Culinary Historians NY: Pasta History with Antonius, 10/10

Culinary Historians of New York
presents

Southern Italy and Genoa in the Early History of Pasta
Debunking the Myth of Arab Influence
with Anthony Buccini

Thursday, October 10, 2013 at 6:30 PM
Park Avenue United Methodist Church
106 East 86th Street (between Park and Lexington)


Everyone nowadays loves pasta, but early evidence for its consumption is scant: many questions arise concerning where this food first became important in local diets and exactly by whom and how it was spread. The story that Marco Polo introduced noodles to Italy from China has been gleefully shattered by food scholars, only to be replaced by the current fashion of attributing some of the earliest attested forms of pasta—lasagna, fideos/fidei, maccherone—-to Arab origins.

Support for the Arab diffusion theory allegedly comes from linguistic evidence, but in this talk, Dr. Buccini will argue not only that the etymologies are strained, but also that a broader understanding of the socio-economic history of the medieval western Mediterranean points to the local foodways of Southern Italy and the commercial expansion of Genoa as the principal elements in the rise to prominence of pasta throughout Italy and beyond. Historical pasta recipes will be served.

Dr. Anthony F. Buccini specializes in historical linguistics and sociolinguistics, with a subspecialty in food cultures. He received his PhD from Cornell University and has been a Fulbright Scholar at the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven in Belgium. He recently contributed the chapter on linguistics to the Routledge International Handbook of Food Studies (2013) and is currently working on a monograph, From Green to Gold, on the history of Mediterranean foodways with particular reference to the history of olive oil (to appear, Columbia University Press).

Location:
Park Avenue United Methodist Church
106 East 86th Street (between Park and Lexington)
New York, NY 10028
Time:
6:30 pm Check-in and reception | 7:00 pm Lecture
Fee:
$25 CHNY Members | $40 Non-Members and Guests

To buy tickets securely online: http://www.brownpapertickets.com/producer/7199
For further information about CHNY, please visit our website: http://www.culinaryhistoriansny.org/
Save the Dates: November 21, Mary Ann Caws, “The Modern Art Cookbook”
December 2, Patrica Herlihy, “Vodka: A Global History”

So will he do it again in Chicago?

pairs4life wrote:So will he do it again in Chicago?

Hi.

I hosted Tony for this talk in August, 2012.

There plans to host Tony for a talk this January or February on another topic of distinction.

Regards,