AnthroDish

Sarah Duignan
  • 5.0 (39)
  • FOOD
  • UPDATED WEEKLY

AnthroDish explores the intersections between our foods, cultures, and identities. Host Dr. Sarah Duignan sits down one-on-one with people in academia, hospitality, farming and agriculture, and more to learn about their food knowledge and experiences. If you're interested in the unique lives of everyday people who have been shaped by their relationship with food, this show is for you!

  1. DEC 16

    164: Embracing Seasonality in Edomae-Style Sushi with Chef Cheng Lin

    Edomae sushi is an Edo style of sushi making that underscores marinating, curing, and aging techniques. Within that, there is one chef, Cheng Lin, standing out for his attention not only to these techniques, but bringing an emphasis on seasonality and sourcing of ingredients.   Born and raised in Fujian, China, chef Cheng Lin began his culinary career in 1997 when he moved to New York City and worked in restaurants such as Hatsuhana, Sushi Seki, and Blue Ribbon. Continuously looking to refine his skills at trailblazing culinary concepts, he eventually joined Chef Masa Ito and Kevin Kim at ITO Tribeca. Chef Cheng Lin was captivated by the comic "Shota No Sushi," a tale of a boy whose passion for sushi mirrored his own, and dreamt of creating a haven for sushi enthusiasts that he would call Shōta. Now, over two decades later, Chef Cheng Lin helms Shōta Omakase in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, and it is the culmination of his near 30-year commitment to perfecting the art of sushi making. Combining traditional Edomae-style sushi with modern flair, and a painstaking dedication to sourcing the highest quality ingredients, Chef Cheng Lin shares his love through attention to detail, refined technique, and unmatched flavor. In today's conversation, we explore his commitment to sourcing ingredients that honour the traditional techniques used in Edomae-style sushi, considerations of seasonality when selecting which fish to incorporate on the menu, and how Cheng and his staff have adjusted to their dining services in the wake of receiving a Michelin star within one year of opening.  Resources: Shōta Omakase Restaurant Website Instagram: @shotaomakase Chef Cheng's Instagram: @sushi.chef.cheng.lin

    29 min

  2. DEC 9

    163: How Community Supported Fisheries Promote Sustainable Seafood with Sonia Strobel

    My guest today, Sonia Strobel, is here to explore the idea of community-supported fisheries. Sonia is co-founder and CEO of Skipper Otto, a Community Supported Fishery based in Vancouver, BC, Canada. Through her innovative, sustainable seafood subscription model, members pre-purchase a share in the catch before the fishing season. This unique partnership between fishers and consumers guarantees harvesters a fair price for their catch, protects a traditional way of life in BC's coastal and Indigenous fishing communities, and disrupts a seafood system fraught with social and environmental injustice. Skipper Otto is a certified B Corp and certified Living Wage employer. They educate consumers about important issues in fisheries and the value of eating with the ecosystem while advocating for just policy reform. Today, we discuss these vital themes, and Sonia shares stories from her own family's fishery as well as the additional challenges faced by Indigenous-owned fisheries in Canada. We speak about some of the main challenges facing the seafood industry in Canada amidst climate change and American tariffs, how Skipper Otto is navigating these challenges to support their fishing families, the proactive measures they are taking to increase transparency and build more sustainable fishery management, and considerations that the public should bring with them the next time they're seeking out fish foods for dinner.  Resources:  Skipper Otto Website Instagram: @skipperotto

    32 min

  3. DEC 2

    162: Behind the Rise of Non-Alcoholic Drinks with Ren Navarro

    Why are we seeing such a boom in non-alcoholic drink options, and how do they stand out from wellness beverages as their own specific category?  I invited my dear friend Ren Navarro back to AnthroDish to explore these trends in the beverage industry. Ren is a culture consultant, drinks expert, and founder of B. Diversity Group. With over 20 years of experience in corporate management and over a dozen years in the beer industry, she's helped everyone from family-run breweries to multinational brands build spaces people want to be a part of. What started as honest conversations over pints has evolved into company-wide transformations: policy audits, inclusive hiring systems, value statement creations, and real community engagement across industries. Whether she's teaching, advising, or helping revamp policies, her mission stays the same—build cultures that reflect the values people say they believe in. She loves tattoos, goats, and gives pretty good hugs. Today, Ren and I explore some of the experiences, tastes, and forms that non-alcoholic beverages are taking, what hop water is, and why these non-alcoholic options offer much more inclusive and diverse experiences than their wellness counterparts. Resources:  Website: https://bdiversitygroup.com/  Instagram: @bdiversitygroup Previous episodes:  On Craft Beer's Diversity Problem Creating Safer Communities for Breweris and Vulnerable Neighbours Beer (and Everyone) Still Has a Diversity Problem

    42 min

  4. NOV 25

    161: Are Our Fridges Designed for Food Waste? with Emma Atkins

    My guest this week, Emma Atkins, is here to explore the role that refrigeration has played in our food waste. Emma is a PhD researcher at the University of Bristol in the UK. Her research looks at how fridges influence food waste, whether through design or its place in a food system geared towards overconsumption. She has a background in policy and advocacy, and recently wrote two reports tackling policy solutions for food waste and quality of food donations with Foodrise, which is a UK and EU-based NGO. Her website Food Waste Stories features articles about food waste in art, culture, policy, and academia, and advocates for a sustainable food system.  In today's conversation, I speak with Emma about how fridges have evolved from earliest 1920s designs to become embedded in our modern food culture, the relationship between fridges and Costco hauls, the extreme fridge organization trends on TikTok, and the possibilities of more sustainably-minded fridge designs to reduce food waste in the future. Resources:  Food Waste Stories website  Instagram: @foodwaste_emma Policy Document: Used By - How businesses dump their food waste on charities  Policy Document: Actions to End Food Waste

    32 min

  5. NOV 18

    160: Exploring Nigerian Culinary Histories through Recipes with Ozoz Sokoh

    In Nigeria, the word chop is used for food and feasting, and to say "come chop" is an invitation into sharing and community. This is precisely how Ozoz Sokoh's debut cookbook, Chop Chop: Cooking the Food of Nigeria begins. It is warm, inviting, and open to all those who are interested in learning about Nigerian cuisine, and the role of home cooks in creating the most beloved classic Nigerian dishes.  Ozoz herself is a food explorer, educator, and traveler by plate. She is a professor of Food and Tourism Studies at Centennial College, and makes her home with her three teenage children in Mississauga, part of the Treaty Lands and Territory of the Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation in Ontario, Canada. Her work documents and celebrates Nigerian and West African cuisine, and she is particularly fascinated by all the ways we're similar. Be it through dishes, drinks, material culture or more, Ozoz explores these across geographies, cultures, and histories, in spite of our apparent differences.  In today's conversation, we explore a wide range of the history and future of Nigerian cuisine, including the stories of how ingredients came to be in Nigerian dishes, the homegrown love of protein (and why it's not the relationship to protein you'd expect in a Western lens), and how Ozoz approaches exploring the histories of recipes and cuisine across Nigeria. Resources: Ozoz's Website Kitchen Butterfly Blog Instagram: @kitchenbutterfly Feast Afrique Website  TikTok: @ozozsokoh

    43 min

  6. NOV 11

    159: What Could a Just Food System Really Look Like? with Dr. Bryan Dale

    My guest today, Dr. Bryan Dale, is here to explore these nuances. Bryan is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Environment, Agriculture, and Geography at Bishop's University. His research interests include food sovereignty, agroecology, climate change, environmental justice, social movements, and alternative economic initiatives (especially in food and farming). He completed a postdoctoral fellowship with the Culinaria Research Centre at the University of Toronto Scarborough, and a PhD and MA in Human Geography with a specialization in Environmental Studies at the University of Toronto's Department of Geography & Planning.  He has a new paper out in Canadian Food Studies on consumers' roles in a just food system transition, going beyond individualistic or household behaviours to explore the broader frameworks required to achieve these goals in post-capitalistic food systems. These observations are based on his research and interviews with farmers and alternative food organizations in Ontario and Québec. Today, we explore these ideas, the tensions between farmers and consumers, and the role of state interventions in these food system potentials. Resources:  Bryan's Website Article on Just Food Systems via CFS

    31 min

  7. NOV 4

    158: Honouring Asian Ingredients in Cookie Baking with Kat Lieu

    My guest today, Kat Lieu, is a Vietnamese-Chinese cookbook author, and here to share more about how she's challenging this through her new cookbook, 108 Asian Cookies: Not-too-Sweet Treats from a Third Culture Kitchen. Kat is the founder of the popular online community, Subtle Asian Baking, and is the author of best-selling cookbook, Modern Asian Baking at Home as well as two others. Kat brings a third culture approach to Asian baking, baking and cooking by blending Asian ingredients with Western techniques. She also is an activist, donating her cakes and cookies to various events in Seatle, and raising thousands of dollars for charities and causes important to her. This year alone, she raised $10k for charity selling cookies through Instagram stories. In today's episode, Kat shares how she approached 108 Asian Cookies as a cookbook that breaks down barriers being the first Asian-themed cookie cookbook. The cookbook incorporates savory ingredients and playful, incorporating matcha, black sesame cookies, pandan, ube, as well as more savoury and spicy cookies that feature fish sauce, MSG, miso, soy sauce, and Gochujang. Our conversation looks at how Kat has found healing through baking during challenging life moments, how her third culture identity infuses creativity into her kitchen experience, and the importance of challenging misrepresentation of Asian ingredients through a celebration of their culinary adaptations in cookies and the global community this shapes.   Resources: Buy 108 Asian Cookies Kat's Website: Modern Asian Baking Private Facebook Group: Subtle Asian Baking Substack: https://katlieu.substack.com/ Threads: @katlieu Instagram: @katlieu

    27 min

  8. OCT 28

    157: Preserving Palestinian Cuisine During Genocide with Lama Obeid

    As this episode airs, it has been just over two years of Israel's ongoing genocide in Gaza. Tens of thousands of Palestinian people have been killed, and entire cities have been reduced to rubble. And with this, there is a slow and brutal erasure of the rich histories of Palestinian gastronomy.  My guest today, Lama Obeid, is here to explore the state of Palestinian food culture and the impact of the genocide on how people eat and break bread. Lama is a Palestinian writer residing in Palestine, with her writing focused on gastronomy, politics, culture, and travel. Lama's food writing before the genocide speaks to the vibrancy and communal nature of Palestinian cooking and hospitality, though she has since shifted to document the impact of the genocide, and speak to other Palestinian chefs, activists, and cookbook authors through her podcast and newsletter I Come From There.  In today's conversation, we talk about the role that hospitality has played in Palestinian cooking and eating, the ways that preservation of food and recipes is maintained as resistance by Palestinians at home and in the diaspora, andhow the genocide has affected traditions around bread baking and eating, and how to look out for Palestinian food being appropriated by Zionist and Western attempts to make it vague and just Middle Eastern. Resources: I Come From There newsletter by Lama  Other writing by Lama: https://www.newarab.com/author/72243/lama-obeid

    45 min
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5
out of 5
39 Ratings

About

AnthroDish explores the intersections between our foods, cultures, and identities. Host Dr. Sarah Duignan sits down one-on-one with people in academia, hospitality, farming and agriculture, and more to learn about their food knowledge and experiences. If you're interested in the unique lives of everyday people who have been shaped by their relationship with food, this show is for you!

Information

  • Creator
    Sarah Duignan
  • Years Active
    2018 - 2025
  • Episodes
    171
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Show Website
    AnthroDish

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