The Roger Smith Cookbook Conference The Roger Smith Hotel, 501 Lexington Ave, NY, NY February 9 - 11, 2012
● ● ● www. cookbookconf.com ● ● www. cookbookconf.com ● ● ●
A partial list of panelists: Jennifer Abadi Stacey Glick Krishnendu Ray Ken Albala Darra Goldstein Ruth Reichl (invited) Gary Allen Dorie Greenspan (invited) Ann Romines Amy Bentley (invited) Barbara Haber Peter Rose Cynthia Bertelsen Annie Hauck-Lawson Michael Ruhlman (invited) Monica Bhide (invited) Kathryn Jacob Celia Sack (invited) Anne Bower Cathy Kaufman Laura Schenone (invited) Sharon Bowers Alison Kelly Andy Schloss (invited) John F. Carafoli Bruce Kraig Steve Schmidt Christina Ceisel Michael Krondl Michele Scicolone Andy Coe Don Lindgren (invited) Francine Segan Jennifer Crewe Elaine Maisner Laura Shapiro Mitchell Davis Gil Marks Andrew F. Smith Cara De Silva Kate Marshall Chris Steigner (invited) Janis Donnaud Rux Martin Marvin Taylor Charlotte Druckman Kathleen McElroy Jennifer Unter Geof Drummond Anne Mendelson Nach Waxman Elisabeth Dyssegaard Pamela Monaco Judy Weinraub Megan Elias Linda Morgan Jenna Weissman-Joselit Alison Fargis Joan Nathan Barbara Wheaton Rebecca Federman Deanna Pucciarelli Grace Young John Finn Susheela Raghavan Jane Ziegelman A partial list of panels:
● Consuming the Brand: Corporate Cookbooks ● Recipes for Living: Cookbooks as
Propaganda ● Jewish Cookbooks Past, Present, and Future ● Culinary Apps ●
● Cookbooks in Libraries: Gateways to Food Studies ● Who Needs an Old-Fashioned
Literary Agent? ● Community Cookbooks ● Cookbooks from Mars/Venus ●
Tick● -Tock: Cooking Against the Clock ● Historical Cookbooks ●
Are● Cookbooks Scholarship? University Press Food Lists ● African-American
Cookbooks ● ● What is a Recipe? The● Appeal of the Personality-Driven Cookbook ●
20th● Century American Cookbooks ● Food Styling, Photography, and Cookbook
Design ●
● A New York Food State of Mind Cookbooks ● Cookbooks and the American
Immigrant Experience ● The Cookbook Editor's Role ●
February 9 Pre-conference Workshops, $75 ●●● February 10 & 11 Conference, $299
● ● ● ● ● ● www. cookbookconf.com ● ● www. cookbookconf.com
Cookbook Conference Program
Location: Roger Smith Hotel, 501 Lexington at 47th St., New York
Registration: $299 for the conference $75 for Pre-Conference Workshops
Conference Website: www.cookbookconf.com
Thursday, February 9, 2011
Pre-Conference Workshops
1-5 PM 1. Introduction to Cookbook Publishing This workshop provides an introduction to cookbook publishing. Topics include writing a cookbook proposal; approaches to literary agents and publishing houses; contractual considerations; copyright law; recipe development; the use of photography or artwork; cookbook promotion; advances and royalties; self-publishing; and Ebooks. It will include prominent speakers, such as prominent cookbook authors, agents, editors, and publishers. Note: This workshop requires advanced registration. It is organized by Andrew F. Smith.
2. Reading Cookbooks: A Structured Approach and Structured Dialogue with Barbara Ketcham Wheaton There are five personalities in every cookbook: the author, the publisher, the reader, the cook, and the eater. With these different personalities in mind, this session will encourage critical thinking about the cookbook as text and will present an opportunity to investigate the different layers of meaning that can be gleaned from cookbooks, leaving the participants with additional tools for analyzing these documents in any historical or cultural context. Note: This workshop requires registration in advance: participants will be sent materials in advance to read and prepare for group discussion, including links to digital libraries and photocopied excerpts from historical cookbooks, when necessary.
3. A Cookbook for the Year 2020: An Experimental Case Study At its heart a cookbook is a curated collection of topically linked recipes, usually by an author (or a brand in lieu of an author). This workshop asks the big question of whether such collections will remain appealing to readers at the end of the current decade. It does so by way of working step-by-step through smaller decision nodes faced by a hypothetical author as the year 2020 approaches. Our author has a stellar reputation in her culinary area and what is indisputably a fine collection of recipes on that subject. She needs to decide whether this collection will reach the public via printed books, e-books, a topical website, a blog, an e-mail newsletter, apps, print or online magazines or newspapers, video (televised or otherwise), licensing material to food purveyors, a combination of these means, or some other means. In this workshop, agents, authors, editors, and publishers will discuss and debate how our author can best serve her readers, earn income for herself, and, not least, contribute to sustainable ongoing businesses that deliver. Organized by Adam Salomone; Lorena Jones (to be invited); Amanda Hesser (to be invited)
5-7 PM Opening Reception
Friday and Saturday Schedule, February 10-11, 2011
TENTATIVE DAILY SCHEDULE: 8-9 AM Registration 9-10:30 3 Panels 10:30-11:00 Coffee Break 11-12:30 3 Panels 12:30-1:30 PM lunch 1:30-3:15 PM 3 Panels 3:15-3:45 Coffee Break 3:45-5:30 3 Panels 5:30- 8 PM Reception
Panels
Track I: Cookbooks Past and Present: Looking Beneath the Sauce-Spattered Page
Track Description: Cookbooks are much more than collections of instructions to get dinner on the table. From our earliest culinary records through the present (and beyond, we predict), cookbooks document culture, technology, identity, and even aspirations. What makes cookbooks a unique resource for historians, anthropologists, sociologists and others is that most cookbooks do this unconsciously; that is, in the guise of filling a practical need for practical instruction, cookbooks teach the careful reader about the values, needs, and desires of the cookbook audience.
1. Title: Consuming the Brand: Corporate Cookbooks [wants 1:15 minute time slot] Description: Advertising the virtues of food products took place mainly in newspapers until cooking related pamphlets, which later evolved into cookbooks, emerged in the late 1800s. American corporations began issuing small, product driven cookbooks targeted at literate middle class women with the intent of ingredient early adoption and brand loyalty. Early on the materials were distributed free of charge when purchased with corporate goods, or sometimes sold for a modest price. As the nation began to purchase rather than produce goods at the household level corporate cookbooks played an important role in creating consumer demand for new products. It is during this period that food-related, corporate America rather than family tradition began to shape a sphere of the American palate. Then as now, corporate cookbooks occupy a niche in the cooking instruction domain while commodifying the American diet. Chair: Deanna Pucciarelli, Assistant Professor, Ball State University, Muncie, Indiana Panelists: Christina Ceisel, Linda Morgan, Independent Scholar and Culinary Historian, Sausilito, California Pamela Monaco Andrew F. Smith, New School, New York 2. Title: Recipes for Living: Cookbooks as Propaganda Description: Michael Pollan has famously stated that “Eating is a political act.” This panel looks at the ways in which cookbooks in the US and abroad reflect social and political ideologies. We'll consider numerous forms of cookbooks as propaganda, including historical and contemporary recipe collections that advocate prescriptive diets as a means of living virtuously; wartime texts that extol preserving as a patriotic act; southern cookbooks that promote White Supremacist ideology; and the phenomenon of contemporary cookbooks that propagandize professions by turning celebrities into chefs. Chair: Darra Goldstein, Editor in Chief, Gastronomica Panelists: Megan Elias, City University of New York John Finn, Wesleyan University, Connecticut Krishnendu Ray, New York University
3. Title: Eat and Be Satisfied: Jewish Cookbooks Past, Present, and Future. [Must be scheduled early on Friday] Description: Chair: Cara De Silva, author, independent scholar, New York Panelists: Mitchell Davis, author, Vice President, The James Beard Foundation Gil Marks, Rabbi and author, New York Joan Nathan, author, Washington, DC Jenna Weissman-Joselit, author, professor, George Washington University , Washington, DC
4. Title: Culinary Apps Description: Chair: Geof Drummond Panelists: Andy Schloss (invited) Michael Ruhlman (invited) Dorie Greenspan (invited)
5. Title: Cookbooks in Libraries: Gateways to Food Studies Description: Libraries are treasure troves of traditional, digital and human resources not always known to people. Cookbook authors and other food writers interested in locating historic and cultural contexts for their work will hear about library resources and their many uses. Chair: Barbara Haber, research librarian and food historian Panelists: Rebecca Federman, electronic resources coordinator and librarian for culinary collections at New York Public Library Kathryn Jacob, Curator of Manuscripts at the Schlesinger Library, Cambridge, Massachusetts Krishnendu Ray, New York University
6. Title: Agents [NEED TITLE] Description: Chair: Sharon Bowers Panelists: Stacey Glick
7. Title: Community Cookbooks: Historical, Literary, Digital The way community cookbooks are created and accessed or used changes from century to century, yet this cookbook form, from its inception during the Civil War to the present, continues to both reflect and shape the communities in which it exists. Scholars (and others) exploring community cookbooks can discover within them the values, historical milieu, culinary and social customs affecting the cookbooks' makers, as well as the diverse methods each cookbook's contributors employ to reach out to a community (real, virtual, or imagined).
Chair: Anne Bower, Retired Assoc. Prof., English, Ohio State University; Author Recipes for Reading; Reel Food; African American Foodways: An Introduction.
Panelists: Alison Kelly, Reference Specialist, Cooking Science, Technology & Business Division, Library of Congress Sandra Oliver, Food Historian Ann Romines, Prof. of English and Director of Graduate Studies, George Washington University
8. Title: Cookbooks from Mars, Cookbooks From Venus Description: Historically, cookbooks have been written by men and women, for men or women. Just what form they took was typically determined by the gender of both the writer and the intended audience. Compare the kind of books written by Escoffier and Mrs. Beeton, or for that matter by chefs like Thomas Keller and contemporary lifestyle gurus like Martha Stewart. The sex of writer's voice still matters. Chair: Michael Krondl Panelists: Wendy Woloson (not yet invited) Laura Schenone (not yet invited)
9. Title: Tick-Tock: Cooking Against the Clock Description: Efficiency in the kitchen has been a theme for cookbook and lifestyle writers since the eighteenth century, but minimizing time spent in cooking has become a key goal for many mid-late twentieth century cookbooks. What was once the rapid-fire "60 Minute Gourmet" now seems like scratch haute cuisine. Time-saving strategies run the gamut and tell us about our changing technologies and values. Chair: Cathy Kaufman, independent scholar Panelists: Steve Schmidt Laura Shapiro
10. Title: Historical Cookbooks [must be scheduled on Friday] Description: How are historic cookbooks relevant for today? Can we cook the past and learn directly from the process or are such sources merely tools for dry historical research? Is there a deeper reason to attempt to understand the taste preferences of our forebears and is it even possible to truly comprehend what they liked to eat without living in the same time and place and without the same contextual setting and mental framework? Chair: Ken Albala, University of Pacific, Stockton, California Panelists: Cynthia Bertelsen Francine Segan
11. Title: Are Cookbooks Scholarship? University Press Food Lists Description: Chair: Jennifer Crewe, Columbia University Press Panelists: Elaine Maisner, Senior Executive Editor, University of North Carolina Press Kate Marshall, University of California Press Bruce Kraig, Heartland Foodways Series, University of Illinois Press,
12. Title: African-American Cookbooks [NEED TITLE] Description: Chair: Kathleen McElroy Panelists:
13. Title: What is a Recipe? [Needs 1:45 minute slot] Description: The panel will explore how written recipes from the age of cuneiform tablets to the age of Internet pilfering have functioned as information systems, and what they have shown about the shared assumptions of their writers and users. Chair: Andy Coe Panelists: Cathy Kaufman, independent scholar, New York Don Lindgren (invited) Anne Mendelson, independent scholar Laura Schenone (invited) Barbara Wheaton, independent scholar, Lexington, Massachusetts
14. Title: The People behind the Pages: The Appeal of the Personality-Driven Cookbook Description: Beyond instruction, some of our most beloved cookbooks provide companionship with a trusted culinary guide -- someone we welcome into our kitchens. By taking readers into the author's world, that personal presence can teach, warn, amuse, inspire -- and sell cookbooks. This session will explore the cookbook author as friend and even literary character, from the carefully crafted personae behind 19th-century "bestsellers" to the multi-media culinary personalities who dominate today's cookbook marketplace. Chair: Judy Weinraub Panelists: Jane Ziegelman
15. Title: 20th Century American Cookbooks: Cornucopia or Gluttony Description: More cookbooks were produced during the 20th century than in all of the history of cooking. What are we to think about this glut of writing about food? What can we learn from the best and the worst of these books? This panel will look at the history of production of cookbooks in the 20th century and their various uses for the home cook, the food professional, and the academic. Chair: Marvin Taylor Panelists: Amy Bentley, Department of Food Studies, Nutrition, and Public Health, NYU (invited) Ruth Reichl, food writer and editor (invited) Celia Sack, proprietor, Omnivore Books, San Francisco (invited) Chris Steigner, editor, Rizzoli USA (invited)
16. Title: Feast for the Eye? Food Styling, Photography, and Cookbook Design Description: The look and feel of cookbooks has changed dramatically over the centuries, from the authoritarian Black Letter of early English works to the gastro-pornography of lavishly illustrated modern cookbooks. This panel examines the ways in which cookbooks visually communicate our culinary concepts, from photography and art work to typography to layout and design. We will examine what has sold, what sells now, and what the future may hold. Chair: John F. Carafoli Panelists: Penny De Los Santos
17. Title: A New York Food State of Mind, through Cookbooks Description: Chair: Annie Hauck-Lawson Panelists: Peter Rose
Track II: The Future of the Cookbook
Track Description: The publishing industry as a whole is under enormous pressure to transform. The ability to enhance content with multimedia functionality, deliver that content in multiple formats, and reach consumers just about anywhere has provided extensive opportunity to diversify and reinvent the business. But where there is opportunity, challenges also abound. How do publishers encourage innovation without giving up on channels that still make money? Where does self-publishing and user- generated content fit in? And what does the future hold for publishing as websites, blogs, and other digital channels increasingly compete with our core business?
In no arena are these questions more pressing than cookbook publishing. Cookbooks (both print and electronic) have continued to flourish, even in the age of digital content. But, as food/cooking content continues to move online, competition for attention is getting more intense. From cooking websites to recipe demos streamed over Youtube, the content is out there, and the cookbook industry must position itself as an integral member of that ongoing dialogue with consumers. While cookbooks have seen positive transitions to electronic media up to this point, the future will be won not by developing content using traditional methods, but by reimagining what’s possible with new media content. It involves investment, and critical workflows must be retooled, but through that, innovation will take hold that propels us as content creators to a new evolution in what the cookbook is and how it fits into consumers’ lives.
Join us for Cookbook 2020, an in-depth look at the future of the cookbook, as we discuss and debate topics around monetization, content enhancement, consumer interaction, and hear from publishers, authors, agents and other members of the industry about the opportunities and challenges that await. More an interactive workshop than a series of presentations, Cookbook 2020 is meant to bring many constituents to the table to see what’s in store for all of us as an industry, to get feedback, build critical partnerships and development channels for communication that can lead to new innovation.
1. Title: Creators, Publishers, and Sellers: Lessons from the Music Industry Description: For many decades the music business was built around curated collections ("albums," "CDs") that were produced by the same company (the "publisher") that would go on to market and sell them as 3-dimensional objects in stores and through the mail. It has rapidly devolved into a business that sells smaller noncurated chunks ("songs," "symphonies," etc.) delivered electronically. Production has shifted significantly from publishers to creators. Marketing/distribution has shifted from companies dedicated to those functions to online resellers who partner directly with creators. Creators and sellers have taken over a lot of control and income from producers and distributors. Creators get direct income rather than royalty shares-but the overall income pie has shrunk. Retail stores are dwindling rapidly. This session examines the question: Can the same thing happen to books? The music model has particular relevance to cookbooks because, unlike many other books, they, too, are curated collections. They also can be handily broken down into easily deliverable smaller pieces, although the producers/distributors believe the value of the curation would be lost in the process. Chair: Panelist: Kamran Mohsenin, Tastebook.com
2. Title: Predicting Future Trends from Current Data Description: (a) Lessons from Point of Sale Data: Free online recipes have been with us, in abundance, for many years now-and they haven't killed cookbooks yet. But have they dented the market, and, if so, how badly? Have they changed the kinds of cookbooks that people buy-leading consumers, perhaps, to favor beautiful four-color hardcovers that have a sensual appeal which electrons on a screen lack, or, in a different direction, to favor inexpensive paperbacks that don't cost all that much more than free recipes? Now that Bookscan has been around for awhile, we can examine these trends in this session. We will get an accurate picture of whether cookbooks are thriving or, following the model of reference books, are in decline, and we will see which kinds of cookbooks sell. Among the additional trends of note that Bookscan data let us see: Ten years ago cookbook sales were dominated by food and magazine brands and by television stars. Is that still true, or have blogging, social media, and other grassroots brandbuilding means allowed new authors to penetrate the market substantially? (b) Lessons from the Street: Let's face it: The future of cookbooks is tied to the future of books. This session reveals how Wall Street analysts, investment bankers, buyout shops, book-retailing executives, and other big-ticket stakeholders see the future of books. Was the loss of Borders simply the transfer of retail dollars to other resellers, or was it a net loss for the industry? Are bound books being replaced by e- books or simply not being replaced? Do data about consumers' time allocation and spending patterns in the media space, such as the kind that Veronis Suhler Stevenson occasionally reports, suggest that consumers are sticking with or leaving behind such traditional forms as newspapers, magazines, and books, whether on paper or electronic? (c) Lessons from Online: With more and more publishers now following bloggers, new trends in cooking are emerging all the time. How can publishers keep up in an ever-quickening cycle of online information, where every new development seems like the "next hot thing?" In this session, we'll talk with bloggers and publishers to figure out how they separate what's popular now from what will sell in years to come, and we'll take the lessons from what works in cookbooks and apply it to real world publishing programs. Chair: Panelists: Dan Rosenberg, HCP cookbook editor Lisa Ekus
3. Title: Enhancing Content Both Online and Off Description: As more content becomes readily available online, consumers are increasingly engaged by a mixed-media approach when learning about, and cooking, recipes. Video, step-by-step audio, timers, and serving size functionality are all elements that are at consumers fingertips when searching the web to answer "what's for dinner?" As cookbook publishers continue to find ways to compete in this new arena, enhanced content has become the new norm. But how can publishers finance such video/audio projects? And how can they appropriately use them, not only within the ebook, but across the print book as well (and even as incorporated into online properties, to further drive revenue opportunity). This session will explore ways in which publishers can leverage their existing models, work with outside partners (and perhaps even their authors) to develop and implement enhanced content strategies across their content platforms, and also to discuss what shouldn't be in an enhanced book. Chair: Panelists: Cheryl Kramer-Toto, HMH Peter Costanza, F&W Tanya Steel, Epicurious Brendan Cahill, Open Road Andrea Nisbet, Workman
4. Title: Recipe Monetization Description: The buzz word for online content is monetization (along with chunking, atomizing, community, and more). As future sales of print books remain uncertain, publishers will increasingly have to find new ways to diversify their revenue models, and find ways to entice consumers to pay for content that's free elsewhere. Not only will this session look at the various opportunities for publishers, from content licensing, chunking, to in-book advertising, but it will also explore ways that publishers can use the media assets they create to enhance revenue outside of the book. As part of this session, we'll also explore ways in which curated content differs from free online content and how we can convey that value to consumers for the purpose of monetization. Chair: Panelists: Rochelle Grayson, Bookriff Phil Michaelson, Keep Recipes
5. Direct-to-Consumer Marketing and Sales Description: Publishers are online. Authors (in most cases) are online. And their consumers are online as well. It stands to reason that marketing and selling direct to consumer should be an easy solution to increase brand potential, while also driving further revenue. But what does it mean to go direct, and what are publishers doing to get there? What problems are raised when retailers in the online marketplace command a serious advantage (and how can publishers increase some of their share of this pie)? We'll use this panel to look at publishers that are already out on the front lines of direct to consumer initiatives, see what they've done, and the challenges/opportunities that a consumer direct strategy presents. And, we'll look at ways that we can get beyond the Facebook and Twitter strategy and identify online communities where cookbook publishers should be investing their resources. Chair: Panelist: Rick Joyce, Perseus
6. Chair: Media Outlets in the Digital World Description: Whether in traditional or digital forms, the cookbook review/author interview is one of the all important pieces to any cookbook publicity campaign. As the publishing/media landscape becomes evermore crowded, publishers have to become more focused in who they pitch and how. In many cases, the straight press release with an offer for an interview just isn't enough and getting creative with both pitches and content can be the difference in getting a big publicity hit. On this panel, we'll hear from a number of media representatives in about how they've seen publishers innovate, what they're looking for in this new media landscape, and how their own content initiatives are changing (and how publishers can capitalize on that change). Chair: Panelists: Mark Rotella, Publisher's Weekly editor -Melissa Clark, New York Times writer, editor at GiltTaste.com, author
7. Working with Bloggers Description: As traditional media morphs online and digital content channels take on even greater importance, bloggers are becoming the new media outlets. Gatekeepers to a larger online community, tastemakers for what's hot in food, and evangelists for trends, products, and more, food bloggers have firmly positioned themselves at the center of the cooking community. Many publishers have begun exploring what it means to work with bloggers, but how does this fit into a larger social media strategy, and how do publishers build real, meaningful relationships with bloggers who perhaps don't always want to be pitched on the latest product? We'll bring together a spirited panel of bloggers (and blog community organizers) who will share their insights on how they've worked with publishers and brands in the past, and what we can all do to improve relationships, provide value, and drive engagement both around our books and the bloggers we work with. Chair: Panelists: Babette Pepaj, Bakespace.com Casey Benedict, food blogger at KitchenPlay.com, founder of Eat Write Retreat
8. Talking with the Publishers Description: The publisher's role is changing. Sitting at the top of a publishing house, there are many moving pieces, of which bringing a viable book to market is only one. And now, with all that's happening in the world of digital/online, there's even more that must be done to keep a publishing house on a path of growth and innovation that leads to success. Hear from a number of publishers living this day-to-day, who will share what they see as some of the biggest challenges and opportunities facing publishing houses as a whole, as well as some ways that we can capitalize on these developments going forward. Chair: Panelists: Chris Navratil, Running Press Anja Schmidt, Kyle Books
Speaker Bios
Ken Albala: Professor of History at the University of the Pacific in Stockton, California. He is author of many books including Eating Right in The Renaissance, Food in Early Modern Europe, Cooking in Europe: 1250-1650, The Banquet: Dining in the Great Courts of Late Renaissance Europe, Beans: A History (Winner of the 2008 IACP Jane Grigson Award), and The Lost Art of Real Cooking. Recent edited volumes include Food Cultures of the World Encyclopedia (4 vols), Food and Faith, and A Cultural History of Food in the Renaissance. He also co-edits the journal Food Culture and Society and is general editor of AltaMira Studies in Food and Gastronomy.
Mitchell Davis: Vice President of The James Beard Foundation; scholar; food journalist; teacher; and cookbook writer. Among his books are The Mensch Chef, or Why Delicious Jewish Food Isn't an Oxymoron, and Foie Gras…A Passion (co-authored with Michael Ginor), which won the International Cookbook Review’s Prix la Mazille for Best International Cookbook of the Year. For more information, go to: www.jamesbeard.org/index.php?q=about_staff_mitchell_davis
Cara De Silva: Author; Food historian; consultant; Beard nominee; award-winning journalist; speaker (recently at the University of Wisconsin's and Ca' Foscari, the University of Venice). As an independent scholar, edited and wrote the introduction to In Memory's Kitchen: A Legacy from the Women of Terezin, which became a New York Times most noteworthy book of the year. Her work can also be found in Gastropolis: Food and New York City; and Food and Judaism: Studies in Jewish Civilization 15, as well as a number of other collections. Current research: Venetian Jews. For more information, go to: www.foodwritersconference.com/#Cara_De_Silva
Barbara Haber: Food historian, served as curator of books at the Schlesinger Library at Harvard University’s Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, where she developed a major culinary collection and helped make food studies an important area of academic research and publication. She is the author of numerous books and articles, has been on the board of directors of the International Association of Culinary Professionals (IACP), and currently serves on the Awards Committee of the James Beard Foundation and chairs their Who’s Who committee. She was elected to the Beard Foundation’s Who’s Who in American Food and Beverages and received the M.F.K. Fisher Award from Les Dames d’Escoffier. She currently contributes a monthly column to Zesterdaily.com, and is a food history lecturer for groups traveling to Europe on the Queen Mary 2. For more information, go to: Barbarahaber.com
Kathryn Allamong Jacob: Johanna-Maria Frænkel Curator of Manuscripts at the Schlesinger Library at the Radcliffe Institute at Harvard University. Jacob graduated from Goucher College and earned her MA from Georgetown University and PhD from Johns Hopkins University. Prior to joining the Schlesinger staff in 1999, Jacob was deputy director of the American Jewish Historical Society, a program director at the National Historical Publications and Records Commission, and assistant historian of the United States Senate. A social and cultural historian, she has written many journal and popular articles as well as three books: Capital Elites: High Society in Washington, D.C. after the Civil War, Testament to Union: Civil War Monuments in Washington, DC. and, her most recent book King of the Lobby: The Life and Times of Sam Ward, about a bon vivant who lobbied by means of extraordinary dinners.
Cathy Kaufman: Chairman of the Culinary Historians of New York and author of Cooking in Ancient Civilizations, as well as many articles in encyclopedia and journals, including the Food and Culture columnist for Vintage Magazine. She created the culinary history curriculum at the Institute of Culinary Education, including a crash course in food history for journalists, and was elected to Les Dames d'Escoffier in 2005. She currently serves on the boards of The Oxford Symposium on Food and Cookery and The Culinary Trust, the philanthropic foundation of the IACP, where she is launching an oral history project, "Stories About Food." She is presently finishing a history of dining rooms for Reaktion Press.
Gil Marks: Rabbi, and leading authority on culinary matters, in general, and on Jewish cuisine, in particular. His book The Encyclopedia of Jewish Food was nominated for a James Beard Award in 2011. Another book, Olive Trees and Honey: A Treasury of Vegetarian Recipes from Jewish Communities Around the World won the award in 2005. Beyond his work with food, Rabbi Marks is a biblical scholar and writer. For further information, go to: www.gilmarks.com
Anne Mendelson: Freelance writer, editor, and reviewer specializing in food©related subjects. She has worked as consultant on several cookbooks, was a contributing editor to the late lamented Gourmet, and has been an occasional contributor to the New York Times Dining Section and the Los Angeles Times Food Section. Her biography of Irma Rombauer and Marion Rombauer Becker, Stand Facing the Stove (Henry Holt 1996), won widespread critical praise for its insights into the history of modern American cooking. In 2000 © 2001 she held a fellowship at the Dorothy and Lewis Cullman Center for Scholars and Writers at the New York Public Library, working on a study of food history in New York City. (Part of this research, a survey of pre©European foodways among the Lenape Indians, won the 2007 Sophie Coe Prize in Food History at the Oxford Symposium on Food and Cookery.) Her most recent book is Milk, a cultural©historical survey of milk and fresh dairy products (Knopf 2008).She is now working, with a grant from the Guggenheim Foundation, on a study of how the global Chinese diaspora is influencing Chinese food in America.
Joan Nathan: An inductee of the James Beard Foundation's Who's Who in American Food and Beverage, Nathan is the author of ten cookbooks, the most recent of which is Quiches, Kugels and Couscous: My Search for Jewish Cooking in France. In 2005, her New American Cooking, won the James Beard and IACP Awards as best American cookbook of the year, while in 2000, her PBS television series, Jewish Cooking in America with Joan Nathan, was nominated for Best National Television Food Show. For further information, go to: www,joannathan.com
Francine Segan: Author of five cookbooks including Shakespeare’s Kitchen (Random House, ’03) and Opera Lover’s Cookbook (Stewart, Tabori & Chang, ’06), which was nominated for both the James Beard and IACP awards. She has been named USA Ambassador for Italy’s National Confectioners Association and is the author of the recently published Dolci: Italy’s Sweets (Stewart, Tabori & Chang, fall 2011).
Andrew F. Smith: Freelance writer who teaches food history, food controversies and professional food writing at the New School University in New York City. He is the author or editor of twenty-two books, including Eating History: Thirty Turning Points in the Making of American Cuisine, and he serves as the editor of the Oxford Encyclopedia on Food and Drink in America. He has written more than three hundred articles in academic journals, popular magazines and newspapers. Smith is also the editor for the “Edible Series” at Reaktion Books in the United Kingdom, and he has served as historical consultant to several television series. For more, go to: www.andrewfsmith.com
Jenna Weissman-Joselit: Charles E. Smith Professor of Judaic Studies and Professor of History, as well as the Director of the Program in Judaic Studies at George Washington University. A distinguished scholar, she specializes in the history and culture of America’s Jews. Her many books include The Wonders of America: Reinventing Jewish Culture, 1880-1950, which received the National Jewish Book Award in History. Weissman-Joselit also writes for the Forward and other publications, such as Gastronomica. For more information, go to: www.gwu.edu/~history/people/Joselit.cfm
Barbara Ketchum Wheaton: Independent scholar, who has been conducting culinary history research for more than 40 years and is honorary curator of the culinary collection in the Schlesinger Library at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard University. Her book Savoring the Past: The French Kitchen and Table from 1300 to 1789 (University of Pennsylvania Press, 1983) won the Prix Littéraire des Relais Gourmands in 1985. This seminal work has also been published in the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, and Japan. Her workshops in reading cookbooks as sources of social history have been attended by food writers, working cooks, historians, and scholars in other fields.