12-14 July 2019 at St Catherine’s College, Oxford
Report by Laura Shapiro
It was Friday afternoon, we were piling into the lecture theater for the traditional 4:00 pm welcome and plenary session, and as I looked around at the excited faces I remembered all over again why for me the Symposium is the most exhilarating weekend of the year. It’s the people, it’s that amazing array of people — 250 this time, from 27 countries, and everyone in the room certifiably food-crazed, bringing something unique to share by way of knowledge or ideas or dreams.
This year’s theme was “Food and Power,” a topic that inspired an immensely varied range of papers and lots of lively, sometimes contentious debate. Since the papers themselves will be made available, I’ll concentrate here on the plenary talks — four of them, all focused in one way or another on the way the food industry has amassed power of a practically immeasurable size and scope.
I looked around at the excited faces I remembered all over again why for me the Symposium is the most exhilarating weekend of the year.
But before I get into that, I have to say a word about Aglaia Kremezi’s brief presentation on Friday afternoon at the end of the session, just before we broke and made our way to drinks and dinner. It was a spoken memoir: she called it “Power Lunch of a Different Kind” and evoked what she said was the worst part of every day during her childhood — the family midday meal.
“My father was lord and master,” she said, and the females in the family were expected to be submissive. Everything had to be ready at 2:00 pm exactly as he liked it or his anger erupted. Contradict him, and you got a slap. These lunches were miserable times, Aglaia said; and she grew up determined to have a life exactly the opposite of the one he wanted for her.
Plenary Sessions
Keynotes
Joanna Blythman
The Power of Enjoyment in the Face of Industrialized Food
Roberta Wedge
Whoever Wields the Pen, Stirs the Pot: Wikipedia’s Power to Shape Reality introduced
Marion Nestle
Power in the Food System: Big Food vs. Everyone Else
Carolyn Steel
Tale of Two Cities: Paris, London and the Political Power of Food
Zita Cobb
Lessons from a Small Island for a Small Planet
OFS Rising Scholar
Siobhan Dooley
Serving Up A Slice of Africa: Food, Drink, Race, and Identity in Empire Adventure Stories
OFS Young Chefs
Monica Bettson, Aisling Kearns, Kardelen Soyalp, Yolanda Wu
Events
Wiki-editathon
Food & (mostly) Women, organized by Roberta Wedge.
Folger Manuscript transcribathon
Organized by Heather Wolfe with Amanda Herbert.
Meals
Friday Dinner
The Power of Food in the Columbian Exchange
Devised by – Sandra Mian
Cooked by – Liz Galicia of El Mural de los Poblanos, with Tim Kelsey and the St Catz Kitchen.
To start – Tostadas de guacamole con chapulines: fried maize tortillas with avocado salsa and grasshoppers. Tlacoyos de frijol con salsa de chipotle cebolla fresca picada y queso fresco. Maize tortillas, filled with beans then fried, served with a chipotle salsa, raw minced onions and fresh cheese. Ensalada de nopal. fresh nopal (cactus paddle) salad.
Main course– Mole poblano con guajolote, arroz a la Mexicana. Turkey cooked in mole poblano, Mexican rice.
Dessert – Pan de elote con amaranto. Fresh maize (corn) and amaranth cake. Traditional Puebla sweetmeats. Tortita de Santa Clara. Camotes – candied yam. Macarrone.
Wines – Vino blanco 2018 casa Madero 2V Chardonnay/Chenin Blanc. 2018 Casa Madero Gran Reserva Chardonnay. Mezcal Los Danzantes
Saga from Cervecería 5 de Mayo. Sweet white wine, 2018 Casa Madero Cosecha Tardía
Saturday Lunch
The Healing Power of Cooking Together
Devised by – Leila Hedjem and Gamze Ineceli
Cooked by – Munira Mahmud, Fatima Odonkor, Halima Al-Huthaifi, and Lillian Olwa along with Tim Kelsey and the St Catz Kitchen.
Menu – Fattoush Salad with Sumac and Pomegranate Dressing. Citrus and Mint Yogurt Spread. Spicy Peanut Dip with Yemeni Bread. Aubergine Masala with Basmati Rice. Rose Petal Scented Fruit Salad and Indian Shortbread.
Wines – 2017 Eckelsheim “vom Porphyr“ Riesling trocken – Sina Mertz. 2018 Westhofen Riesling trocken – Katharina Wechsler. 2016 Westhofener Morstein Riesling trocken – Katja Rettig. 2017 Nierstein “vom Rotliegenden” Riesling trocken – Lisa Bunn. 2017 Schwabsburg Riesling trocken – Christine (F.E.) Huff. 2017 Laubenheimer Edelmann Riesling trocken – Mirjam Schneider. 2017 Kalkader Riesling trocken – Eva Vollmer
Saturday Dinner
The Power of Frugal Greek Cooking
Devised and cooked by – Aglaia Kremezi and Chef Michael Costa of Zaytinya, with Tim Kelsey and the St Catz Kitchen
Meze – Tsiros – smoked mackerel with dill vinaigrette on Kythera olive oil rusk. Dakos – barrel aged feta on crumbled barley rusks, with cherry tomato, thyme and coriander relish. Olive Oil with Cyclades Herbs. Kochlee – petit gris snails braised in onion and tomato sauce. Loza – cured, smoked and air dried pork from Kea – macerated in wine, rubbed in winter savory, allspice, and pepper. Santorini Fava – pureed split peas topped with capers, scallions, parsley, and radicchio; served with eastern Mediterranean red pepper vinaigrette.
Main course – Arni Tsigariasto – slowly braised lamb with onions, lemon, and Greek mountain oregano. Patates Riganates – olive oil and lemon baked potatoes with mustard and oregano.
Dessert – Portokalopita – orange and crumbled phyllo cake with strawberries and manouri cheese drizzled with grape molasses.
Wines – Kechris 2018 Afros & 2018 Roza. Pavlidis 2015 Thema Syrah & Agiorgitiko. Parparoussis 2015 Mavrodaphne. Rouvalis 2017 Tsigello Mavrodaphne. Zafeirakis 2016 Limniona. Tetramythos. 2017 Black of Kalavyrta Agiorgitiko. Skouras 2013 Grande Cuvée Nemea. Cavino 2013 Mega Spileo Grand Cave Mavrodafne & Mavro Kalavritino. Kechris 2018 Tear of the Pine Assyrtiko. Papagiannakos 2018 Savatiano Old Vines. Parparoussis 2016 Muscat de Rio Patra. 2003 Mavrodaphne ReserveSigalas. 2013 Vinsanto Assyrtiko & Aidani. Cavino 2018 Samos Vin Doux. 2001 Mavrodaphne Reserve
Sunday Lunch
With Her Hands: food sourced from women: farmers, bakers, cheesemakers, an apiarist, and producers at Borough Market
Devised by – David Matchett
On the table – Bread by Nadia Gencas at Karaway Bakery: Grandmothers Bread, Dark rye with nuts and raisins, White Sourdough, Roasted Onion and Dill, Lithuanian scalded rye. Cheese from Neals Yard: Durrus by Jeffa Gill, Appleby’s Cheshire made by Sarah Appleby. Tymsboro by Mary Holbrook R.I.P. St Cera and St Jude by Julie Cheyney. Brefu Bach by Carie Rimes. Vegan Cheese from Angela Chou at I Am Nut Ok. Selection of Preserves from Elspeth Biltoft at Rosebud Preserves. Italian Raw honey by Anna Borzonni via Sam Wallace at From Field and Flower. Salad selection from Kath Dawson at Kaths Veg. Traybakes by Alice Williams and the empowered bakers from Luminary Bakery. Vegan Ice cream from Ruby and Grace by Deborah Grace Taiwa.
Wine – 2018 Furmint from Heidi Schröck, Weinbäuerin in Rust/Burgenland, Austria
After dinner events
Food and Power:
An Interviewer Confronts a Politician to Reveal Uncomfortable Truths about Our Food Systems, Len Fisher and Elisabeth Luard
Altar de Meurtos A Different Kind of Power
A place to honor loved ones and share memories, culinary and otherwise.
Blood Sugar:
Creatively Remaking Sweetness and Power, on the Stage and in the Archives, Amanda Herbert
Engaging with food policy
A convivial discussion hosted by David Matchett from Borough Market and Ellie Costigan from Market Life.
Parallel sessions & Papers
— Challenging the Power Relations: Hybrid Foods in a Palestinian Town in Israel
— Ammachis: Challenging Gender Norms in Sri Lanka’s North
— Imagining Fritter Power: Diaspora Centered at the Margin
— Shooting them Softly: Photographing Lower-Class Eaters in Belle Époque Paris.
— Gastrodiplomacy and the UK Diplomatic Network
— ‘Under the Cover of Savory Vapors’—Opossums, Power, and Jim Crow Politics.
— Sushi, Sake, and Women
— Potlach: Ceremonial Food and Family Power.
— ‘Using their native cunning’: Oxford College Servants and Their Perquisites in the Nineteenth Century.
— Food as Power in the Letters of Isabelle d’Este
— Food Production, Consumption and Resistance by Japanese Americans Incarcerated by the US Government During World War II
— Muckamuck: Restaurants, Labour, and the Power of Representation.
— Hunger Strikes as Weapons of Resistance inside Farms and Prisons in the United States
— Eating French, Being French: Gastronomy and National Identity in Contemporary France
— Food, Identity Politics, and Political Correctness in the UK
— Marx in my Food Technology? …the Recent Dialectical Emergence of Post-Modernity in Cuisine.
— Counter Narratives: American and Canadian Feminist Restaurants from 1972-Present.
— Weaponizing Food: Communism, the Democratic Transition and Transformations of Taste.
— Sugar and Show: Power, Conspicuous Display and Sweet Banquets During Henri III’s 1547 Visit to Venice
— Canadian Women, Government, and Power at the 1917 Food Control Convention
— Making Yakiniku Japanese: Erasing the Korean Contribution from Japan’s Food Culture
— American Community Cookbooks and Women’s Empowerment in the 19th and early 20th Centuries.
— The Power of Eating Together, or the Story of Why Banquets were the Core of Marriage in the Past
— Not in One Place: Parenteral Nutrition and Time-Space Compression.
— Encounters of Food and Power in the Australian Colonial Contact Zone. Hanover M Vale – The United States’ Attempt to Restructure Philippine Foodways Following the Philippine-American War.
— Meat and Power in Communist Romania.
— Going Hungry in the Magdalene Laundries (1922-1996)
— Everything but the Kitchen Syndicate … France’s First Trade Union for Female Cooks.
— Sustainable Gastronomy: Power and Energy Use in Food – Is It Possible to Fight Climate Change through Cookery?
— ‘Mom’ vs the FDA: How Laurie Nolan made the FDA Change the Tilefish Warning and Then Cooked Dinner.
— A Food Utopia? Imagining Libya in Italy’s Liberal Empire.
— ‘To Make the Whole World Homelike’: Gender and Power in the Food Revolution
— True Bread, Pizza Napoletana and Wedding Cakes: The Changing Ways Legal Power Has Shaped Bakers’ Lives.
— The Culinary Identity Constructions of the Eaton Sisters
— Lebanese Sea Power: Food and the Phoenicians. Cordula Christina Peters – Staging: Exploitation of young dreamers or generosity of successful chefs?
— From Switzerland to South Caucasus: Colonial Legacy, Artisanal Dairy Farming, and Gravyer Cheese.
— Cannibalism and Power: Resituating the Narratives of Post-Soviet Foodways Through Vladimir Sorokin’s Feast.
— The Shared Power of Hunger Artists and Viennese Actionists.
— Empire of Wheat: Bread, Power and Colonialism in the French Empire (1890-1940).
— There’s a Crisis. There’s a Crisis: The Power of Laws and Lies in the Italian Fascist Kitchen
— Subsistence Depression in Alaska: Who Gets Paid?
— The ‘Power’ of Health in Soul Food: Perspectives from Edna Lewis and Vertamae Grosvenor.
— Cooking in Calais: Examining the Creation of Food Sovereignty when Distributing Food in the Jungle.
