In her book Bound to the Fire: How Virginia’s Enslaved Cooks Helped Invent American Cuisine, Kelley Fanto Deetz draws upon archaeological evidence, cookbooks, plantation records, and folklore to present a study of the lives of enslaved plantation cooks from colonial times through emancipation and beyond. She reveals how these men and women were literally "bound to the fire" as they lived and worked in the sweltering and often fetid conditions of plantation house kitchens.

In this presentation based on her new book, Detroit Tiki, join author Renee Tadey on a journey through the history of tiki-themed destinations in Detroit.

The International Museum of Dinnerware Design was established in 2012. On its tenth anniversary, Margaret Carney, the director and curator of the museum, will share stories of delicious exhibitions, interweaving culinary delights along the way.

Margaret Carney is a ceramic historian who holds a Ph.D. in Asian art history. Curated IMDD exhibitions include The Art of High Chair Fine Dining, Cake, Butter, Breakfast and the upcoming 2023 invitational and juried exhibition, Entomophagous Dining.

Journalist Micheline Maynard will discuss her new book, Satisfaction Guaranteed: How Zingerman's Built a Corner Deli into a Global Food Community. Certain businesses are legendary, exerting immense influence in their field. Zingerman’s in Ann Arbor, Michigan, is one of those places.

Biography as it's usually practiced rarely pauses at the kitchen table to examine the food. Yet ordinary meals give us an incomparable vantage point on anybody's life, whether it's a person who loves to eat or a person who couldn't care less. After all, food happens every day; it's associated with every appetite, and it's entangled with all the social and economic conditions that bear upon our days.

Native New Yorker Jacquelyn Ottman — a fifth generation member of one of New York City’s pioneering family of butchers, will unpack the rich history of Ottman & Company, one of New York City's premier meat purveyors to New York’s finest restaurants including Le Pavilion, 21, and the Four Seasons, and eventually the world.

In this richly illustrated, 90-minute webinar, she will cover:

This panel discussion brings together some of the contributors to the recent anthology “The Provisions of War: Expanding the Boundaries of Food and Conflict 1840-1990.” The central theme of this book, and of our panel discussion, is how soldiers, civilians, and communities have attempted to use food (and its absence, deprivation and hunger) as both a weapon of war and a unifying force in establishing governmental control and cultural cohesion during times of conflict.

For at least 6000 years, people have summoned sourdough starter seemingly out of the air and combined it with milled wheat, water and a dash of salt to produce “the staff of life”: bread. Professor Eric Pallant takes us on a 6,000-year journey through history as we learn why bread (and not the slicer) was the greatest invention of all time. We will meet ancient Egyptian pyramid builders, bygone Roman bakers, medieval housewives, Gold Rush miners, and historical figures like Plato, Pliny the Elder and Marie Antoinette.

When German-speaking immigrants came to America, they brought with them their culinary traditions. Before long, cookbooks specifically written for Germans appeared in this country. This presentation will examine changes in the foodways of German Americans through the lens of these cookbooks.

Join Maite Gómez-Rejón of ArtBites in exploring early Mexican recipes. Read between the lines of colonial kitchen manuscripts, the first printed cookbooks post Independence through the Revolution in the early 20th century. Discover the shifting attitudes toward food, from a status marker and divider of classes to a tool for unifying the country and creating a unique national identity.