Chewing the Fat Yale Sustainable Food Program

What makes cultured meat imaginable? Benjamin Aldes Wurgaft is a public scholar whose latest book, Meat Planet: Artificial Flesh and the Future of Food, looks deeply at this question. These days, technologies for cultured meat are kept more and more under wraps; Ben’s research then, offers an incredible glimpse at the industry. We chat about … Read More Read More

Something about food engraves itself in our memories. It appeals to our physical senses in taste and smell, and cooking can quickly become part of muscle memory. But food touches on our experiences too: it’s part of conversations around the table (and sometimes the center!), capable of shaping traditions and histories. So where might a … Read More Read More

What roles do some of New Haven’s non-profits play in the city’s food landscape? We speak with Sanctuary Kitchen and Love Fed New Haven, and the city’s Food Systems Director Latha Swamy to understand how food-centered programming, organizing, and activism address the needs of New Haven’s various communities. While organizations build their own niches, so … Read More Read More

Banh mi, the Vietnamese sandwich, has become a widely beloved dish. With its unique combination of flavors—crunchy bread, sour pickled carrots, fresh cucumbers, savory cold cuts, among other things—banh mi has captured the imagination of people, even at non-Vietnamese establishments. How did this happen? What can we learn when we examine the history of this … Read More Read More

Plant-based. Vegetable-forward. These terms have become more and more popular in a culinary world now obsessed with sustainable eating. But what if these ideas are hardly new? What if they have deep cultural roots around the world that often go underacknowledged or underappreciated? Bryant Terry is the chef-in-residence at the Museum of the African Diaspora … Read More Read More

In the early 2000s, eating local was believed to be transformative for our food systems. Those changes may not have come true, but what happens when we revisit local food today—this time, emphasizing equity, coalition-building, and approaches specific to place? Kiki Louya is a Congolese-American chef and entrepreneur who founded the all-women hospitality group, Nest … Read More Read More