Scaling Taste with Professor David Block

Serving Mezcal

At Masala y Maíz [https://www.masalaymaiz.com/] in Mexico City, no bottle goes to waste once it’s been opened. Join us for Esculent’s third episode with special guest and Director of Beverage and Culture, Sergio del Castillo and co-chef Saqib Keval, as they describe the restaurant’s cocktail program and the ethics that goes into its creation. With knowledgeable descriptions and different processes that go into making each spirit on the menu, guests are invited to taste for themselves, encountering new flavors and ingredients to learn how they’re made, and how those intimate tastes grow in relation to spirits. Host: Elizabeth McQueen [https://www.elizabethmcqueen.net/]& Daniela Gutierrez-Flores [https://spanish.ucdavis.edu/people/daniela-gutierrez-flores-0]Partner: Mi Oaxaca [https://www.mioaxaca.org/]Editors: Santiago Reyes & Stace Baran Production Intern: Alyssa Pulido Theme by Ronan Delisle [https://www.ronandelisle.com/] This podcast is supported by the University of California Humanities Research Institute [https://uchri.org/grants/] and the Native American and Indigenous Studies Center [https://nais.fsu.edu/] at Florida State University.

The Taste of Mezcal

When mezcal evokes memories of mom’s kitchen or relatives spritzing the spirit to the earth, it becomes clear that smoke has never been adequate to describe a taste of mezcal. In Esculent’s next episode, we are joined by Mi Oaxaca’s founder, Fabiola Santiago [https://www.oaxacthetalk.com/], as we take a look at the different ways people encounter mezcal — either through tasting wheels, aromas, or the memories and relations we ascribe to the beverage. How can we fill in the gaps from tasting wheels that enforce Eurocentric aromas? Together, we think about how one can “taste” mezcal in ways that create relations, rather than orchestrate erasure.  Host: Elizabeth McQueen [https://www.elizabethmcqueen.net/]& Fabiola Santiago [https://www.oaxacthetalk.com/]Partner: Mi Oaxaca [https://www.mioaxaca.org/]Editors: Santiago Reyes & Stace Baran Production Intern: Alyssa Pulido Theme by Ronan Delisle [https://www.ronandelisle.com/] This podcast is supported by the University of California Humanities Research Institute [https://uchri.org/grants/] and the Native American and Indigenous Studies Center [https://nais.fsu.edu/] at Florida State University.

A Sticky History of Mezcal

When studying the history of mezcal, why begin with the milky, lightly fermented beverage pulque? In Esculent’s new season, we are joined once again by Professor Daniela Gutiérrez Flores [https://spanish.ucdavis.edu/people/daniela-gutierrez-flores-0] as we navigate the archives detailing the cultural significance of the maguey plant in Mesoamerica. From discussing pulque’s role in sacred ritual to examining the colonial context of mezcal–both from maguey– we begin to center the narrative on Indigenous practices and experiences. Host: Elizabeth McQueen [https://www.elizabethmcqueen.net/]& Daniela Gutierrez-Flores [https://spanish.ucdavis.edu/people/daniela-gutierrez-flores-0]Partner: Mi Oaxaca [https://www.mioaxaca.org/]Editors: Santiago Reyes & Stace Baran Production Intern: Alyssa Pulido Theme by Ronan Delisle [https://www.ronandelisle.com/] This podcast is supported by the University of California Humanities Research Institute [https://uchri.org/grants/] and the Native American and Indigenous Studies Center [https://nais.fsu.edu/] at Florida State University.

Season 7: Mezcal

This season welcomes co-host Daniela Gutiérrez Flores as we prepare to travel with Fabiola Santiago and the organization Mi Oaxaca -- we are honored to be thinking, sensing, and traveling with care over the next episodes, all about mezcal.  Host: Elizabeth McQueen [https://www.elizabethmcqueen.net/]& Daniela Gutiérrez Flores [https://spanish.ucdavis.edu/people/daniela-gutierrez-flores-0]Partner: Mi Oaxaca [https://www.mioaxaca.org/]Editors: Santiago Reyes & Stace Baran Production Intern: Alyssa Pulido Theme by Ronan Delisle [https://www.ronandelisle.com/] This podcast is supported by the University of California Humanities Research Institute [https://uchri.org/grants/] and the Native American and Indigenous Studies Center [https://nais.fsu.edu/] at Florida State University.

Curating Living Archives with Kyria Boundy-Mills

What does it mean to steward a living archive? Kyria Boundy-Mills [https://foodscience.ucdavis.edu/people/kyria-boundy-mills#/], curator of the Phaff Yeast Culture Collection [https://phaffcollection.ucdavis.edu/], joins Esculent to discuss the care and preservation of thousands of yeast strains. The collection extends far beyond familiar fermenters like bread and beer yeasts, encompassing species drawn from insect ecologies, plants, soils, and unexpected environments. In this episode, we explore how yeasts become technologies of esculence, such as how isolating, storing, and characterizing microbial life supports food science research. Boundy-Mills’ work reveals the archival dimensions of microbial collections, and what infrastructure is utilized to maintain those archives. Tasting: J. Street Chocolate with Shared Cultures’ cacao-nib miso [https://www.jstchocolate.com/shop/p/misochocolate] (featuring koji culture) Viewing: Closing scene of Wonka (2023) [https://www.hbomax.com/movies/wonka/c34d4c23-39eb-4eb8-95dd-209fa0cb3fb4?utm_source=universal_search] Host: Professor Elizabeth McQuee [https://www.elizabethmcqueen.net/]n & Professor Charlotte Biltekoff [https://www.charlottebiltekoff.com/] Producer: Stace Baran Theme by: Ronan Delisle [https://www.ronandelisle.com/] Esculent is brought to you by Professor Charlotte Biltekoff and the Darrell Corti Endowed Professorship in Food, Wine and Culture at University of California, Davis.