Elizabeth McQueen - Podcast Details

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EsculentBuilding an Archive: 3500 Episodes with Chef Martin YanThousands of television episodes leave a mark – not only on digital archives of our food media-saturated world – but on the host, the performer, as well. In the final episode of our second season with chefs, we speak with Chef Martin Yan, the host of Yan Can Cook. We discuss Chef Yan’s decades of work wth PBS, the importance of culinary education, not only entertainment, and the development of his archive with UC Davis Library. We are joined by Food & Wine Curator Audrey Russek, and just barely scratch the surface on all the mediums, stories, and impacts that Chef Martin...2025-06-1137 min

EsculentA 15th-Century Chef and a Recipe for Menjar Blanc de Carabasses with Professor Daniela Gutiérrez FloresCan we tell the story of a chef from 1490? Join podcast regular Professor Daniela Gutiérrez Flores as we attempt to recreate a recipe from Mestre Robert, a 15th-century chef and the author of Libre del Coch, the first printed cookbook. Join our reenactment where we speculate salt use, concern over squash cooking, and a huge sensory disagreement over rose water. Tasting & Viewing: Menjar Blanc de Carabasses by Mestre Robert in Libre del Coch Host: Elizabeth McQueen Producer: Stace Baran Theme by Ronan Delisle Audio Support from Jenevieve Bohmann This p...2025-06-0430 min

EsculentThe Poetry of the Thinnest Slice of Bread in Animation History with Baker Jim FranksWell-baked bread is an art in and of itself, but in this episode, we look at a few representational mediums of yeasty dough: poetry, photography, and animation, as forms that give new light to a thousand-year-old practice. Baker Jim Franks discusses his new book of poetry, Existential Bread (Drag City, 2025), and one of my favorite animations of food ever, evoking faint memories for both of us, just like a whiff of a good loaf. Jim Franks’ book is out now, with a cover designed by podcast favourite Jordan Rundle of Dazer! Tasting: Minh Phan’s Juju...2025-05-2727 min

EsculentA Sensory Education through Nixtamalization with Chef Emmanuel GalvanI first smelled the freshly nixtamalized masa from Emmanuel Galvan of Bolita at the Gilman Wine Block, where the tender, vegetal umami scent carried above the crowds right into my nose. This episode, we focus on technological and labor challenges of nixtamalization in the present, specifically right in Berkeley – complicating the many ways nixtamalization makes corn esculent. Tasting: Tessier Wine’s Pinot Noir Viewing: “Memory,” the dish with tortillas from The Menu (2022) Host: Elizabeth McQueen Producer: Stace Baran Theme by Ronan Delisle Audio Support from Jenevieve Bohmann This podcast...2025-05-2028 min

EsculentRestaurant Doors and Roasting Ducks with Chef Brandon JewWe are back with a dive into the archive featuring Chef Brandon Jew of Mister Jiu’s restaurant in San Francisco - featuring historic menus and historic buildings, and how this influences canonical Chinese American recipes like Peking Duck. We kick off Season 4: Chefs Pt. 2 with our literary inquiries into the work of Chefs, and how words, archives, and texts make the esculent. Tasting: A whiff of UC Davis Special Collections Viewing: Yan Can Cook: Winter Melon, Steamed Sea Bass, and Black Bean Chicken, aired on PBS in the 1980s Stay up to da...2025-05-1324 min

EsculentSeason 4: Chefs, Part 2Season 4, Chefs is here: we revisit the dynamic role of the chef in popular culture through culinary literatures, from 15th-century cookbooks to PBS television series. Tasting: A Russell Stover head of an Easter Bunny (context provided, sort of). Stay up to date with Esculent on our Instagram Host: Elizabeth McQueen Producer: Stace Baran Theme by Ronan Delisle Audio Support from Jenevieve Bohmann This podcast is supported by the UC Davis Mellon Foundation Sawyer Seminar, Thinking Food at the Intersections. 2025-05-1202 min

EsculentThe Idea of Solutions with Professor Julie GuthmanCan baking brownies save the planet? I’m a little embarrassed I even wrote this question out, but this rhetoric exemplifies the argument of our esteemed guest’s new book: The Problem with Solutions: Why Silicon Valley Can't Hack the Future of Food (UC Press, 2024). For our final episode of this season, we are joined by Julie Guthman, Distinguished Professor of Community Studies Emerita at the University of California, Santa Cruz. We discuss my favorite food film, shifts in university pedagogy, and how to conceive of doing good while maintaining critical thinking. Tasting: Renewal Mill Brownie Mix 2025-04-0834 min

EsculentImagining Authenticity with Professor Ignacio M. Sánchez PradoAuthenticity. An idea that has plagued many conversations on food. This week, we are joined by Professor Ignacio M. Sánchez Prado, the Jarvis Thurston and Mona van Duyn Professor in Humanities at Washington University in St. Louis. We interrogate the role of authenticity in constructing Mexican national identity through another culinary idea: that of the taco. We discuss the taco’s malleable history across regions, including Taco Bell. Stay tuned for Professor Sánchez Prado’s upcoming book on the taco and modernity! Tasting: Taco de machado con huevo by special guest Professor Daniela Gutiérrez-Flores V...2025-04-0133 min

EsculentThe Idea of Real Food with Professor Charlotte BiltekoffHow are processed and natural contested categories - rather than objective definitions- of food? These questions are at the center of Professor Charlotte Biltekoff’s new book, Real Food, Real Facts: Processed Food and the Politics of Knowledge. Joined by a special guest, Dan Polsby of Best Friends Wine, to introduce our tasting and complicate “real” wine, we discuss food science, industry, and the Food Inc. documentaries. Tasting: Sfera Bianco, 250mL can Viewing: Trailers for Food Inc. (2006) and Food Inc. 2 (2024) Stay up to date with Esculent on our Instagram Host: Elizabeth McQueen 2025-03-2536 min

EsculentThinking Indigeneity with Fabiola Santiago and Mi OaxacaWe start off our third season featuring a conversation with Fabiola Santiago of Mi Oaxaca, exploring how indigenous knowledge is linked with mezcal and the colonial exploitation that occurs within Oaxaca today. From Mexico’s tourism board to the role of service and hospitality workers in disseminating knowledge around mezcal, this season, we are all about the big ideas that shape the esculent. Viewing: Mexico Tourism Board’s 2014 campaign for Oaxaca, “Live it to Believe it” Tasting: Kalawashaq Wine Cellars from Camins 2 Dreams Stay up to date with Esculent on our Instagram Host...2025-03-1926 min

EsculentSeason 3: IdeasBack again. This season hosts four thinkers, shaping and questioning the ideas that make food esculent. Reading: Excerpt from Professor Kyla Wazana Tompkins' new book, Deviant Matter (NYU Press, 2024) Tasting: Kermit Lynch Wine Merchant: 2023 Coteaux du Loir Rouge “Cuvée du Rosier” Stay up to date with Esculent on our Instagram Host: Elizabeth McQueen Producer: Stace Baran Theme by Ronan Delisle Audio Support from Jenevieve Bohmann This podcast is supported by the UC Davis Mellon Foundation Sawyer Seminar, Thinking Food at the Intersections. Season 3 is supported by Professor...2025-03-1203 min

EsculentCelebrity Chefs and Artful Eating with Professor Paul FreedmanThe celebrity chef is not a modern concept, as we discuss with Paul Freedman, Professor of History at Yale. Joined by podcast regular Professor Daniela Gutiérrez-Flores, we discuss early modern history, how food comes in and out of fashion, and what artistry might indicate in food history. And the conclusion of Season 2: Historians! Professor Freedman specializes in medieval social history, the history of Catalonia, comparative studies of the peasantry, trade in luxury products, and the history of cuisine. His latest books are The Splendor and Opulence of the Past: Studying the Middle Ages in Enlightenment Catalonia (Co...2025-02-1832 min

EsculentA taste of history with Professor Jeffrey PilcherWhat does it take to understand food historically? This episode takes a philosophical turn as Jeffrey Pilcher, Professor of Food History, joins the podcast to discuss what it means to study, write, and taste food history. Jeffrey Pilcher is a Professor of History and Food Studies at the University of Toronto, Where he directs the Culinaria Research Centre. He is the author of several books, including Food in World History, 3d ed (2023) and Planet Taco: A Global History of Mexican Food (2012), and the newly released Hopped Up: How Travel, Trade, and Taste Made Beer a Global Commodity (2024).2025-02-1126 min

EsculentCorporate Power and a visit to Disneyland’s Mission Tortilla FactoryCorporate power is a relentless force in shaping how and what we eat. Join us this week with Professor Enrique C. Ochoa, author of the upcoming book México Between Feast and Famine: Food, Corporate Power, and Inequality, to discuss the role of corporations in constructing a thread of Mexico’s culinary history. Enrique C. Ochoa is Professor of History and Latin American Studies at California State University, Los Angeles Viewing: Disneyland’s Mission Tortilla Factory (2001-2011) Tasting: Arbol de Fuego by Vinos Pijoan Stay up to date with Esculent on our I...2025-02-0425 min

EsculentProductive Plants, Pacific trades with Professor Andrés ReséndezMuch of food history is a history of trade: how crops, plants, and tastes move around the world. Professor Andrés Reséndez discusses a trade route often overlooked in the 16th and 17th centuries, that of the Manila Galleons, one that can be overshadowed by the intellectually exhausted narrative of the Columbian Exchange. We also eat corn puffs. And an extra special reading by poet Rick Barot from his book, The Galleons. Professor Andrés Reséndez is a professor of history at the University of California, Davis. Reséndez specializes in early European exploration and colon...2025-01-2833 min

EsculentIs meat modern? Esculent animals with Professor Marcy Norton.Is meat modern? We explore this question and more with a historical dive into human relations with animals across the Atlantic from 1492 (yes, that 1492). Professor Marcy Norton (University of Pennsylvania) brings insights from her new book, The Tame and the Wild (Harvard University Press, 2024) We discuss colonialism, Western concepts of esculent, and pre-colonial Indigenous life with animals in the Americas. Tasting: Impossible Meat Viewing: Shina Nova’s TikTok page Professor Marcy Norton (Ph.D. Berkeley) is a historian of the early modern Atlantic World, with a focus on Latin America and Spain. Along wit...2025-01-2125 min

EsculentHanding the world a kola nut with Dr. Shantel GeorgeWelcome to Season 2: Historians! Dr. Shantel George visits Esculent from the University of Glasgow to discuss the history of the Kola nut, West African spirituality in food history, and community in research. Tasting: Coca-cola Viewing: Series finale of Mad Men, Season 7, Episode 14 (AMC) Read more about Dr. George’s research and publications Stay up to date with Esculent on our Instagram Host: Elizabeth McQueen Producer: Stace Baran Theme by Ronan Delisle Audio Support from Jenevieve Bohmann This podcast is supported by the UC Davis Mel...2025-01-1429 min

EsculentSeason 2: HistoriansWe are back! Season 2: Historians, is here. Join us for six episodes exploring food history: from research methods to turning points in the history of chefs to influential commodities and more. Read more about Dr. Amr Shahat's research. Stay up to date with Esculent on our Instagram Host: Elizabeth McQueen Producer: Stace Baran Theme by Ronan Delisle Audio Support from Jenevieve Bohmann This podcast is supported by the UC Davis Mellon Foundation Sawyer Seminar, Thinking Food at the Intersections. 2025-01-0701 min

EsculentSeason 1: ChefsA belated season trailer - we're still getting the hang of it. Listen to find out why season one begins with chefs, and get a hint at what is coming up in 2025! Cooking with Beer on Emeril Live, Food Network (Season 1, Episode 13, 2002) Chef's Table, Netflix (Season 1, Episode 1, 2015) Stay up to date with Esculent on Instagram Host: Elizabeth McQueen Producer: Stace Baran Theme by Ronan Delisle Audio Support from Jenevieve Bohmann This podcast is supported by the UC Davis Mellon Foundation Sawyer Seminar, Thinking Food at the Intersections. 2024-12-2304 min

EsculentTowards Transparency with Chefs Norma Listman and Saqib Keval of Masala y MaizOur first live podcast welcomes Chefs Norma LIstman and Saqib Keval. Join us as we taste their historically complex dish of fermented peanuts, the first dish served at their restaurant, Masala y Maiz. Our conversation covers their commitments to radical transparency and rethinking the restaurant model, as well as the limits of representation in a capitalist system, including in their most recent appearance on Netflix's Chef's Table. This one is extra long, and extra good. Check out Masala y Maiz and stay up to date on their Instagram. Stay up to date with Esculent on I...2024-12-1754 min

Esculent"Raise your hand if you know what esculent means" with Professor Daniela Gutiérrez-FloresWhat does esculent mean? Why is it the title of this podcast? And what is the seminar that is funding this project? Professor Daniela Gutiérrez-Flores joins Elizabeth McQueen to unpack the word, and why thinking about the esculent might be useful in approaches to food justice, especially in humanities research. This episode is also a preview for the in-person research colloquium, Reimagining the Past through Food Justice, at UC Davis, December 6-7, 2024. Tasting: Handheld Pies, Davis Rebop Episode: Oakland Community School Huey P. Newton Interview Cooking Against the Grain Library Exhibit (Online version)2024-12-0333 min

EsculentCantaloupe Seeds and Colonialism with Chef Minh PhanA pinch of this and a pinch of that captures my conversation with Chef and Artist Minh Phan. We discuss her methods of fermentation all the way to rethinking efficiency in her anti-colonialist mindset. Tasting: Los Angeles River Wine Company, Palomino, 2022 Spam Jingle thanks to Janine Sun Rogers Follow Minh Phan on Instagram LA Times Article: This Michelin-starred chef wants to feed people. So she closed her restaurants Stay up to date with Esculent on Instagram Host: Elizabeth McQueen Producer: Stace Baran Theme by Ronan Delisle Audio Sup...2024-11-2637 min

EsculentHeat of the Hearth with Chef Martin DraluckOur inaugural episode features a tasting and conversation with Chef Martin Draluck of the Black Pot Supper Club, with a tasting of the inaugural whiskey from Uncle Nearest, the first black-owned whiskey distillery in the U.S.. It honors Nathan 'Nearest' Green, a formative distiller enslaved to Dan Call. Join us as our host Elizabeth McQueen talks with Chef Martin Draluck about the hearth in early American cooking techniques, performing for the camera in Netflix's High on the Hog, and what it means to reconstruct enslaved culinary histories. Tasting: Uncle Nearest 1856 High on the Hog...2024-11-1923 min

Jobshare Revolution: Flexible Work for Work-Life Balance[ENCORE] Unlocking Job Share Academy’s Full Potential: Insights from Student Elizabeth McQueen17. "You can be ambitious AND you can spend a lot of time with your family AND you can be successful, you just have to figure out HOW you want to do it and WHO you want to do it with. Job Share Academy opened my eyes to the fact that it can look a lot of ways. If you're willing to put in the work, you can make something cool happen." - Elizabeth McQueenSTUDENT ELIZABETH MCQUEEN SHARES JOB SHARE ACADEMY’S FULL POTENTIAL WITH US.As the doors to Job Share Aca...2024-09-2025 min

Jobshare Revolution: Flexible Work for Work-Life BalanceA Look Inside Job Share Academy with Elizabeth McQueen9. "You can be ambitious AND you can spend a lot of time with your family AND you can be successful, you just have to figure out HOW you want to do it and WHO you want to do it with. Job Share Academy opened my eyes to the fact that it can look a lot of ways. If you're willing to put in the work, you can make something cool happen." - Elizabeth McQueen Work Muse online training & coaching program Job Share Academy is taken in a supportive, hands-on cohort, including weekly group coaching with y...2024-05-3025 min