A Berliner Speaks
01 Dec 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In 2005, Luisa Weiss launched The Wednesday Chef, an early food blog. Today she has three books to h...
A Fresh Look at Domestication
17 Nov 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Selection had nothing to do with transforming grass into wheat, or any other aspect of domestication...
Revolutions are Born in Breadlines
04 Nov 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Anti-communists sent food and medical assistance. Communist sympathisers sent tractors. And both cou...
The Spice Bag
20 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The after-hours dish that conquered Ireland and the Irish everywhere.
Revisiting Historical Recipes
05 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In the end we can never know what people in the past tasted in their food, but a new method aims to ...
The Miracle of Salt
22 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
A new book shares more information about salt and ways to use it than you can imagine
New Light on Neanderthal Diets
08 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
“You yourself like caribou meat, and what are these maggots but live caribou meat? They taste just...
Pellagra
23 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
“There was no treatment for pellagra, aside from an improved diet, and ... we can’t improve the ...
Quinoa in the Po Valley
09 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
I didn’t realise, when I booked a brief holiday in the Po Delta, that I would be staying at the he...
Eat This Gets Advice
26 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Tara Schmidt, lead dietitian for the Mayo Clinic Diet, shares her thoughts on diet, diets and dietar...
Puglia
12 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In the past few decades Puglia has improved its food, wine and olive oil almost beyond recognition
The Paradox of Plenty
28 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
For much of the world, food has never been as abundant or as inexpensive as it is now, but at what c...
Farming’s Overlords
14 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Size and market concentration lock farmers onto a technological treadmill that does nobody any good,...
Quinoa’s rise and fall
17 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
A new book looks beyond the hype to chronicle the effect of an unsustainable boom on the entire quin...
Forbidden: Jews and the Pig
03 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
“The more that the pig comes to signify Jewish identity, the more it comes to signify Christian id...
Food facts are not the answer to fear of foods
17 Feb 2025
Contributed by Lukas
“What kind of food system do we want for the future? What kind of questions should we be asking? W...
Food, folklore and St Brigid
03 Feb 2025
Contributed by Lukas
“On the eve of a quarter day, the time is liminal, so there’s kind of a thinning of the space be...
Sensual, Salty, and a Little Bit Spicy
23 Dec 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Gilda; how Rita Hayworth might have inspired the original anchovy-on-a-toothpick
Better Diets for All
09 Dec 2024
Contributed by Lukas
“In a way, the multinational food industry is providing solutions for women.”
Bennett’s Law
25 Nov 2024
Contributed by Lukas
What foods do poor people buy when they have a bit more money? What you might expect, but not as muc...
The Cost of a Healthy Diet
11 Nov 2024
Contributed by Lukas
“Is it because of high prices? Is it because of low incomes? Or is it because ... you can’t see,...
Anchovies Part 2
28 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
”You know, anchovies are in our blood. My family’s been eating them for 500 years.” Er, no. No...
Anchovies Part I
14 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
To some, they’re stinky little fish in a tin can. To others, they’re a deep hit of umami delight...
Crunch Time: Insects Are Not Going to Save Us
30 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
”Insect farming mostly adds an inefficient and expensive layer to the food system we already have....
Olives Reborn in the Salento
16 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
The diease that has already killed 11 million olive trees in the south of Puglia might be a blessing...
Avocado Anxiety: how to choose what to eat
02 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Louise Gray’s new book dives deep into the trade-offs that accompany every food choice we make, wh...
Palatable is not Potable
17 Jun 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Why are some people tap-water hesitant and what do we expect water to taste like anyway?
Women Butchers
03 Jun 2024
Contributed by Lukas
“I thought, okay, I’m eating meat, but am I supposed to be eating meat? Would I ever kill an ani...
Leftovers Through History
13 May 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Throughout history, people repurposed food leftovers and surplus and animal byproducts, challenging ...
What is Chametz?
29 Apr 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In the end, the meaning of chametz rests on history and tradition, and new traditions are possible.
Passover and Easter Revisited
15 Apr 2024
Contributed by Lukas
God’s original instructions for Passover did not include one of the crucial items on the Seder pla...
Malta Besieged & Black-market Intrigues
01 Apr 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Ordinarily, evading food rationing in times of war is considered a crime. There are times when it mu...
The Case for Folic Acid Fortification
18 Mar 2024
Contributed by Lukas
The European Union has failed to implement one of the most effective public health interventions, on...
Anthony Mongiello, Inventor of the Stuffed Crust Pizza
04 Mar 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Pizza Hut says it invented the stuffed crust pizza. A judge agreed. But Anthony Mongiello has US pat...
Prehistoric cooking pots
19 Feb 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In many respects the diets of farmers and hunter-gatherers were more alike than different
The Invention of Baby Food
05 Feb 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Commercial baby food was perhaps the original industrial food product, with all that that entails
Black Stoneflower: A unique Indian spice
18 Dec 2023
Contributed by Lukas
A lichen, which has no taste of its own, contributes hugely to the flavour of many Indian dishes
A New Story for Maize Domestication
04 Dec 2023
Contributed by Lukas
A close look at more than 1000 varieties of maize solves a mystery about how the crop evolved from i...
Honey and Adulteration
13 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Why is honey the world’s third most-adulterated food? Because adulteration delivers profits.
Fat, Sugar, Salt
30 Oct 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Before he uncovered "Nutrition Science's Most Preposterous Result," David Johns had already dug into...
Jewish Food in Rome
16 Oct 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The Jewish Community of Rome arrived before the Christian Era and has never left. Its cuisine was cr...
Small Dairy
02 Oct 2023
Contributed by Lukas
If you’re lucky enough to live in the right place, you may be able to experience real, fresh, whol...
Food Riots in England
18 Sep 2023
Contributed by Lukas
When you’ve got nothing, you’ve got nothing to lose ... except your life
Milk is not a Superfood
04 Sep 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The first celebrity doctor's fad diet is still going strong today, 300 years later, and it has a lot...
Pomegranates & Artichokes
05 Jun 2023
Contributed by Lukas
“It is about migrations: of ingredients, of recipes, of stories — but most importantly of the p...
Why Did the Artist Cross the Chicken?
22 May 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Accumulating the genetic diversity of birds around the world in a population of truly cosmopolitan c...
Feeding the People in Wartime Britain
08 May 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Once upon a time, government made it possible for people to get a good meal at a reasonable price.
What is Wrong with Biofortification
24 Apr 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Yields are generally lower than those of unfortified varieties and there’s little evidence it work...
Making Mr Song’s Cheese
10 Apr 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The standard story is that ethnic Chinese don’t eat cheese or drink milk because they are lactose ...
What Price Chicken Wings?
27 Mar 2023
Contributed by Lukas
A chicken has two wings, two legs, two breasts; how does the market cope when all people want is win...
Patrik Johansson, the Butter Viking
13 Mar 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Patrik Johansson blends ancient knowledge and modern science to craft exquisite butter: hand-made, i...
Food Security in Egypt
06 Feb 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The price of subsidised bread in Egypt has not changed in decades, though the bread shrunk. That rem...
Fully Tested Tuna
23 Jan 2023
Contributed by Lukas
One tin of tuna may contain 10 times more mercury than another, and there’s no way to tell them ap...
Biodiversity at Liberty
09 Jan 2023
Contributed by Lukas
How farmers in Belgium and the south of France are taking advantage of new a EU regulation to become...
Feed Your Baby Like a Fascist
24 Dec 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Mussolini made the trains run on time, but that doesn’t work for hungry infants
Some thoughts on markets and such
12 Dec 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Speculators can actually drive prices higher, which was news to me
A Restaurant’s Reckoning
28 Nov 2022
Contributed by Lukas
“The corollary to white innocence is white passivity, the feeling that what one’s ancestors did ...
How to be a good host and a good guest
14 Nov 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Asking for a doctor’s note when your guest says they are allergic or intolerant is not an option
Feeding children well
31 Oct 2022
Contributed by Lukas
There’s a huge difference between neophobia and picky eating, just as there is between food and nu...
In search of tomato gold
17 Oct 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Organic growers and breeders in Europe are preparing to take advantage of their new freedom to sow b...
Mothers and Milk
03 Oct 2022
Contributed by Lukas
How can the simple and vital connection between mother and baby possibly be considered shameful?
Fad diets
20 Sep 2022
Contributed by Lukas
The average American starts in on a fad diet four times a year. A quarter give up after two weeks. W...
Empire and grain
04 Jul 2022
Contributed by Lukas
The ability to tax wheat moving through choke points gives empires their power, even today.
Grain and finance
27 Jun 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Wheat was money, when a store was no more than a store of goods to be exchanged for wheat.
Grain and transport
20 Jun 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Moving wheat from where it grows to where it is eaten shaped the world
Persephone’s secret
13 Jun 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Why did the participants in the Eleusinian Mysteries leave no trace of what it was about?
Peanuts, Senegal and Slavery
16 May 2022
Contributed by Lukas
France abolished slavery in 1815 but the practice continued long after that in its west African encl...
Garum: Rome’s new library and museum of food
02 May 2022
Contributed by Lukas
On the slopes of the Palatine Hill, supposedly on the site where the she-wolf suckled Romulus and Re...
Tomatoes: domestication and diversity
18 Apr 2022
Contributed by Lukas
New studies make sense of tomato’s transformation from teeny-fruited weed to diversity diva.
Aaron Vallance — 1dish4theroad
04 Apr 2022
Contributed by Lukas
A doctor in London chronicles his eating adventures through fact and fiction
Yes, we have no plantains
14 Mar 2022
Contributed by Lukas
What you call a plantain is probably an accident of history
Food Philosophy
21 Feb 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Discussions about food often “bump up against philosophy” according to an actual philosopher, wh...
Unconditional cash to improve nutrition
07 Feb 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Giving people cash improves dietary diversity and child growth
Ten thousand years of yoghurt
24 Jan 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Yoghurt is good for you, no doubt about that, although it probably will not confer eternal life.
High Art
20 Dec 2021
Contributed by Lukas
As an artist, looking down on Google Earth, Mishka Henner saw things that made him wonder — and th...
A visit to an ancient Roman bakery
06 Dec 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Farrell Monaco has studied, and brought back to life, the canonical bread of Ancient Rome. Now she b...
The true history of the potato in Europe
15 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
It may not contain wily aristocrats or superstitious peasants, but the true history of the potato is...
Rachel Roddy: An A–Z of Pasta
25 Oct 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Rachel Roddy had no intention of producing an encyclopaedia of pasta. Her book is more informative t...
Midnight’s chicken: Indian food evolution
11 Oct 2021
Contributed by Lukas
A dish that is today an icon of Indian food dates back only to 1947, using an ingredient that became...
Sushi
27 Sep 2021
Contributed by Lukas
The story of perhaps the greatest transformation in the history of food and how it continues today
Italian coffee: a temporary triangle
13 Sep 2021
Contributed by Lukas
"The cups might break, but the images recycle endlessly."
Food in post-independence India
21 Jun 2021
Contributed by Lukas
India gained independence in 1947 with nationalist politicians promising food for all and an end to ...
The original global food system
07 Jun 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Diet for a Large Planet shows how the world is still living with free trade policies from the 19th c...
Can Fixing Dinner Fix the Planet?
24 May 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Jess Fanzo takes a close look at what’s wrong with global food systems and how it might be possibl...
A very modern spice merchant
10 May 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Green Saffron is a new kind of spice merchant, that cares as much about how its spices are grown as ...
Coffea stenophylla tastes terrific
26 Apr 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Coffee that tastes of light black tea — a good thing — and is able to cope with warmer climates.
The Great Re-Think: What is agriculture for, really?
12 Apr 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Skill and craft over automation, complexity over simplicity, and diversity over monoculture
What is the value of functional foods?
29 Mar 2021
Contributed by Lukas
There’s one group of people that functional foods and superfoods can definitely help: the people w...
Naomi Duguid: Exploring the World through Food
15 Mar 2021
Contributed by Lukas
There may not be a recipe, but there’s always someone sitting behind your shoulder going tsk, tsk,...
The cost is too damn high
01 Mar 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Three billion people couldn’t afford a healthy diet even if they wanted to.
Still ticking
15 Feb 2021
Contributed by Lukas
These days, population is barely considered as a factor in food security. That doesn’t mean the pr...
The quest to conserve rare breeds
01 Feb 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Using land that could be used to feed people to feed animals is a terrible waste, but for today’s ...
The International Year of Fruits and Vegetables
18 Jan 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Emojipedia understands: 🍅 is both a fruit and a vegetable
Oh, poop
14 Dec 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Is our excrement simply a waste product, to be dumped out of sight and out of mind? Or is it a valua...
How the Brits became a nation of tea drinkers
30 Nov 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Persuading people to drink tea from the subcontinent more or less created the modern propaganda mach...
Where did the chicken cross the road?
16 Nov 2020
Contributed by Lukas
The DNA of chickens, sheep and cattle tells slightly different stories about their domestication
A Blissful Feast
01 Nov 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Her aunt’s gnocchi were enough to set Teresa Lust on a long and roundabout journey to learn more a...
Whole grain labels sow confusion
19 Oct 2020
Contributed by Lukas
We know what whole grain means. Whole grain food? Not so much.
Coffee leaf rust is bad news
05 Oct 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Coffee leaf rust is bad, but at least in the short term it may not be the threat you think it is
Carême at home in New Zealand
21 Sep 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Food for settlers in New Zealand used to be mutton, mutton, mutton and potatoes or potatoes. Not any...