STUDENT NEWS – 2 FALL COURSES – 2 PEPIN LECTURE SERIES – 3 ALUMNI NEWS – 3 & 4 STUDENT ASSOCIATION – 4 NEWS
Gastronomy@BU
Newsletter
FOOD HISTORY WITH KEN ALBALA A COURSE IN ONLINE & EXPERIENTIAL LEARNING by Kimi Ceridon This fall historian, author and professor at the University of the Pacific, Ken Albala joins the Gastronomy Program to teach a core course in Food History. Albala aims to offer students his unique pedagogical methods for an engaging and interactive experience. Since he was unable to reside in Boston for the semester, the course is offered in a blended format with both online and in-person lectures as well as hands-on laboratories. Rather than classroom lectures, the students gather for a historical cooking experience with a decidedly contemporary edge. Groups of students meet weekly at home kitchens through the Boston-metro area for the three-hour lecture. During that time, Albala joins the student groups online and together they cook a historical dishes related to the week’s topics while discussing the assigned readings. The goal is to experience a historical era not only through words in texts, but also through the flavors and ingredients of the dishes. The first online cooking and discussion session took place during the second week
of classes. Despite a steep technology learning curve and a few communication glitches, each student group tackled a 35,000 year old recipe from the Cuneiform tablets. These recipes were first translated from their original Akkadian to French then to English before the students created their own interpretations of the dishes. After the Cuneiform tablets Albala followed up with Apicius’ ‘Hic est Patina Zomoteganona’ which loosely translates to sauce in a pan with fish. On the last Saturday in September, Albala made his first of two in-person appearances in Boston. Using the BU culinary lab, students tried their hand at 13th century Yuan Dynasty recipes. Most of the historic recipes are sparse on details such as ingredient measurements and methods. While this means the students end up bringing their own unique and modern interpretations and taste preferences to the dishes, they have an experiential learning experience that is sure to be thoughtprovoking. Throughout the semester, Albala is chronicling the course in his personal blog at kenalbala.blogspot.com
“By studying what humans have thought and written about food, I hope that human history will become alive. . .” - Ken Albala
GASTRONOMY PROGRAM
FALL 2014
Boston University Metropolitan College 808 Commonwealth Avenue Boston, MA 02215
www.bu.edu/gastronomy blog: gastronomyatbu.com email: gastrmla@bu.edu Phone: 617-358-6916 Fax: 617-353-4130
photo credit: Ken Albala