (Drag City, 2025), and one of my favorite animations of food ever, evoking faint memories for both of us, just like a whiff of a good loaf. Jim Franks’ book is out now, with a cover designed by podcast favourite Jordan Rundle of Dazer! Tasting: Minh Phan’s Jujube Blossom Shrub Viewing: ‘Portraits of Women with Their Weight in Dough’ by Santina Amato (2019- ) and the 1947 Animated Short, Mickey and the Beanstalk Host: Elizabeth McQueenProducer: Stace BaranTheme by Ronan DelisleAudio Support from Jenevieve Bohmann This podcast is supported by the UC Davis Mellon Foundation Sawyer Seminar, Thinking Food at the Intersections.

I first smelled the freshly nixtamalized masa from Emmanuel Galvan of Bolita at the Gilman Wine Block, where the tender, vegetal umami scent carried above the crowds right into my nose. This episode, we focus on technological and labor challenges of nixtamalization in the present, specifically right in Berkeley – complicating the many ways nixtamalization makes corn esculent. Tasting: Tessier Wine’s Pinot Noir Viewing: “Memory,” the dish with tortillas from The Menu (2022) Host: Elizabeth McQueenProducer: Stace BaranTheme by Ronan DelisleAudio Support from Jenevieve Bohmann This podcast is supported by the UC Davis Mellon Foundation Sawyer Seminar, Thinking Food at the Intersections.

We are back with a dive into the archive featuring Chef Brandon Jew of Mister Jiu’s restaurant in San Francisco - featuring historic menus and historic buildings, and how this influences canonical Chinese American recipes like Peking Duck. We kick off Season 4: Chefs Pt. 2 with our literary inquiries into the work of Chefs, and how words, archives, and texts make the esculent. Tasting: A whiff of UC Davis Special Collections Viewing: Yan Can Cook: Winter Melon, Steamed Sea Bass, and Black Bean Chicken, aired on PBS in the 1980s Stay up to date with Esculent on our Instagram Host: Elizabeth McQueenProducer: Stace BaranTheme by Ronan DelisleAudio Support from Jenevieve Bohmann This podcast is supported by the UC Davis Mellon Foundation Sawyer Seminar, Thinking Food at the Intersections.

Season 4, Chefs is here: we revisit the dynamic role of the chef in popular culture through culinary literatures, from 15th-century cookbooks to PBS television series.  Tasting: A Russell Stover head of an Easter Bunny (context provided, sort of). Stay up to date with Esculent on our Instagram Host: Elizabeth McQueenProducer: Stace BaranTheme by Ronan DelisleAudio Support from Jenevieve Bohmann This podcast is supported by the UC Davis Mellon Foundation Sawyer Seminar, Thinking Food at the Intersections.

Can baking brownies save the planet? I’m a little embarrassed I even wrote this question out, but this rhetoric exemplifies the argument of our esteemed guest’s new book: The Problem with Solutions: Why Silicon Valley Can't Hack the Future of Food (UC Press, 2024). For our final episode of this season, we are joined by Julie Guthman, Distinguished Professor of Community Studies Emerita at the University of California, Santa Cruz. We discuss my favorite food film, shifts in university pedagogy, and how to conceive of doing good while maintaining critical thinking. Tasting: Renewal Mill Brownie Mix Viewing: Bong Joon-Ho’s Okja (2017) Stay up to date with Esculent on our Instagram Host: Elizabeth McQueenProducer: Stace BaranTheme by Ronan DelisleAudio Support from Jenevieve Bohmann This podcast is supported by the UC Davis Mellon Foundation Sawyer Seminar, Thinking Food at the Intersections. Season 3 is supported by Professor Daniela Gutiérrez-Flores.

Authenticity. An idea that has plagued many conversations on food. This week, we are joined by Professor Ignacio M. Sánchez Prado, the Jarvis Thurston and Mona van Duyn Professor in Humanities at Washington University in St. Louis. We interrogate the role of authenticity in constructing Mexican national identity through another culinary idea: that of the taco. We discuss the taco’s malleable history across regions, including Taco Bell. Stay tuned for Professor Sánchez Prado’s upcoming book on the taco and modernity! Tasting: Taco de machado con huevo by special guest Professor Daniela Gutiérrez-Flores Viewing: Viral Tiktok: White People Taco Night by Keith Habersberger and the Try Guys and MC Luka’s Lupita’s Taco Shop Stay up to date with Esculent on our Instagram Host: Elizabeth McQueenProducer: Stace BaranTheme by Ronan DelisleAudio Support from Jenevieve Bohmann This podcast is supported by the UC Davis Mellon Foundation Sawyer Seminar, Thinking Food at the Intersections. Season 3 is supported by Professor Daniela Gutiérrez-Flores.

How are processed and natural contested categories - rather than objective definitions- of food? These questions are at the center of Professor Charlotte Biltekoff’s new book, Real Food, Real Facts: Processed Food and the Politics of Knowledge. Joined by a special guest, Dan Polsby of Best Friends Wine, to introduce our tasting and complicate “real” wine, we discuss food science, industry, and the Food Inc. documentaries. Tasting: Sfera Bianco, 250mL can  Viewing: Trailers for Food Inc. (2006) and Food Inc. 2 (2024)  Stay up to date with Esculent on our Instagram Host: Elizabeth McQueenProducer: Stace BaranTheme by Ronan DelisleAudio Support from Jenevieve Bohmann This podcast is supported by the UC Davis Mellon Foundation Sawyer Seminar, Thinking Food at the Intersections. Season 3 is supported by Professor Daniela Gutiérrez-Flores.

We start off our third season featuring a conversation with Fabiola Santiago of Mi Oaxaca, exploring how indigenous knowledge is linked with mezcal and the colonial exploitation that occurs within Oaxaca today. From Mexico’s tourism board to the role of service and hospitality workers in disseminating knowledge around mezcal, this season, we are all about the big ideas that shape the esculent. Viewing: Mexico Tourism Board’s 2014 campaign for Oaxaca, “Live it to Believe it” Tasting: Kalawashaq Wine Cellars from Camins 2 Dreams Stay up to date with Esculent on our Instagram Host: Elizabeth McQueenProducer: Stace BaranTheme by Ronan DelisleAudio Support from Jenevieve Bohmann This podcast is supported by the UC Davis Mellon Foundation Sawyer Seminar, Thinking Food at the Intersections. Season 3 is supported by Professor Daniela Gutiérrez-Flores.

Back again. This season hosts four thinkers, shaping and questioning the ideas that make food esculent.  Reading: Excerpt from Professor Kyla Wazana Tompkins' new book, Deviant Matter (NYU Press, 2024) Tasting: Kermit Lynch Wine Merchant: 2023 Coteaux du Loir Rouge “Cuvée du Rosier” Stay up to date with Esculent on our Instagram Host: Elizabeth McQueenProducer: Stace BaranTheme by Ronan DelisleAudio Support from Jenevieve Bohmann This podcast is supported by the UC Davis Mellon Foundation Sawyer Seminar, Thinking Food at the Intersections. Season 3 is supported by Professor Daniela Gutiérrez-Flores. 

The celebrity chef is not a modern concept, as we discuss with Paul Freedman, Professor of History at Yale. Joined by podcast regular Professor Daniela Gutiérrez-Flores, we discuss early modern history, how food comes in and out of fashion, and what artistry might indicate in food history. And the conclusion of Season 2: Historians! Professor Freedman specializes in medieval social history, the history of Catalonia, comparative studies of the peasantry, trade in luxury products, and the history of cuisine.  His latest books are The Splendor and Opulence of the Past: Studying the Middle Ages in Enlightenment Catalonia (Cornell University Press, 2023) and (co-authored with Marc Aronson) Bite by Bite: American History through Feasts, Food, and Side Dishes (Simon & Schuster, 2024).  Viewing: Mark Bittman visits El Bulli in 2006, NY Times Tasting: Chateau Thivin Cote De Brouilly Half Bottle, 2022 from Wine on Piedmont Stay up to date with Esculent on our Instagram Host: Elizabeth McQueenProducer: Stace BaranTheme by Ronan DelisleAudio Support from Jenevieve Bohmann This podcast is supported by the UC Davis Mellon Foundation Sawyer Seminar, Thinking Food at the Intersections.

What does it take to understand food historically? This episode takes a philosophical turn as Jeffrey Pilcher, Professor of Food History, joins the podcast to discuss what it means to study, write, and taste food history. Jeffrey Pilcher is a Professor of History and Food Studies at the University of Toronto, Where he directs the Culinaria Research Centre. He is the author of several books, including Food in World History, 3d ed (2023) and Planet Taco: A Global History of Mexican Food (2012), and the newly released Hopped Up: How Travel, Trade, and Taste Made Beer a Global Commodity (2024). Viewing: Drunk History, Season 4, Episode 8, ‘Food’ Tasting: Stillwater Brewing’s Saké Style Saison Ale (special shout out to Wine on Piedmont for the suggestion!) Stay up to date with Esculent on our Instagram Host: Elizabeth McQueenProducer: Stace BaranTheme by Ronan DelisleAudio Support from Jenevieve Bohmann This podcast is supported by the UC Davis Mellon Foundation Sawyer Seminar, Thinking Food at the Intersections.

Corporate power is a relentless force in shaping how and what we eat. Join us this week with Professor Enrique C. Ochoa, author of the upcoming book México Between Feast and Famine: Food, Corporate Power, and Inequality, to discuss the role of corporations in constructing a thread of Mexico’s culinary history. Enrique C. Ochoa is Professor of History and Latin American Studies at California State University, Los Angeles Viewing: Disneyland’s Mission Tortilla Factory (2001-2011) Tasting: Arbol de Fuego by Vinos Pijoan Stay up to date with Esculent on our Instagram Host: Elizabeth McQueenProducer: Stace BaranTheme by Ronan DelisleAudio Support from Jenevieve Bohmann This podcast is supported by the UC Davis Mellon Foundation Sawyer Seminar, Thinking Food at the Intersections.

Much of food history is a history of trade: how crops, plants, and tastes move around the world. Professor Andrés Reséndez discusses a trade route often overlooked in the 16th and 17th centuries, that of the Manila Galleons, one that can be overshadowed by the intellectually exhausted narrative of the Columbian Exchange. We also eat corn puffs. And an extra special reading by poet Rick Barot from his book, The Galleons. Professor Andrés Reséndez is a professor of history at the University of California, Davis. Reséndez specializes in early European exploration and colonization of the Americas, the U.S-Mexico border region, and the early history of the Pacific, particularly the pioneering voyages of discovery and the biological exchanges across the largest ocean on Earth. He is the author of Conquering the Pacific: An Unknown Mariner and the Final Great Voyage of the Age of Discovery (2021) and The Other Slavery: The Uncovered Story of Indian Enslavement in America (2017) Tasting: Golden Sweet Corn from Regent Foods Reading: The Galleons, featuring poet Rick Barot Stay up to date with Esculent on our Instagram Host: Elizabeth McQueenProducer: Stace BaranTheme by Ronan DelisleAudio Support from Jenevieve Bohmann This podcast is supported by the UC Davis Mellon Foundation Sawyer Seminar, Thinking Food at the Intersections.

Is meat modern? We explore this question and more with a historical dive into human relations with animals across the Atlantic from 1492 (yes, that 1492). Professor Marcy Norton (University of Pennsylvania) brings insights from her new book, The Tame and the Wild (Harvard University Press, 2024) We discuss colonialism, Western concepts of esculent, and pre-colonial Indigenous life with animals in the Americas.  Tasting: Impossible Meat Viewing: Shina Nova’s TikTok page Professor Marcy Norton (Ph.D. Berkeley) is a historian of the early modern Atlantic World, with a focus on Latin America and Spain. Along with The Tame and the Wild, publications include Sacred Gifts, Profane Pleasures: A History of Tobacco and Chocolate in the Atlantic World (Cornell University Press, 2008), and “Subaltern Technologies and Early Modernity in the Atlantic World” (Colonial Latin America Review, 2017).  Stay up to date with Esculent on our Instagram Host: Elizabeth McQueenProducer: Stace BaranTheme by Ronan DelisleAudio Support from Jenevieve Bohmann This podcast is supported by the UC Davis Mellon Foundation Sawyer Seminar, Thinking Food at the Intersections.

Welcome to Season 2: Historians! Dr. Shantel George visits Esculent from the University of Glasgow to discuss the history of the Kola nut, West African spirituality in food history, and community in research.  Tasting: Coca-cola Viewing: Series finale of Mad Men, Season 7, Episode 14 (AMC) Read more about Dr. George’s research and publications Stay up to date with Esculent on our Instagram Host: Elizabeth McQueenProducer: Stace BaranTheme by Ronan DelisleAudio Support from Jenevieve Bohmann This podcast is supported by the UC Davis Mellon Foundation Sawyer Seminar, Thinking Food at the Intersections

We are back! Season 2: Historians, is here. Join us for six episodes exploring food history: from research methods to turning points in the history of chefs to influential commodities and more.  Read more about Dr. Amr Shahat's research. Stay up to date with Esculent on our Instagram Host: Elizabeth McQueenProducer: Stace BaranTheme by Ronan DelisleAudio Support from Jenevieve Bohmann This podcast is supported by the UC Davis Mellon Foundation Sawyer Seminar, Thinking Food at the Intersections.

A belated season trailer - we're still getting the hang of it. Listen to find out why season one begins with chefs, and get a hint at what is coming up in 2025!Cooking with Beer on Emeril Live, Food Network (Season 1, Episode 13, 2002)Chef's Table, Netflix (Season 1, Episode 1, 2015) Stay up to date with Esculent on Instagram Host: Elizabeth McQueenProducer: Stace BaranTheme by Ronan DelisleAudio Support from Jenevieve Bohmann This podcast is supported by the UC Davis Mellon Foundation Sawyer Seminar, Thinking Food at the Intersections.