It's a very special live episode from The Feast! In honor of Women's History Month, we're bringing you a live discussion of women and cocktails in American history, straight from the Rosson House in Phoenix's Heritage Square. Before the 1920s with its flappers and speakeasies, who were the mixed drinks mavens of US history? We take a long look at women and drinks in the US, from Revolutionary War era recipes for spruce beer to how many wine glasses it takes to make a Victorian dinner party to th...
Mar 03, 2018•55 min•Season 2Ep. 39
This week The Feast is on tour, heading to Phoenix Arizona to talk manhattans, martinis, and other mixed drinks with the fantastic folks at the Rosson House in Heritage Square. We'll be exploring the great and often forgotten women behind America's cocktail past, whether they were pouring Sazeracs in their Victorian homes or writing their own cocktail guides during the height of Prohibition. Don't worry if you can't get to Phoenix in time, we'll be bringing you this live event next week as a spe...
Feb 23, 2018•38 min•Season 2Ep. 39
As the Year of the Dog approaches, join us for noodle rolls and year cake in the city of Markham, Ontario- home to some of the best Cantonese restaurants and Asian supermarkets outside China! We talk to Teresa Zhang, whose family hails from Guangzhou, as we feast on Cantonese specialties and go hunting for geoduck and yellow chives at a nearby Asian grocery store. And what do chives have to do with the Great Chinese Garlic Dump of 2001 anyway? And what on earth is a garlic dump? All this and mor...
Feb 09, 2018•30 min•Season 2Ep. 38
Alexander Dumas was among the most beloved writers of the 19th century, responsible for classics like The Three Musketeers & The Count of Monte Cristo. But did you know Dumas longest work was devoted entirely to his other passion? Food! Written at the end of his life, Dumas' Le Grand Dictionnaire de Cuisine, published posthumously in 1873, is part cookbook, part memoire, and 100% unique. From celery-based hangover recipes to 200 lb. sturgeon centrepieces, Dumas' book is a portrait of French ...
Jan 26, 2018•33 min•Season 2Ep. 37
With 2018 finally here, it's resolution time! Over 1/3 of Americans have resolved to eat healthier this year and, for many, that means adopting a more plant-forward diet. From buffalo fried cauliflower to tempeh fish and chips, it's clear that vegetarian and vegan diets are on the rise. But a meat-free lifestyle is no passing fad. From the ancient Greek Pythagoras to George Bernard Shaw, the rise of the vegetarian movement has been thousands of years in the making. But who were some of these ear...
Jan 12, 2018•32 min•Season 2Ep. 36
Join us for a special holiday episode where we investigate the rich mixed drink history of Virginia with Micah LeMon, bartender and author of The Imbible, A Cocktail Guide for Beginning & Home Bartenders. What did Virginia citrus have to do with the birth of the California orange industry? And can we really trace an eggnog recipe back to George Washington's Mt. Vernon? We'll bust some cocktail myths while exploring the contributions Virginia has made to the mixed drink industry over the last...
Dec 15, 2017•33 min•Season 2Ep. 35
From medieval butter towers to prehistoric bee-keepers, this week we're examining the divine associations with global foods with Emelyn Rude, editor of the new food history magazine Eaten. Join us as she gives us a sneak peak of "The Food of the Gods", the first volume of the magazine, available now! We'll learn how mortals and immortals have been making, sharing, and fighting over food since the birth of humanity itself. Learn what foods can keep the gods on your side, from ancient Roman honey ...
Dec 07, 2017•33 min•Season 2Ep. 34
Think you can eat 50 bowls of noodles? What about 100? This week, The Feast explores the tradition of wanko soba from Iwate, Japan, where families and friends compete to see who can slurp the most noodles in a single sitting. But what makes soba, or buckwheat, the preferred noodle for this centuries-old food contest? We'll dig into the celebrated history of food competitions in pre-modern Japan where writers depicted epic battles waged amongst favorite foods. Forget tiger versus shark; what abou...
Nov 24, 2017•32 min•Season 3Ep. 33
From the Caesar salad to Fettucini Alfredo, we're surrounded by dishes named for famous figures in history. But how many can claim to be the national dessert of not one, but two countries? This week, we're taking a look at the origins and history of the Pavlova, named for one of the world's first ballerina superstars. Famous for making the Russian ballet popular on the international stage, Anna Pavlova inspired devoted fans from Argentina to India to Japan. But how did her name end up attached t...
Nov 10, 2017•34 min
Dead chefs tell no tales! Except on Halloween, that is. This week, we're bringing you the story of a ghostly banquet straight from the sagas of medieval Iceland. A mix of fact and fiction, sagas provide some of the only clues we have about early Icelandic cooking. Today, the island's cuisine may be famous for its fermented shark and its luscious skyr, but we'll learn what was on the menu 1,000 years ago when a dead woman decided to play chef for the night. Find out what happens when you eat the ...
Oct 27, 2017•30 min
This week we’re discovering the meal that changed the face of American Judaism. Featuring Dr. Jonathan Sarna of Brandeis University, we’ll learn how a lavish banquet in 1883 Cincinnati kicked off a fierce debate about what it means to keep kosher. How did a dish of frogs’ legs bring about one of the largest religious arguments the US has ever seen? We’ll explore how a dispute over regional Jewish foodways changed the face of the religion at the end of the 19th century- from a dream of a single u...
Oct 13, 2017•34 min
Join us as we discover the rich culinary history of Syrian communities in New York City. Beginning in the 1880s, Syrian immigrants settled in lower Manhattan, setting up food shops, restaurants, and grocery stores. We'll taste fermented milk at Arta's Restaurant, reviewed by the New York Times in 1899. We'll listen to opera at Kalil's, a Syrian-owned restaurant which boasted seating for 1,000 at a time! We'll speak to Linda K. Jacobs, a descendant of New York's Syrian Colony and author of Strang...
Sep 28, 2017•44 min
Zephyr Wright (left) & Laura Dollie Johnson (right) This week, we're exploring the unsung history of African American cooks in the White House with soul food scholar, Adrian E. Miller, author of "The President's Kitchen Cabinet: The Story of the African Americans Who Have Fed Our First Families, from the Washingtons to the Obamas". Join us as we uncover the history of two formidable women who put their stamp on American history through their cooking. We'll look at the life of Laura Dollie Jo...
Sep 14, 2017•40 min
Courtesy of Nawal Nasrallah This week we're travelling to the golden age of the Islamic Empire in 10th century Baghdad. Hidden in a bustling paper market, we'll visit a mysterious bookmaker responsible for one of the largest cookbooks from the medieval world. While it may not have exactly 1,001 recipes (only 632 at last count...), the book is a treasure trove of medieval dining etiquette, recommendations for healthy eating, and some of the best food poetry we've ever read (ode to fried fish, any...
Sep 01, 2017•41 min
An early 20th century advertisement for an electrical range from the Toronto Electric Light Company Discover the untold history of electricity in the kitchen. Although the earliest electrical ovens were cooking banquets by 1892, the average North American consumer was slow to adopt this electrifying new technology. With only a tiny percentage of homes wired by 1900, electricity in the kitchen had a long road to go before the countless toasters, coffee makers, blenders, and food processors of tod...
Aug 17, 2017•35 min
The Feast is back! And our debut episode for Season Two is out of this world. Literally! We're going back to one of the most (in)famous meals in the history of NASA, when a contraband corned beef sandwich snuck aboard Gemini 3 in 1965. We'll explore how space food has changed over the years. No more Tang and freeze-dried ice cream for modern astronauts, the space food of tomorrow may include everything from homemade sourdough bread to wine. We'll talk to Sebastian D. Marcu, CEO and founder of Ba...
Aug 04, 2017•38 min
Dreaming of our new season....(and jello) We're cooking up a delicious new season, debuting Friday, August 4th 2017! Discover the hidden stories behind competitive Soba eating in Japan, how the electric oven revolutionized the modern kitchen, and the unsung stories of African American chefs in the White House. All this and more on our delectable season two, starting with a stellar first episode on the history of space food! Don't miss out, subscribe today to The Feast and get ready for more meal...
Jul 21, 2017•3 min
Photo by Kyle Murphy of KNM Portraits On this very special season finale, we've teamed up with Liz Birnbaum and The Curated Feast to bring you a mythic meal that'll take you from the roots to the stars. Join Liz and her guests at a secret underground location near Santa Cruz, California as they dine on food fit for the gods. We'll explore how food played an integral role in ancient folklore, representing cycles of birth, death, and renewal. Why did the ancient Egyptians associate barley with Osi...
May 18, 2017•43 min
The Ramos Gin Fizz. The Sazerac. The Mint Julep. Cocktails can have some great origin stories, but how can you tell sober fact from tipsy fiction? This week, we're going cold turkey to get the details behind that noble institution of pre-dinner drinking: the cocktail party. Legend (or Wikipedia) says the first cocktail party was held by Mrs. Julius S. Walsh Jr. in 1917 St. Louis. As we'll learn, the real story is *way* more complicated, stretching from Revolutionary America to the swinging 1970s...
May 02, 2017•44 min
What's the most iconic fair food? Popcorn? Hot dogs? Deep-fried apple pie on a stick? Today, fair food and the fryer may be a match made in heaven, but where did the trend of eating adventurously at the fair start? Today, we're heading back to the original American fair: the Centennial Exposition of 1876. But don't get out the deep-fried twinkies just yet. Turns out, the biggest battle in 19th century American fair food was about fine dining! Despite the white tablecloth service visitors receive...
Apr 19, 2017•32 min
Cuccagna Arch of Bread, Cheese, and Suckling Pigs on the Feast of Saint John the Baptist, Naples 1630. Courtesy of the Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles. Photo by Mike Portt Forget Hansel & Gretel's candy cottage, Naples was building fortresses of food in the 18th century! This week, we're investigating the Neapolitan tradition of cuccagna- a festival celebrating a mythical land of food, where roast chicken rained from the skies and wine flowed in rivers. Learn how early modern Neapolita...
Apr 03, 2017•30 min
The meat served at the 1951 Explorers Club Annual Dinner. Division of Vertebrate Zoology, YPM HERR 19475. Courtesy of the Peabody Museum of Natural History, Yale University, New Haven, CT, USA. Pass the mastodon, would you? This week we're talking about the famous Explorers Club Dinner of 1951, where woolly mammoth (or was it ancient giant sloth?) was a featured appetizer. We'll find out how a Connecticut museum ended up with the leftovers of this crazy meal & how it took over 60 years to fi...
Mar 20, 2017•54 min
Photo by Mike Portt This week, we're headed to the land of bean trees & cholla buds: the Sonoran Desert. Home to UNESCO's new capital of gastronomy, Tucson, we'll trace the desert's diverse culinary history, from the cornfields of the Hohokam to the mission gardens of the German Jesuits. Why did 18th century missionaries bring fruit trees to Sonora? Could heritage wheat be the solution to sustainable farming in southern Arizona? We'll look at several projects revitalizing the ancient foodway...
Mar 02, 2017•49 min
This week, take the escalator to menswear and turn left at home goods. We're heading to the glory days of department store dining with a trip back to old Toronto. Learn how Eaton's and Simpson's battled for the hearts and dollars of Torontonians through their opulent in-store restaurants. We'll explore why these stores are remembered more for their chicken pot pies than for their sales! We'll enjoy a nostalgic dinner at the historic Arcadian Court, a survivor of the golden age of department stor...
Feb 13, 2017•37 min
This week, The Feast is bringing you a very special Canadian episode dedicated to Chinese New Year! We're exploring an opulent Han Dynasty banquet from the second century CE as the basis for our own Chinese New Year celebrations in Toronto. Join us as we search for the origins of tofu, find out the proper way to make a baijiu cocktail, & recite some foodie poetry from ancient China. All this & more rooster puns than you can shake a tail feather at on this week's episode of The Feast. Wri...
Jan 30, 2017•36 min
Feeling punchy this inauguration season? Take a note from Andrew Jackson & join the wildest party the White House has ever seen! In our first episode of 2017, we’re heading to 1829 when 10,000 people crashed Jackson’s Inauguration Reception for a bit of cake and barrels of free punch. But was this party as wild as rumors have suggested? Did Jackson plan the whole thing? And where did all those punch barrels come from? We’ll learn the history of the popular tipple & why it’s been the drin...
Jan 16, 2017•36 min
Sitting down to the traditional holiday ham this season? This week on The Feast, we're celebrating the unofficial animal of winter: the pig! Find out why a boar's head is the center of holiday traditions from London to Louisville. We'll learn a porcine Christmas carol, some tips on how to buy off the mayor of medieval London, & why an Oxford college still celebrates an epic 14th century battle of student vs. pig. Discover the distant & unexpected roots of the spiral-cut holiday ham this ...
Dec 19, 2016•30 min
Moose milk. Powdered eggs. Coffee a la Yukon. This week, The Feast is heading to the Canadian wilderness- where 10,000 US soldiers helped to build the Alaskan Highway in 1942. But how do you feed an army in the middle of nowhere? We'll look at how these soldiers survived arctic winters & mosquito-plagued summers with the latest in military food technology, including dehydrated foods and the rise of the dreaded C-Ration, the meal for the soldier on the go. With nothing but powdered milk and t...
Dec 05, 2016•32 min
Photo by Rocio Carvajal, www.passthechipotle.com Struggling to decide what to have for lunch today? Take a tip from history & pack a pie! This week, The Feast explores how the pastry pie was the original grab & go lunch option, from the Ottoman börek to the Cornish pasty to the Hot Pocket. Although the Cornish pasty may be an icon of English cuisine, learn how a small town in the mountains of Mexico made this traditional mining meal their own. Plus, all the EU pastry laws you can handle ...
Nov 21, 2016•37 min
It’s that time of gruyère: it’s the Feast’s election episode! And we’re dedicating a whole show to some great White House food traditions. What do you get the President that has everything? A giant cheese, of course! Not just for fans of “The West Wing” anymore, we’re looking into the weird and wacky world of White House cheeses, going back to one of the founding fathers himself, Thomas Jefferson. Find out how a 1200-pound cheese ended up on the president’s doorstep one cold January morning in 1...
Nov 05, 2016•39 min
