The Hungry Historians

Tomatoes in Egypt with Anny Gaul

Tomatoes arrived in Egypt in the 16th century but quickly became ubiquitous with Egyptian foodways. In this episode we talk with Anny Gaul, an assistant professor of Arabic Studies at the University of Maryland. Anny published in 2025, Nile Nightshade: An Egyptian culinary history of the tomato [https://www.ucpress.edu/books/nile-nightshade/paper], through the University of California Press. She also runs the popular food blog Cooking with Gaul [https://cookingwithgaul.com]. You can learn more about Anny Gaul on her website [https://cookingwithgaul.com]and buy her book on the University of California Press [https://www.ucpress.edu/books/nile-nightshade/paper] website and other bookstores. This episode is sponsored by ⁠⁠Bloomsbury Food Library⁠⁠ [https://www.bloomsburyfoodlibrary.com/home],  an essential resource for students, researchers, and scholars studying food, offering the widest-ranging existing collection of food studies content. https://www.bloomsburyfoodlibrary.com/home

Post-colonial realism and cuisine with Hanna Kassab

How do people think about their own cuisines and those of their neighbouring countries? How does this ‘feeling’ reflect on our political attitudes and our defence of what we see as ours? In this week’s episode of The Hungry Historians Matt and Kelly talk with Hanna Kassab, Associate Professor at East Carolina University. Hanna describes his discoveries from travelling to various countries and exploring their attitudes to their cuisines. This was for his 2025 book, Post-Colonial Realism: Cultural Conflicts, Cuisine, and the Changing International System [https://www.routledge.com/Post-Colonial-Realism-Cultural-Conflicts-Cuisine-and-the-Changing-International-System/Kassab/p/book/9781041052227] from Routledge. You can learn more about Dr Hanna Kassab on his ECU profile [https://politicalscience.ecu.edu/about/faculty-staff/kassab/]page and follow him on X [https://x.com/hskassab] and YouTube [https://www.youtube.com/@handaman112/videos]. This episode is sponsored by ⁠⁠Bloomsbury Food Library⁠⁠ [https://www.bloomsburyfoodlibrary.com/home],  an essential resource for students, researchers, and scholars studying food, offering the widest-ranging existing collection of food studies content. https://www.bloomsburyfoodlibrary.com/home

Ruin their Crops on the Ground with Andrea Freeman

Food is politics, and politics is food. In this week’s episode Matt and Kelly talk with Andrea Freeman about her 2024 book Ruin their Crops on the Ground: The Politics of Food, in the United States, from the trail of tears to school lunch, which was published by Macmillan [https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250871046/ruintheircropsontheground/]. Andrea’s study makes the argument that food policy and laws in the US have created and maintained racial and social inequality. Using history to understand this ‘food oppression’. Andrea Freeman works at the Southwestern Law School Lost Angeles and you can learn more about her on her profile page [https://www.swlaw.edu/faculty/full-time/andrea-freeman]. This episode is sponsored by ⁠⁠Bloomsbury Food Library⁠⁠ [https://www.bloomsburyfoodlibrary.com/home],  an essential resource for students, researchers, and scholars studying food, offering the widest-ranging existing collection of food studies content. https://www.bloomsburyfoodlibrary.com/home

Berries with Heather Arndt Anderson

Widely available in nature, berries are of such significance to Northern and Eastern Europeans and have become essential foods across the world. Berries are more than what you think they are; bananas are berries for example! In today's discussion with Heather Arndt Anderson we learn about the historical use of berries, our attempts to make artificial versions, and what might happen to berries in the future. Heather Arndt Anderson published Berries: A Global History with Reaktion Books [https://reaktionbooks.co.uk/work/berries-2]in 2018. You can find out more about her at her Instagram [https://www.instagram.com/heatherarndtanderson/]page and at Superabundant [https://www.opb.org/show/superabundant/?utm_source=ig&utm_medium=social&utm_content=link_in_bio&fbclid=PAZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAc3J0YwZhcHBfaWQMMjU2MjgxMDQwNTU4AAGnLt6REJi791tA20ZxrHL21ZElkS-qZLwTHfcG9jA6breRe6eDmN60FANXDLs_aem_eHcXU-0j9viIQOI3l-SAjQ]. This episode is sponsored by ⁠⁠Bloomsbury Food Library⁠⁠ [https://www.bloomsburyfoodlibrary.com/home],  an essential resource for students, researchers, and scholars studying food, offering the widest-ranging existing collection of food studies content. https://www.bloomsburyfoodlibrary.com/home

Vanilla with Rosa Abreu-Runkel

Vanilla has become a slightly more expensive condiment in our lives, but for a long time it was simply impossible to grow outside of its native Mexico. In this episode we explore the history of Vanilla, how it was propagated, and its use in various foods. We look at the connection to slavery and its artificial version vanillin. We are joined by Rosa Abreu-Runkel who, in 2020, published Vanilla: A Global History with Reaktion Books [https://reaktionbooks.co.uk/work/vanilla]. To find out more about Rosa's work check out her profile [https://www.citytech.cuny.edu/faculty/Rosa.Abreu00]on the New York City College of Technology (City Tech) website. This episode is sponsored by ⁠⁠Bloomsbury Food Library⁠⁠ [https://www.bloomsburyfoodlibrary.com/home],  an essential resource for students, researchers, and scholars studying food, offering the widest-ranging existing collection of food studies content. https://www.bloomsburyfoodlibrary.com/home