Histories of Global Recipes: A Workshop on Sources and Methods

Thursday 19 October 2023

10:30 AM - 3:30 PM

IAS, Zeeman Building (Ground Floor)

A one-day workshop at the University of Warwick

Convened by Dr Ricardo Aguilar-González (IAS, UMSNH)

Sponsored by University of Warwick’s Institute for Advanced Study and Global History and Culture Centre.

About the workshop

European colonial expansionism emerging in 15^th century connected places and peoples around the world (Hausberger, 2019), and allowed for the circulation of goods, knowledge and people. Global connections brought about the expanding interchange of edibles and indigenous peoples’ knowledges on crops, roots, drinks and animals, while at the same time settlers used African and indigenous forced labour to produce cheaper commodities to supply European and Mediterranean markets. Changes were reflected in many different spheres, from competing European monarchs attempting to invade indigenous lands, to colonisers anxious to reproduce their Mediterranean diet in the Americas (Earle, 2012), to indigenous rulers negotiating conquests through foodstuffs and kin making. Likewise, on a material level, these changes brought about the global circulation of medicines and dyes from indigenous Americans to the incorporation of new ingredients in recipes in the Americas, Europe and the Mediterranean world. While specialists have studied edibles circulation across the Atlantic Ocean and Southeast Asia (Machuca, 2018; Crosby, 2003), in this workshop participants will further explore how these goods were incorporated into recipes, how the global trade changed portions, promoted guild tensions, and how Mesoamerican taste was exported and introduced to the ‘Old World’.