Prof. Massimo Montanari
LIVE FROM ITALY
Saturday November 20, 12:00 - 1:00 pm CDT via Zoom
Conversations will be in English
Why are prosciutto and melon paired in a famous Italian appetizer? What did people eat in the Middle Ages? Who invented sorbet?
Join us for a series of educational workshops that will make you feel as if you have graduated from an Italian culinary history class! This amazing introduction to the famous Italian cuisine will be led by Italian Professor, Massimo Montanari. Professor Montanari is an internationally-known leading expert in Italian cuisine and has been featured in the culinary documentary “Food on the go” by Mercedes Cordova.
Over a series of three lessons, Prof. Montanari will lead us in an in-depth tour of the history of the ingredients, dishes, techniques and social customs behind the Italian food we know and love today.
Massimo Montanari is professor of Food History at the University of Bologna, Department of History, where he founded the Master on Food History and Culture. He has authored and coauthored more than a dozen books on the history of cuisine and the cultural values of food including (in English translation) Italian Cuisine, A Cultural History; Food Is Culture; Cheese, Pears, and History in a Proverb; Let the Meatballs Rest, And Other Stories About Food and Culture; Medieval Tastes; Food: A Culinary History; The Culture of Food; Italian Identity in the Kitchen. He has been invited as visiting professor to a number of leading universities in Europe, Japan, the United States, Mexico, Colombia, Brazil and Canada. He was one of the founders and editors of the international review "Food & History", published by the Institut Européen d’Histoire et des Cultures de l’Alimentation. He is a member of a number of scientific societies (IEHCA, Centro Italiano di Studi sull'Alto Medioevo di Spoleto, Académie Royale de Belgique, Academia Marinha du Portugal, Accademia delle Scienze dell'Istituto di Bologna), founder and president of the "Centro di studi per la storia delle campagne e del lavoro contadino" in Montalcino (Siena).
In 2002 Azeglio Ciampi, the President of Italy, assigned him the title of "Ufficiale all'onore della Repubblica" (Honorary Officer of the Republic) for his scientific merits.
In 2012 he won the Rabelais Prize, conferred by the Institut de France for special distinction in the study, diffusion and promotion of food culture.
Saturday, Nov. 20th, 12:00 - 1:00 PM
ITALIAN CUISINE BEFORE ITALY: A CULTURE THAT COMES FROM AFAR
Italy’s celebrated culture, including the culinary arts, has existed since the Middle Ages, many centuries before Italy became a politically unified country. Since then, there has been a network of exchanges (products, ideas, chefs) which constituted the fundamentals of Italian cuisine and the ways of life shared throughout the country.
COMING NEXT ...
Saturday, December 11th, 12:00 - 1:00 PM
THE CENTURIES-OLD CHARACTERISTICS OF ITALIAN CUISINE
The distinctive and "identifiable" features of Italian cuisine originate in the use of vegetables, pasta, cold cuts, and cheeses. There are specific characteristics that distinguish the Italian cuisine in all its extraordinary biodiversity of local cultures. A biodiversity reinforced by the strong relationship between court cuisine and popular cuisine, which provides the basis for the development of the former and its richness in local diversity.
Saturday January 22 at 12 pm
PELLEGRINO ARTUSI AND THE BIRTH OF MODERN ITALIAN CUISINE
Thirty years after the political unity of the country, Artusi and his celebrated cookbook made a fundamental contribution to the widening of the "network" of the Italian gastronomic culture. For centuries, the Italian cuisine had remained limited to the aristocratic courts, but thanks to Artusi's book, it became a collective heritage of the nation.
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