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Digestible Bits and Bites #92, December 2020

Digestible Bits and Bites

The monthly newsletter of the
Culinary Historians of Canada
Number 92, December 2020
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CHC Facebook friend Marianne Froehlich baked these seasonal German lebkuchen (Nuremberger style, she notes) in response to our Festive Fare challenge. Read more below.

Index

  1. CHC News

  2. News and Opportunities

  3. Destinations

  4. Food for Thought (book reviews)

  5. Events of Interest

  6. International Conferences


1. CHC News and Upcoming Events



Learn How to Bake Like a Victorian

CHC's fifth annual Baking for the Victorian Christmas Table is going digital this year! This Christmas baking workshop, to be presented on Thursday, December 10, features CHC’s star baker and historic cook Sherry Murphy. She’ll be demonstrating recipes for traditional plum pudding and mincemeat tarts from Eliza Acton’s Modern Cookery for Private Families, a cookbook that was current during the Victorian period (1837–1901), all made over the open hearth in the historic kitchen at Montgomery’s Inn in Etobicoke, Ontario. Tickets are $30; CHC members $20.

This virtual workshop will include a beautifully filmed recording of Sherry and her assistant Pat Currie demonstrating both recipes, along with an introduction to Montgomery’s Inn. A live question-and-answer period with Sherry will follow the video. A booklet of Victorian recipes will be available for participants to download and save. In addition, participants will have access to the workshop video for one month following the event to enjoy at leisure over a hot cocoa and maybe some Victorian almond macaroons. 
 

Coming Up in January

Our first online event of the new year features culinary historian and CHC co-founder Fiona Lucas. She will look at the stresses and triumphs of coping with a mid-1800s Canadian winter in the Ontario woods through the eyes of English immigrant Catharine Parr Traill.

Enjoying and Surviving a Canadian Winter will be an illustrated online Zoom presentation with a live Q&A. It will take place on Monday, January 21 from 7:30 to 9 p.m. EST.
 

Heritage Jam and Pickle Champions

For the sixth year, the Culinary Historians of Canada were very pleased to sponsor the Heritage Classes of the Preserving and Pickling competitions at the Royal Agricultural Winter Fair in Toronto. We sent two judges, CHC’s past president Luisa Giacometti and CHC’s co-founder and current treasurer Fiona Lucas. On October 8 they went to the Brampton Fairgrounds to participate in one of five days of scrupulously clean and physically distanced judging. A short video shows the day-five judging activities. (Luisa and Fiona appear at the two-minute mark!)

“Heritage” is defined for this competition as recipes dated 1967 and earlier. Many of the jars were accompanied by handwritten recipes and stories. Longtime CHC member Susanne Tabur became the 2020 Champion Heritage Jam winner with an apricot jam that the judges called “just lovely.” Susanne found the 1828 recipe in the Preserves volume of the Time-Life Series called The Good Cook (1981). It’s from Il Cuoco Piemontese Ridotto all’Ultimo Gusto, published in Milan in various editions in the early 1800s.

Susanne says: “I follow the recipe as written, except that I do not peel the apricots. I also chop the kernels finely rather than adding them whole. It is an easy one to make, but you do need a hammer to crack the kernels.”

Competition Winners
Results were announced on November 10, the first day of the virtual fair. Congratulations to all the winners! The full list is available on the Royal Winter Fair site; click on Preserves, then scroll to the bottom to see the heritage category. Rootham Gourmet Preserves and Newell Brands ULC (Bernardin) were the Official Partners of the 2020 Pickling and Jams & Jellies Competitions.

Heritage Jam (Amateur)

  1. Susanne Tabur, Toronto, Ontario (Apricot Jam)—Champion Heritage Jam
  2. Katy Bell, Thornbury, Ontario (Golden Jam)
  3. Jo-Anne Pulfer, Tottenham, Ontario (Grape Jelly, Depression Era)

Heritage Jam (Professional)

  1. Gryphon Ridge Highlands, Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario (Plum Nutty Jam)
  2. Joanne Holt, Guelph, Ontario (Black Currant Jam)
  3. MarBill Hill Farm, Schomberg, Ontario (Peach & Orange Marmalade from the 1962 edition of the Five Roses Cook Book)

Heritage Pickle (Amateur)

  1. Ben Hatcher, Peterborough, Ontario (Holiday Table Bread and Butters)
  2. Sarah Modesto, Etobicoke, Ontario (Kosher Dill Pickles)
  3. Ben Hatcher, Peterborough, Ontario (Special Occasion Mustard Pickles)

Heritage Pickle (Professional)

  1. Joanne Holt, Guelph, Ontario (Icicle Pickles)—Champion Heritage Pickle
  2. Joanne Holt, Guelph, Ontario (Bread and Butter Pickles)
  3. Joanne Holt, Guelph, Ontario (Watermelon Rind Pickles)


December Cooking Challenge: #COVIDbeaters

This has been a tough year by any standards, so as we hit the home stretch of 2020, we'd like to see your pictures and hear your tales of foods you've made to banish the pandemic blues. That might be the sourdough you were starting in April or this month's solution to making the most of a quarantined holiday feast: whatever has helped you survive this annus horribilis.

Those who post photos and comments with the hashtag #COVIDbeaters on our Facebook page by midnight on Friday, December 18 will be featured in the January newsletter. 
 


#FestiveFare Food Challengers
Many CHC members and Facebook friends responded to our call for photos of "Festive Fare" in response to our November challenge. Deborah Abbott writes: "I always love baking special cakes for cooler months. Yesterday I made this Parsnip Rosemary Cake dressed up with Honey Glazed Walnuts and Cardamom Pear Chips [pictured above]. The honey is from my hives and always adds a special touch to my baking."



Marianne Froehlich was especially busy. Here are her pressed rustic ginger cookies. She also baked lebkuchen (pictured at the top of this newsletter).



Marianne writes: "This is the first batch of Christmas stollen out of the oven [above]. Aromas of vanilla, rum, almond and lemon waft through the air. I think Santa approves!"



Elka Weinstein baked these Cinnamon Raisin Bread Buns from the Redpath Canadian Baking Book.


Judy Corser's contribution was mincemeat tarts (pictured above). She writes: "The other day, my mother—who prides herself on weighing only five pounds more than she weighed in high school—ate five almost straight out of the oven. At 94, she can do what she likes!"
More #FestiveFare
  • Top left: Mark D'Aguilar writes "One of my Christmas traditions is making Christmas pudding from my mother’s and maternal grandmother’s original recipe. When my mother and uncles moved from home, my grandmother would mail them a Christmas pudding every year. After my grandmother’s death, my mother carried on the tradition, sending to her brothers. I had my mom teach me how to make it several years ago, before she passed away, and now I make Christmas puddings to send to my uncle in Florida, and for my sisters’ families. This one is this year’s pudding, which is in the post today, heading to Florida for my uncle. The top is decorated with glacé cherries and glacé angelica."
  • Top right: Vicki Kellett's Walnut Cherry Cake with boiled icing from her grandmother's Purity Flour Cook Book (1923). She writes that it "tastes like a light fruitcake."
  • Bottom left: Vicki also produced a fine "Carrot Pudding no.1" from the Five Roses Cook Book (1915).
  • Bottom right: Sherry Murphy's tradition: a sweet bread with fruit and spices for Christmas brunch.
Join the Culinary Historians of Canada!



The membership year runs from one annual general meeting (usually late September/early October) to the next. Download a membership form here and join us today! 

2. News and Opportunities


Meals Fit for the Bard
The Stratford Festival's virtual programming now includes a food component. After all, from the strawberries in Richard III to the "funeral baked meats" in Hamlet, food pops up in many of Shakespeare's plays.

In The Early Modern Cooking Show, Stratford Festival Executive Chef Kendrick Prins is joined in the kitchen by actor Qasim Khan, with expert commentary by University of Toronto professor of food studies Jeffrey Pilcher, to prepare dishes mentioned in or inspired by Shakespeare's plays, while actors Alexis Gordon, Jessica B. Hill and Kevin Kruchkywich visit local food and drink purveyors for ingredients and advice. The series premiered on November 26 and is now available for streaming on Stratfest@Home.
 

Hutchison House for the Holidays
Hutchison House in Peterborough, Ontario, is exploring clever ways to deliver its usual programming in a COVID-appropriate way. In lieu of the popular Hogmanay at Hutchison House, organizers will be flooding social media on January 1 with Hogmanay content, including the history of the holiday and images from past events.

In addition, Hutchison House volunteers will be creating Hogmanay meals-to-go with much of the food that would normally be served at the site on January 1. Meals can be pre-ordered up to December 18, and will be available for curbside pickup on December 31. For $20, each meal includes a Scotch egg, tatters and neeps, oatcakes, cheese and samples of potted salmon, shortbread and clootie dumpling. Haggis is $5 extra.

Also, on Saturday, December 12 from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., the museum presents Victorian Christmas at Hutchison House, with a tour of the house decorated for the holiday season. There will be timed entry every 20 minutes, with a maximum of six people from the same household. Children can take home a goody bag with gingerbread men and the material to make a holiday craft. Admission is $5 per person, or free for children under 5. Registration and advance payment are required.

For more information about either program, contact the museum at 705-743-9710 or info@hutchisonhouse.ca.
 

Online Classes

Wednesday, December 9, noon (Pacific Time): The Culinary Historians of Northern California present member Rena Goff, who will discuss her new book, How We Made Pasta Noodles: Kneading 200 Years of Recipes. Goff has previously authored two other books: Pot Luck Pie: Pudding Parodies Enjoyed by Everyone and Celery: 200 Years on the Best Celery List. Admission is free; RSVP to ejpeters@chonc.com to receive the Zoom link.

Saturday, December 12, 10 a.m. to noon (Eastern Time): Paul Couchman ("The Regency Cook") is offering a historic mince-pie cookery course titled #1830MincePies. It features a collection of Christmas Pudding recipes from the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries, a video tour of the historic Regency Town House in Hove, England, and a booklet with notes about the history of Mince Pies from their Medieval origins to their Victorian mass popularity. Admission: £12 to £16.

Monday to Wednesday, December 14 to 16: Eat Medieval (a partnership between Blackfriars Restaurant and Durham University's Institute of Medieval & Early Modern Studies in Northern England) offers another edition in its Eat Medieval series: A Taste of Christmas Past. This interactive online three-day cookery course is led by chefs from Blackfriars Restaurant and academics from Durham University, and takes its inspiration from the Bishop of Hereford's Christmas Feast of 1289: wild boar, partridge, beef, goose and venison, with additional recipes for sweet treats and spiced wine. A shopping list is provided, along with recipes and videos. A live cookery session (Monday) and live Zoom Q&A sessions (Tuesday and Wednesday) take place at 5 p.m. (Greenwich Mean Time). Admission: £65 per person.

Friday, December 18, noon (Pacific Time): Oregon State University Department of Food Science and Technology's Farm 2 Fork webinar series presents Backvergnügen! The Art and Science of Making German Springerle Christmas Cookies. The session is led by Sue Queisser, project manager at the Center for Sensory & Consumer Behavior Research at Oregon State University and former owner of Melarova Baking.
 

What’s Cooking? (Member News)
CHC MEMBERS: Please let us know what you're up to! We'll publish all suitable news items received at cadmus@interlog.com by the 25th of each month. (Please write your announcement directly into your email window, with no attachments except a photo. Be sure to include a web link for further information!)



While Fiona Lucas and Luisa Giacometti were savouring the Heritage Jams and Pickles in the Royal Agricultural Winter Fair agricultural categories, president Carolyn Crawford had the enviable task of judging the butter tarts. No word yet as to whether the raisin-in or raisin-out variety made her top pick.

CHC received a nice mention in this Postmedia article on the Taste Canada Awards by Rita DeMontis.



Former CHC member John Hammond (pictured above at Hungry for Comfort 2018) has left Toronto for British Columbia. His departure leaves big shoes to fill at Fort York National Historic Site, where he has served as a dedicated member of the Volunteer Historic Cooks program for many years. He is especially adept at outdoor field cooking such as would have been practised by soldiers during the War of 1812. He was fond of preparing roast meats over the open hearth in the Officers' Mess Kitchen using the simple, traditional method of hanging the piece of meat from a twisted string that exposed all sides of the roast to the heat of the fire as it twirled. His quiet good humour and deep expertise will be sorely missed.

CHC member Bridget Bray is the organizer of an intriguing event titled Past to Apron, a virtual conference focused on food and drink history at the general-interest level. This holiday edition of the recurring event will offer more than a dozen presentations by chefs, authors, historians, brands and cultural institutions, highlighting various regions and time periods. Delivered entirely online on Saturday and Sunday, December 5 and 6, the lineup includes "An Ephemeral Holiday" by CHC member Liz Ridolfo, Special Collections Projects Librarian at the Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library. Pen Vogler will explore "Why We Eat What We Eat at Christmas"; she's the author of the delightful and well-informed Dinner with Mr Darcy; Tea with Jane Austen; Dinner with Dickens; and, most recently, Scoff, A History of Food and Class in Britain. All-inclusive tickets are $30 from December 1 to 4 and $35 "at the door."

Our own book review editor Elka Weinstein is a former director/curator at Campbell House Museum, where CHC often holds events. She has recently served as guest curator of an art exhibit there focusing on the work of young Ojibwe artist Anong Migwans Beam. It runs until December 19; while the current lockdown situation may prevent most people from being able to see it in person, Elka leads a video tour of the event, available online.

CHC board member (and newsletter editor) Sarah Hood's new book, Jam, Jelly and Marmalade: A Global History, is now available for pre-order through Amazon and some independent booksellers. It's due to be released next summer.



CHC Lifetime Member Mya Sangster has been busy as usual baking up a storm of historic goodies. She tested two versions of Rout Cakes (pictured above). She writes "the earliest rout cake recipe I could find appears in John Caird's The Complete Confectioner and Family Cook, published in Edinburgh in 1809. I came across this recipe in Cooking in Europe 1650-1850 by Ivan Day, published in 2009."

She also worked on chestnut puddings (pictured below). If you'd like to learn more about the various recipes she explored and her impressions of the results, join us on the Culinary Historians of Canada Facebook page.

3. Destinations

Do you know of a great historic site with a food program? Send a short article with one or two of your best photos to sarah@culinaryhistorians.ca by the 25th of the month to have your write-up included in our next issue!


Image courtesy of Fralambert via Wikipedia.

Manoir Papineau National Historic Site (Montebello, Quebec)
by Jane Black

At Manoir Papineau, one is reminded: “Never refer to a previous cup of tea when offering more tea. We say, ‘Would you like a cup of tea?' Never 'Would you like a second cup of tea or another cup of tea?’” Currently closed for renovations, the former home of French Canadian political leader Louis-Joseph Papineau, who played a significant role in the Rebellion of 1837, is situated an hour east of Ottawa. Built between 1848 and 1850, many features of the manor were planned and overseen by Papineau himself, who was inspired by the castles of the Loire region, where he lived whilst banished from Canada for seven years. This includes a dumb waiter hidden in a piece of furniture so that food may be served hot from the basement kitchen up to the main-floor dining room.

The highlight of the Manoir Papineau experience is its guided teas. These take place in the opulent Salon Bleu where, when it is open to the public, Manoir Papineau offers a two-hour tour and tea with period-appropriate baked goods from the kitchen of nearby Fairmont Le Château Montebello. Proper comportment is stressed, with the costumed interpreter instructing guests in mid-19th-century etiquette.

This includes everything from how to hold one’s teacup to how to stir one’s tea, the latter being to "place your teaspoon at the twelve-o’clock position and softly fold the liquid towards the six-o’clock position two or three times." The manoir tea blend mimics the tea served to Papineau’s guests in the early 1800s when tea came in molded pressed bricks which often included picturesque scenes. There are also several gardens on the property that provided herbs and vegetables for the household. Many of these have been recreated and kept up by Parks Canada.

Unfortunately, only the main floor is available for touring. There are, however, several outbuildings on the property as well, including the Tea House built in 1913, which houses a recreation exhibition of what tea with the Papineau family would have been like at that time. The granary is also a must-see, as an artistic member of the Papineau family converted the top into his studio, adorning the walls with several frescos—making it likely the most eloquently decorated granary (complete with a Juliet balcony) in Quebec, if not all of Canada.

Reservations are required ahead of time for groups of 8 to 55 (adults only) when the manoir reopens for the 2021 season (COVID willing).

4. Food for Thought

Have you missed a book review? You can read reviews from all our past issues online. If you are a CHC member who would like to contribute, please contact Elka Weinstein at elka.weinstein@utoronto.ca or Sarah Hood at sarah@culinaryhistorians.ca.

   

Baking Day with Anna Olson: Recipes to Bake Together by Anna Olson (Appetite by Random House, 2020). Reviewed by Fiona Lucas (pictured above).
 
Anna Olson has done it again! Her latest book is pretty, well designed, clearly written and full of tempting full-page colour photos. The recipes are suitable for a range of bakers: novice (indicated by the symbol of one spoon), involved (two spoons) and expert (three spoons). There are also vegan, dairy-free, gluten-free and egg-free options. Even dog and cat treats. Niftily, she also provides six time-related categories, from “quick as can be” to “a full baking day.” That’s followed by a section called “Baking Day Tools and Equipment” that is full of sensible advice for establishing a well-stocked kitchen.
 
I have prepared four recipes so far, and am eyeing others. First up was Icelandic Brown Bread, a nice loaf to accompany the corn chowder I scrounged from the freezer. Next morning, two toasted slices became delicious vehicles for honey and peanut butter. I’ll make this again. Next was Khachapouri, meaning “cottage cheese bread” in the Georgian language. They’re canoe-shaped breads filled with spinach, feta, eggs and garlic. We loved them. Potato Pancakes with Creamy Scrambled Eggs became a successful dinner, even though it’s in the breakfast chapter. Successful, yes, but I won’t make it again—grating raw potatoes is exasperating and not a quick activity! Ah, but I look forward to repeating the Frozen Maple Walnut Torte: layers of melt-in-the-mouth meringue, maple cream and walnut-maple praline. Heavenly!
 
My sole complaint is the prep times provided with each recipe. I’ve never liked this feature in cookbooks because the time is always underestimated. All four recipes that I made took longer to prep (although not bake) than stated. The Icelandic bread and the Potato Pancakes each took me 30 minutes, not 15. The Khachapouri took 40, not 20, and the frozen torte absorbed 65 minutes and not the promised 40. But both were definitely worth the time. Our taste buds were happy with all four recipes.
 
About those recipes I’m eyeing, let’s see—Chocolate Babka, Toffee Pretzel Baklava, Toffee Blondies, Triple Gingerbread Bundt Cake with Brown Butter Glaze, Icebox Meltaway Cookies, Lemon Mousse Cake with Mirror Glaze. Are your baking instincts awakening?

      

Chez Lesley: Mes secrets pour tout réussir en cuisine by Lesley Chesterman (Cardinal, 2020) and Montréal l’hiver: Recettes et récits tricotés serrés by Susan Semenak, with photos by Cindy Boyce (Cardinal, 2018). Reviewed by Ivy Lerner-Frank (pictured above).

With armchair travelling one of our few current escapes, cookbooks have become important getaways: part fantasy, part therapy. Montreal’s Cardinal publication house, known for its careful curation and beautifully designed volumes, offers two French-language cookbooks to satisfy those who miss travelling to (and eating in) Montreal. 

Lesley Chesterman’s newly released hardcover book Chez Lesley (loosely translated as At Lesley’s place: My secrets for success in the kitchen), and Montréal l’hiver (Montreal in winter: Tightly knitted recipes and stories) by Susan Semenak, with photos by Cindy Boyce, bring a uniquely Montreal sensibility of generosity and storytelling to their work, ideal for holiday-season gifting and cooking. Even readers with basic French should be able to enjoy the recipes and the headnotes in these lovingly produced titles.

Chesterman, the former restaurant critic for the Montreal Gazette, was trained as a pastry chef and taught at Montreal’s Institut de tourisme et d'hôtellerie du Québec for years. She has continued as a presence on local radio in both English and French, and engages in peppy conversations with restaurateurs, chefs, and friends on her Instagram live sessions (@lesleychestrman).

This is her first book, and Chesterman has a lot to say. From soup to scones, how to stock your pantry, and what tools you need to cook with, Chez Lesley is a definitive how-to guide in classic cuisine for both experienced and less seasoned chefs. Each chapter is easily digestible, focused either on an ingredient (Butter: essential, for example), or an entire menu (My favourite feast: Thanksgiving). There are savoury and sweet tarts, a search for the perfect roast chicken (she shares three variations: flattened, poached first, and confit), homely pastas she makes for her family, and an entire chapter entitled Big Pieces of Meat. And, of course, there are Chesterman’s delectable cakes, scones, and chocolates, sumptuously photographed by Maude Chauvin. 

Throughout the book, Chesterman shares warmly authoritative headnotes that elaborate on her approach, methods and obsessions, including an informative Bon à savoir/Good to know section in each chapter. These cover everything from the ideal temperature for beating eggs to which fish to start with if you’ve never cooked fish before, how not to store chocolate, and the ideal size for a chicken. These are indeed the tips and tricks for kitchen success, exactly as promised in the title.

Susan Semenak, another Gazette alumna, food writer and teacher, and Montreal-based visual artist, is utterly in love with Montreal. Her previous Cardinal book, Market Chronicles, focused on the city’s Jean Talon Market and is sadly out of print. Montréal l’hiver, released in 2018 and still available, is an ode to the city in winter, lavishly illustrated with Cindy Boyce’s luminous photographs of Semenak’s recipes and life in Montreal’s winter light. 

The book is organized around cooking techniques: stewing, steaming, roasting, frying, braising and baking. There’s a section on how to eat in winter—why comfort and, yes, sentimentality, are essential at this time of year. Semenak’s interests and influences are delightfully wide-ranging: spice mixes and cocktail syrups using pine needles and juniper, Haitian and Ukrainian soups, onion bhajis, dal, apple cakes and homemade truffles are all on offer here, meticulously interpreted. 

The last part of the book is taken up in practicalities: Vivre l’hiver (how to live in the winter) is a endearing chapter on the joys of the season, from the first snowfall to the inevitable whining and wondering when it will all end. A charming glossary of winter terms (including everything from brouillard de glace—ice fog—to orage de neige, or snowstorm) follows, complemented by tales of local personalities’ strategies for dealing with winter through the lens of the five senses. 

Both authors have been hoping for English-language houses to express interest in the original versions, but so far this has not come to pass. It would be a shame, though, for language proficiency to keep readers from these French-language books. Chez Lesley and Montreal l’hiver have enough images and comprehensible recipes to easily hold a cookbook lover’s attention, especially if she’s travel-deprived.



Baking at the 20th Century Cafe by Michelle Polzine (Artisan, October 2020). Reviewed by Dana Moran

A delightful step back in time, much like the café of its namesake. Pastry chef Polzine has outdone herself bringing to life the European cafés of the 20th century. From the ten-layer honey cake depicted on the cover to preserves and the bread on which to spread them, chef Polzine's cookbook is a bible of everything you'd need to know to open a 20th-century café of your own. In fact, the cookbook is a complete café: it contains a savoury section with a recipe for Gentleman's Torte (a buckwheat crepe cake layered with herbed cheese) as well as pierogi, challah and bagels, to name a few.

Although this book is largely for advanced bakers, some of the recipes are simple enough for a novice, and the detailed instructions are well enough laid out that any inspired person might try their hand. The honey cake, for example, is revealed on eight pages, detailing Polzine's own struggle with mimicking the cake she tasted in Czechoslovakia, with step-by-step instructions on how to bake the ten layers, lovely photos of the assembly and the finished product and the extra recipe for Dulce de Leche.

Something I really enjoyed about this cookbook is that, short of milling the flour, virtually everything is made from scratch. Although it takes nine hours on the stovetop, Polzine knew we'd want to make the Dulce de Leche ourselves as much as we were interested to hear about sourdough starter, which she also shares with us.
 
I couldn't resist trying the Cranberry Ginger Upside Down Cakes. The recipe has sufficient detail to let me know I needed to cook the caramel until the cranberries were deflated. I made the mistake of missing one and found it nestled in the middle of one of the cakes when I turned it out of its ramekin. The recipe was relatively easy, and anything the cake missed in appearance was entirely made up for by its rich molasses and ginger taste that occasionally popped with the tartness of cranberry.

Review Contributors
  • Elka Weinstein (Book Review Editor, Toronto)
  • Judy Corser (Delta, British Columbia)
  • Pam Fanjoy (Hillsburgh, Ontario)
  • Luisa Giacometti (Toronto)
  • Gary Gillman (Toronto)
  • Sher Hackwell (Vancouver, British Columbia)
  • Amy Lavender Harris (Toronto)
  • Sarah Hood (Toronto)
  • Frances Latham (Stratford, Ontario)
  • Ivy Lerner-Frank (Montreal, Quebec)
  • Maya Love (London, Ontario)
  • Fiona Lucas (Toronto)
  • Jan Main (Hudson, Quebec)
  • Lisette Mallet (Toronto)
  • Bennett McCardle (Toronto)
  • Dana McCauley (Toronto)
  • Dana Moran (Ajax, Ontario)
  • Valerie Sharp
  • Mary Lou Snow (Conception Bay, Newfoundland)
  • Meaghan Van Dyk (Abbotsford, British Columbia)

5. Events of Interest

Compiled by Jane Black, Kesia Kvill, Sarah Hood & Julia Armstrong

With a COVID second wave upon us, all bets are off as to which in-person experiences will be available over the course of December. The following sites have been open during parts of 2020, and may be admitting visitors, but check before turning up at the door!

6. International Conferences


Compiled by Kesia Kvill

2020
 
The Dublin Gastronomy Symposium materials from May 2020 are available online.
Papers here: https://arrow.tudublin.ie/dgs/DGS_2020_programme.pdf
Recorded sessions here: https://arrow.tudublin.ie/dgs/2020/record/

November 13 to 14 (Amsterdam, Netherlands)
AMSTERDAM SYMPOSIUM ON THE HISTORY OF FOOD
Theme: Food and the Environment: The Dynamic Relationship Between Food Practices and Nature
Host: University of Amsterdam

November 27 to December 11 (online)
THE DIASPORIC PLATE: FOOD IN THE CONTEMPORARY DIASPORIC WORLD IN TIMES OF CRISIS
Host: Institute of Modern Languages Research

2021
 
Spring 2021 TBD (Hamilton, Ontario)
FIGHTING SCARCITY AND CREATING ABUNDANCE: THE POLITICS OF FOOD AND WATER IN CANADIAN HISTORY AND BEYOND
Host: LR Wilson Institute of Canadian History, McMaster University
CFP Deadline: 30 November

May 13 to 15 (online from Guelph, Ontario)
14TH TRIENNIAL CONFERENCE OF THE RURAL WOMEN'S STUDIES ASSOCIATION 
Theme: Kitchen Table Talk to Global Forum
Host: University of Guelph. Zoom or Webex are likely platforms for the conference and previously planned activities will be adapted to this new format.
Note: The RWSA is an international association that promotes and advances farm and rural women’s/gender studies in a historical perspective.

June 2 to 5 (Las Cruces, New Mexico)
THE AGRICULTURAL HISTORY SOCIETY ANNUAL MEETING
Theme: Challenging Crops & Climate
 
June 11 to 14 (Archbold, Ohio)
ASSOCIATION OF LIVING HISTORY, FARMS AND AGRICULTURAL MUSEUMS ANNUAL CONFERENCE
Theme: Looking Forward… The Next 50 Years
Host: Sauder Village and Virtual
 
July 1 to 2 (Marburg, Germany)
INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE “FOOD – MEDIA – SENSES”
Host: Philips-University Marburg and Virtual
CFP Deadline: 21 December 2020
 
July 9 to 11 (Oxford, England)
OXFORD FOOD SYMPOSIUM
Theme: Food and Imagination
Host: St. Catherine’s College OR Virtual
CFP Deadline: 31 January 2021
 
September 7 to 10 (Rome, Italy)
INTERNATIONAL COMMISSION FOR RESEARCH INTO EUROPEAN FOOD HISTORY
Theme: Eating on the Move (19th-21st Centuries)
Host: Roma Tre University
CFP Deadline: 30 November 2020
Across the far-flung regions of Canada, a lot is happening in the fields of food and history. This monthly digest is a forum for Canadian culinary historians and enthusiasts to tell each other about their many activities. This is a place for networking and conversation about Canadian culinary history happenings. Each month, Digestible Bits and Bites is shared with members of the Culinary Historians of Canada and other interested persons who ask to be on the distribution list. 
 
The Culinary Historians of Canada would like to share this digest with a wide audience. You are encouraged to post or forward this information. 


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