How the Oxford Symposium works

Topics are chosen a year in advance: usually a very specific subject or particular foodstuff is alternated year on year with a more philosophical or esoteric topic. Hence in 2001 the Symposium discussed “The Meal”; in 2002, it addressed “Fat”; in 2003 the subject was “Nurture.” In 2004 the Symposium will take as its theme "Wild Foods: Hunters and Gatherers".

The serious endeavour of the Symposium is to bring together people with knowledge and experience to discuss and develop ideas on the chosen subjects. Invitations are issued to people who have a special expertise or interest in the subject to speak to the entire body, or to participate in a panel in a plenary session. Workshop papers are invited from previous Symposium members and interested parties across the world. These are distributed in advance to attendees (it is hoped soon to have them available for reading on-line) and the Symposium gathers over the course of a weekend to discuss the points raised by some of the papers: it strives to reach some interesting conclusions and, in the process, to discover new solutions to old problems. Much new material and new research is revealed at the Symposium each year, and members leave with a great sense of enrichment, stimulated with new ideas for further study. The papers are edited and published after the Symposium.

Business is tempered with a good deal of informal enjoyment. With three meals over the course of the weekend, and a discerning (one could say the most discerning possible) audience, a little imagination is required. Thus, the Saturday lunch is a communal ‘bring your own’ affair: Symposiasts arrive with a dish they have prepared themselves, or picked up in the course of their travels, to add to the communal buffet table for sharing with fellow Symposiasts. One can be sure to be intrigued, and nourished, by a fascinating array of dishes. The dinner on Saturday is a more structured affair, focusing on a particular cuisine (past dinner themes have ranged from Fish to Yorkshire to Mexico to Laos). A separate charge is made for this dinner, but even so it sometimes requires some subsidy from donors. Benefactors again assist in the Sunday lunch. From large grocers to small producers, Symposiasts are fed by the generous donations of people passionate about food.

The particular appeal of the Oxford Symposium is its informality, and the opportunity it offers to make new contacts in a field in which it is notoriously difficult to network. How else can two individuals fascinated with the finer points of food in Arabic poetry ever find one another, or an individual fighting to save a regional cheese be sure of a sympathetic and knowledgeable audience? Deliberately low cost to ensure that no one with a view to share should be discouraged from attending, it is through co-operative, voluntary effort that the Symposium lives.

History of the
Oxford Symposium

How the Oxford Symposium works

The Founders and
Co-charirmen

Oxford Symposium
Past Proceedings