The Feast

The Feast presents delectable stories from the dining tables of history. Our stories immerse you in the sights, sounds, & tastes of a meal from the past. Make bread with medieval monks; share a martini with Churchill. Find out what wars were won & which kingdoms were lost, all for the sake of a good meal. Email suggestions for episodes to thefeast@thefeastpodcast.org

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Episodes

Dining with the Dead in Imperial Rome

Image via Flickr/Chris (CC BY-ND 2.0) We’re back with a whole new season of feasting! Join us for a very special Halloween episode that takes us back to February in ancient Rome. Tag along with a Roman family as they prepare for the annual festival of Parentalia, where the best parties in town are happening down at the graveyard. Find out how to appease an angry Roman ghost with a lovely bouquet of roses and some…black beans? See how the Romans engineered their tombs to be homes away from home, ...

Oct 22, 2016•27 min

How King Midas Lost His Dinner

Situla found at the Gordion tomb, circa 700 BCE. Photo courtesy of Carole Raddato/Flickr No fables here! We’re travelling back 2700 years to uncover the case of King Midas’ lost funeral feast. Join us as we explore how an ancient civilization sent people off to the afterlife with a rocking good party. We’ll also learn how modern technology is revealing the diets of ancient civilizations as well as the recipe for the oldest cocktail in the world. Find out how historical tastes are making a comeba...

Sep 23, 2016•28 min

War Cake & Emergency Steak

Grab your ration books, The Feast is heading back to 1945! Find out how the US and Canada got patriotic with its cooking during World War II. This week we'll see how both radio and radar transformed North American food. What did Betty Crocker have to do with the war department? How do you bake a cake without eggs? And why did the Canadian government want people to drink more milk? From war brides to washing machines, get ready for a kitchen revolution on this week's episode. Written & Produc...

Sep 09, 2016•26 min

The Thousand Dollar Dinner

Parkinson's Ice Cream Shop, courtesy of the Historical Society of Philadelphia Dog days of summer getting you down? Why not treat yourself to a story about one of the first families of ice cream in 19th century Philadelphia? Learn how a modest ice cream shop went head to head with New York’s famous Delmonico’s to become one of the finest restaurants in America. A special feature from The Feast this week, in collaboration with Becky Diamond, author of “The Thousand Dollar Dinner”, we’ll cool you ...

Aug 26, 2016•36 min

A Sour & Salty Trip to Byzantium

What does ketchup have to do with medieval politics? Find out this week, when we travel back to 10th century Constantinople to dine at the emperor’s table. We’ll follow in the footsteps of a picky Italian ambassador who can’t find a thing to eat in the largest city in the medieval world! We’ll learn some ancient tricks for making wine & how a few lines of poetry can cure a nasty hangover. Discover how the fall of the Roman Empire profoundly changed the eating and drinking habits of western E...

Aug 12, 2016•34 min

Down with Pasta! Italian Futurist Cuisine in the 1930s

Can you imagine Italian food without pasta? This week, we journey back to the 1920s & 1930s when an artistic movement declared war on noodles, one of the most beloved Italian culinary traditions. Find out how the golden age of the airplane inspired an entirely new way of thinking about eating; when restaurants resembled aircraft hangers, chicken tasted of steel, and your dinner soundtrack was an airplane engine! Written & Produced by Laura Carlson Resident PunMaster & Technical Direc...

Jul 29, 2016•26 min

A Victorian Dinosaur Dinner

Illustrated London News, January 7 1854, Add MS 50150, f. 225 Ever dream of dining with a T.Rex? Join us for a New Year's Eve dinner in 1853 at London's famous Crystal Palace where you can meet the man who coined the term dinosaur itself, Sir Richard Owen. And dinosaurs won't just be the talk of the table, they'll be the table itself! Discover how one Victorian dinner helped to launch the dino-mania of today, from The Flintstones to Jurassic Park. Written & Produced by Laura Carlson Technica...

Jul 08, 2016•37 min

Episode 4: How Do You Solve a Problem like Christina? Papal Banquets in 1655

Queen Christina & Pope Clement IX; Drawing by P.P. Sevin Deposed queens, papal politics, sugar sculptures, & Bernini- a combination that could only happen at a Baroque feast! Join us this week as we explore the politics of feasting in the 1650s when Pope Alexander VII did the unthinkable & invited a woman to dinner! Learn about sugar sculptures that cost more than a car & how the design of an armchair had the potential to make or break Bernini's career. After all, no one throws a...

Jun 24, 2016•33 min

Episode 3: The Medieval Michelin Guide: Finding Food on the Camino de Santiago, 1490

Where can a medieval pilgrim expect to find a good meal on the Camino de Santiago? Learn how to survive your pilgrimage with Roman tips on how to make your bread last longer as well as where to find safe water while travelling in the countryside. We'll also sample some of the local diverse treats of medieval Spanish cuisine including the Persian-inspired dish of escabeche and miraculous pastries from a town where chickens are sacred. See you on the Camino! Written & Produced by Laura Carlson...

Jun 10, 2016•30 min

Episode 2: The St. Charles Hotel, New Orleans, 1846

Image courtesy of Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper via the Louisiana State Museum Join us for an opulent night at America's most famous hotel, the St. Charles in December, 1846. Located in the heart of New Orleans, we'll watch the golden age of Louisiana unfold before us. Joining some of the most prominent members of American society and politics, we'll dine in the finest French fashion on mock turtle soup, lobster salad, stuffed rooster, roasted bear, and more. See how meals were served in ...

May 31, 2016•31 min

Episode 1: Oktoberfest 1896

Travel back with us to Munich in 1896 to witness the origins of some of the most famous Oktoberfest traditions. We'll visit some of the earliest beer halls, sample some of the newest brews Munich has to offer, and eat all the German pretzels you can handle. How was Napoleon responsible for Bavarian beer? What do horse races have to do with a wedding feast? And just how do you roast an ox using a steam locomotive? Find out all this and more on this episode of The Feast. Researched, written, and p...

May 11, 2016•26 min

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