Cooking Boston: Eating Other People's Food

Program 2: Eating Other People's Food
In the second half of the 20th century, Americans were re-introduced to the food of the world. Most famously, Julia Child in Cambridge and James Beard in New York brought fine cooking into American living rooms. They were not alone in pushing the culinary envelope. In Cambridge, Design Research was making cookware fashionable and Joyce Chen was convincing Americans they could cook Mandarin cuisine. The expansion of the American palate that began with television chefs continued with restaurants across greater Boston and helped reshape the idea of dinner.

Cooking Boston: How the Hub Shaped the American Diet 

This six program series will explore the culinary history of Boston and the impact the city has had on the American diet. In the first half of the 19th century, Boston had a reputation as the center for European taste and refinement. By the end of the 19th century, the Colonial Revival movement nationally popularized foods like Boston baked beans and Yankee pot-roast shifting Boston’s image from refined to rustic. In the 20th century, Boston clung to two identities: that of thrifty Puritans and of cosmopolitanism through education. This created some remarkably bland food but also made the city fertile ground for a culinary revolution. In the 1960s, chefs like Julia Child and Joyce Chen brought the flavors of the world to America through Boston.

The series will run from March through June of 2017. See the other programs in the series