The Kitchen as Research Lab

Biology Building, Room 101

For the past two decades, Ken Albala has been seeking to recreate historic recipes both in the archive and on the table. This talk will recount in words and pictures the many hands-on experiments he has conducted that have propelled the field of food history in ways that were unthinkable a generation ago. The goal of his work has been not merely to cook for the purpose of entertainment and pleasure, but to understand the aesthetic choices people make in the past as part of their overall sensibilities, akin to those in art and architecture, music and literature.