The Odyssey Begins!

“Tell me what you eat and I shall tell you what you are.”

Upon telling friends, family, and strangers alike that I am pursuing a Masters degree in Gastronomy, I have often been faced with an incredulous look accompanied by something along the lines of, “so, you’re going to cooking school?” This is an understandable response – Gastronomy is a particularly nebulous term used by a small, but rapidly expanding group of people. While the culinary arts are indeed an essential part of Gastronomy, there is so much more to the field. In a nut shell, Gastronomy is the study of the relationship between food and culture. It is a multidisciplinary field that incorporates aspects of sociology, anthropology, history, science, and art. We are what we eat, not just in a physiological sense, but also in a psychological and a sociological sense as well.

My courses at UNISG will be taught by visiting scholars from around the globe and cover subjects such as Food Writing, Food and the Environment, Sustainable Agriculture, Food History, Anthropology of Food, Food and Public Health, Food and Multiculturalism … as well as courses dedicated to the foodscapes of other parts of the world.  And let us not forget the 15 ‘tasting workshops,’ and 3 study trips to regions within Italy and abroad. I hope you’ll journey with me every step of the way.

Not unlike the famed epicure and gastronome Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin, quoted above, I hope to provide my own collection of anecdotes and observations covering all aspects of the pleasures of the table, as well as tales of my travels – the delicious places I will be seeing, the amazing artisan products that I will be scouting, and above all, the fantastic food I will be tasting and the interesting people I will be meeting along the way. The next year will indeed be an epic journey, an edible odyssey.

And it all begins today!