Terroir Pop-Up 4: Ghille Basan, Food Anthropologist and Writer

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This pop-up episode is live from Terroir 2019 in Toronto, with writer, broadcaster, and fellow food anthropologist Ghillie Basan. Based out of the Scottish Highlands, Ghillie has worked in different parts of the world as an English teacher, ski instructor, cookery writer, restaurant critic and journalist. She has a degree in Social Anthropology and a Cordon Bleu diploma, which, along with her passion for different culinary cultures has culminated in over 40 books! Some of these have been nominated for the Glenfiddich, Guild of Food Writers, and Cordon Bleu World Food Media Awards.

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Ghillie’s most recent book is called Spirit and Spice through Kitchen Press, and was released this past May. She has a reputation for being a spice expert, and hosts whisky and food pairing experiences in her traditional barn by creating flavour toolkits and global menus for Chivas Whisky and Captain Reserve. As a host to many international guests, Ghillie won the Highlands and Islands Innovation in Tourism Award in 2017. In addition to her truly incredible writing and tourism, she is also the creator and host of her own podcast, Spirit and Spice with Ghillie Basan. It’s always a nice treat to be able to meet other food anthropologists out in the real world, and this conversation with Ghillie was pretty special to me – despite many differences in our lives and our paths, there was that core passion for exploring culture through food, and experiences of motherhood while being anthropologists that really resonated with me. 

Learn More About Ghillie! 

 

“Sometimes the choices you make happen because of circumstance.”
— Ghillie Basan

Terroir Pop-Up 3: Chef Selassie Atadika of Midunu

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In this pop-up mini episode I chat with the brilliant Chef Selassie Atadika, live at Terroir Food Symposium 2019. Selassie spent over a decade engaged with humanitarian work with the United Nations and years of self-teaching in the culinary arts before she went on to complete course work at the Culinary Institute of America. She is a founding member of Trio Toque, the first nomadic restaurant in Dakar, Senegal.

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In 2014, Selassie brought her innovative approach to African cuisine back home with Midunu, a nomadic and private dining experience in Accra which embodies ‘New African Cuisine.’ Midunu celebrates Africa’s cultural and culinary heritage, aiming to create experiences where culture, community, and cuisine intersect. With an eye towards biodiversity and sustainability. Midunu employs local, seasonal, and underutilized ingredients including traditional grains and proteins to deliver Africa’s bounty to the table.

Chef Selassie’s cuisine has been features at a State Dinner and the James Beard Foundation in the US. In addition to her incredible culinary visions, she also holds a Master’s degree in International Affairs from Columbia University. Her ability to bring together her humanitarian, academic, and culinary knowledge into Midunu is incredibly inspiring, so I can’t wait for you to hear what she had to say! 

Listen in the player above, or download on iTunes, Spotify, or Stitcher!

Learn more about Chef Selassie: 

49: Exploring Quinoa Production through Design Anthropology with Dr. Adam Gamwell

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As anthropologists, it's sometimes rare for us to think about the role that design plays in spaces and lives of the people we work with - and certainly in our food futures! This week I'm exploring the role that design plays in the production and distribution of quinoa with the super cool Dr. Adam Gamwell.

Adam is a design anthropologist, or as he calls it, a design-centred human, with international experience in ethnographic and contextual research, narrative media production, cultural analysis, social strategy, and education. He is one of the co-founders of Missing Link Studios, which is a social impact agency that uses data-driven media production to create compelling stories, using podcasts, blogs, film, music, web interactions, and data journalism to do so. When he’s not producing digital media, he teaching participatory design research and entrepreneurship in Boston, and is always looking for ways to meld food, design research and media.

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This was one of those conversations that really let me learn something in the process… I do a lot of work with communities for my PhD, and never really thought about the ways that design functions to shape food systems, or who is involved in designing these spaces. We’re looking specifically today at the production and distribution of quinoa in South America, where he did his doctoral research. It’s a super fascinating conversation that left me with a lot of inspiration about how we’re thinking about designing food systems for our futures, and the roles that various people play in it. 

Learn More about Adam! 

Terroir Pop-Up 2: Chef Bill Alexander from Little Chief Restaurant

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Today’s episode is one of the pop-up episodes of AnthroDish which focus in on some of the speakers and guests of the 2019 Terroir Food Symposium. These are quick mini episodes that capture some of the perspectives of folks in the food industry around the theme of choices – the choices they make within their own work and its impact on their communities, businesses, and selves. 

This pop-up episode focuses on the incredible Canadian Indigenous born Bill Alexander, the executive chef at Little Chief Restaurant at the Grey Eagle Resort and Casino, located on the beautiful Tsuut’ina Nation in Calgary, Alberta.

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Chef Bill believes that food brings people to the table, where we can talk about the necessary changes to build relationships, using cuisine to learn more about Indigenous cultures, land and food practices. 

Listen to the interview in the player above, or download on iTunes, Spotify, or Stitcher!

Learn More about Bill Alexander: 

48: Food & Life Lessons from One Year of Podcasting

Photo by Ash Nayler

Photo by Ash Nayler

This episode is pretty meaningful for us, because we’re celebrating our official one year anniversary as a podcast today! We launched our first two episodes last July 2nd, and it's been an incredible year with a lot of beautiful conversations and lessons.

Today’s episode is going to be a solo episode, and next week we’ll resume with our regular season episodes and Terroir pop-up episodes as well. I wanted to take an episode just to share some reflections I’ve had now that it’s been a full year of being a podcast, exploring some of the big takeaways I've learned about building a show and keeping things connected to their roots in satisfying ways. I also speak a little about my own food journey, and how this podcast has directly and indirectly caused me to shift my perspective and connections with food - tune in to learn more! 

 

Terroir Pop-Up 1: Brad Bodnarchuk from Half a Dozen Hospitality

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Today is the beginning of some pop-up mini episodes of AnthroDish that are focusing in on some of the speakers and guests of the Terroir Food Symposium. These are quick pop-up episodes that capture some of the perspectives of folks in the food industry around the theme of choices – the choices they make within their own work and its impact on their communities, businesses, and selves.

I’m calling these pop-up podcasts because they were all done on the side of a very busy main hall during the food symposium’s event day at The Carlu.  I will warn you that the sound quality of these is not the best, but the conversations I shared with so many amazing food industry folks were really inspiring and worth a listen!

This first pop-up episode focuses on Brad Bodnarchuk, who is the creator and host of the Half a Dozen Hospitality Podcast – we met at the pop-up podcast bar and shared the space during the day at Terroir. I couldn’t have asked for a better or kinder person to work all day with - he’s so passionate about his community and the work he’s doing through the podcast and events around BC is really wonderful to see.  

Be sure to subscribe to his awesome podcast, Half a Dozen Hospitality! You can also check out his show on Instagram @bradbodnarchuk or check out his videos on YouTube!

Listen in the player above to our conversation, or on iTunes, Spotify, and Stitcher!