The cultural history of material goods has been largely incorporated into the categories of art or design history, but foodways are generally excluded from these studies, the ultimate in ephemera. Food preparation and service was enmeshed within the same patronage and craft networks as much of the artwork that has been preserved in museums and collections, but its material traces remain on the margins, banished to the realm of re-enactors and hobbyists, or hiding in plain sight in more conventional display settings. The exploration of new worlds to the east and west of Europe led to changes in long-established culinary traditions. Publication and distribution of recipes helped to establish regional, and eventually national, schools of cooking. Technical information concerning tools and methods was both codified and shared through the emerging medium of print. Speakers will address a variety of themes, bringing together multiple sources for understanding the physical and intellectual world of the early modern kitchen and table.

Peter N. Miller
Bard Graduate Center
Welcome

Deborah L. Krohn
Bard Graduate Center
Introduction: Places, Spaces, Things and Ideas

Allen Grieco
Senior Research Associate, Villa I Tatti, The Harvard University Center for Italian Renaissance Studies
Salts and Salt Cellars on the Renaissance Table

Melissa Calaresu
History, Gonville and Caius College, University of Cambridge
Street Food: Eating Out in Early Modern Europe

Bernie L. Herman
American Studies, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Food Silences: Kitchen and Table in Early Modern British America

Janine E. Skerry
Curator of Metals, Colonial Williamsburg Foundation
Were “English Goods Ever the Best”?: Recreating the Past at Colonial Williamsburg

Sara Pennell
Humanities, Roehampton University
What’s Not Cooking in the Early Modern English Kitchen: Alternative Readings of an “Everyday” Space

Ivan Day
Independent Writer
Displaying the Kitchen and Table