Ferrara Eats:
Adventures in Food, History & Writing
Tell me what you eat
and I will tell you what you are.
-Jean-Anthelme Brillat-Savarin
In recent years, food writing has seen an explosion of writers whose contributions range
from recipes to blog posts to food scholarship and novels. Each writer brings his or her
own flavor to the page: some celebrate the sheer pleasure of eating, while others explore
the history and moral issues behind the food we consume and question how these choices
shape individuals and cultures.
This course celebrates this explosion of food writing and has two primary objectives.
First, to reflect and think about food in a way you probably haven’t before. We’re going
to carefully examine the food we eat from a number of different perspectives to reveal the
complicated and fascinating study of food. We will use Ferrara and Italy as our case
study, exploring the region’s food with an eye to understanding the connections between
food and identity. Second, throughout the course, we will further develop your digital
communication skills in order to understand how best to communicate with others in the
21st Century. During our learning abroad trip, you will be constantly publishing your
writings, images, and movies to a personal online blog that showcases what you are
learning and experiencing. To accomplish this, we will discuss and learn the best
practices related to multimedia and online storytelling and practice some of the
technologies associated with that. By the end of the semester, you will have an online
portfolio of writing related to food that should reflect your growth as a historian, student
of food studies, and communicator.
PLEASE NOTE: Readings below are samples of what we might read. These are not the
actual list of readings.
Topic 1: Food as Identity
The first topic will introduce students to food studies as a discipline.
Readings:
Massimo Montanari, Italian Identity: In the Kitchen , or Food and the Nation (Columbia
University Press, 2010), all; “Emilia Romagna” in Gillian Riley, The Oxford Companion
to Italian Food (Oxford University Press, 2007); and Bill Buford, Heat: An Amateurs’s
Adventures as Kitchen Slave, Line Cook, Pasta Maker, and Apprentice to a DanteQuoting Butcher in Tuscany (Knopf, 2006), Chapter 1: Dinner With Mario and Chapter
2: Kitchen Slave.
Topic 2: Food as History
The second topic will involve delving deep into understanding the connections among
Ferrara, its history, and its food.
Readings:
Ken Alba, “Cookbooks as Historical Documents,” in Jeffrey M. Pilcher, ed., The Oxford
Handbook of Food History (Oxford University Press, 2012);Excerpts from Stefano
Milioni, Columbus Menu: Italian Cuisine after the First Voyage of Christopher
Columbus (Instituto Italiano per il Commercio Estero, 1992); Exceprts from Lynne
Rossetto Kasper, The Splendid Table: Recipes from Emilia-Romagna the Heartland of
Northern Italian Food (Morrow, 1992); and Buford, Heat, Chapter Three: Line Cook and
Chapter Four: Pasta-Maker.
Topic 3: Food and Responsibility
The Slow Food movement was born in Italy and one of its major tenets is thinking about
the responsibility one has related to food. This topic will explore the different dimensions
of responsibility and how that plays out in Ferrara, Italy, and beyond.
Readings:
Carlo Petrini, Slow Food: The Case for Taste (Columbia University Press, 2001); James
McWilliams, “Excerpt from Just Food…,” Texas Monthly (September 2009); Buford,
Heat, Chapter Five: Apprentice and Chapter Six: Tuscan Butcher.
Topic 4: You Eat What You Are
The final topic in Italy will allow you to reflect on what you’ve experienced and to
answer the question: are you what you eat? How do eating choices reflect who we are as
individuals as well as who we are as a society?
Reading:
Buford, Heat, Chapter Six: Dinner With Mario.
Tentative Schedule
In Houston
Prior to departure, we will meet a couple of times to discuss the trip and expectations for
what we will do. These will also be opportunities for us to get to know each other. We
will also meet once upon our return to Houston from Italy.
In Italy June 13-29
Week One
Monday: Airport Pick up,
Tuesday: On site Orientation & Scavenger hunt
Tuesday: Ferrara City Tour; Castello Estense guided tour
Wednesday: Terra VivaBio Ferrara, an inner city organic farm and Organic Farming in
Italy Guest Lecture
Thursday: Visit to Local Cured Meat Farm and Guest Lecture on Biodiversity
Friday: Full day excursion: Bologna City Tour and Parmigiano Cheese factory, including
step by step production and tasting
Saturday: Community Engagement Day with Pasta Making Night and Dinner, learn
how to make fresh pasta under the guidance of a sfoglina
Sunday: Free day
Week Two
Monday: Full day excursion: Modena "Acetaia" Balsamic Vinegar Farm, including
demonstration and tasting
Tuesday: Depart Ferrara - Overnight Excursion: Florence City Tour
Wednesday: Maremma including wine production and tasting
Thursday: Return to Ferrara with guest lecture on the Slow Food Movement in Italy
Friday: Full Day excursion: Po River Valley and Tour of the Delta region including rice
cultivation and production
Saturday: Free Day
Sunday: Free Day
Monday: Italy Wrap Up and Final Class (in Italy)
Tuesday: Return to Houston