Founders

Alan Davidson's (1924-2003) first book, Mediterranean Seafood, started its life whilst he was in the British Diplomatic Service in the 1960s, and had a distinguished career, culminating in 1975 as H.M. Ambassador to Vientiane. Writing became his second career, and his opus comprised some of the definitive work both on fish and food history. He and his wife, Jane, formerly published an eccentric journal on food history, PPC, three times a year. His magnum opus, The Oxford Companion to Food, was published by the Oxford University Press in the autumn of 1999. Shortly before his death in 2003 the Dutch government awarded him the Erasmus Prize for his contribution to European culture, citing both his written work and his role in founding the Oxford Symposium. At the end of his life Davidson had researched Hollywood screwball comedies of the 1930s and 1940s, with the same enthusiasm he brought to studying the giant catfish of the Mekong.

Theodore Zeldin’s books include The French, Conversation, and An Intimate History of Humanity. He is in the Independent on Sunday’s list of forty world figures whose ideas are “likely to have a lasting relevance to the new millennium”. He has long been recognized as one of the most imaginative and creative thinkers in Britain, and has held visiting professorships at several places, including Paris and Harvard. A fellow of St Antony’s College Oxford, and a member of the BBC Brains Trust, he is currently engaged in research into relationships and work. Since 2002 he has been President of Oxford Muse, a group with a visionary programme for uniting whole communities. He was awarded the CBE in 2001.

The Symposium Co-chairmen

Claudia Roden’s books introduced an entirely new cuisine to the English-speaking world when she published the first edition of A Book of Middle Eastern Food in 1968. With The Book of Jewish Food (1996), which won eight major prizes, she established herself as the world’s foremost expert in two different if sometimes related food cultures, and she has also published important cookery books of Mediterranean and Italian food. Mrs Roden was awarded the highly distinguished Prince Claus 1999 Award for Culture for her cookery books, which constitute a virtual ethnography and history of the kitchen and the table, and for her contribution to promoting understanding among diverse cultures.

Paul Levy is an arts journalist and food writer. His eight books range from a biography of the philosopher G.E. Moore to The Penguin Book of Food and Drink.

History of the
Oxford Symposium

How the Oxford Symposium works

The Founders and
Co-chairmen

Oxford Symposium
Past Proceedings