Esculent

*Live* Black Food Futurisms with Nia Lee

Our second live episode, culinary artist Nia Lee joins Esculent following the debut of her performance installation, THE ARCHIVE IS THE BIRTHSEED OF OUR DREAMS at the Manetti Shrem Museum. We discuss a tasting of a miracle berry, or Synsepalum dulcificum with audience reflections on sweetness as a means to understand Lee’s concept of Black Food Futurism.

Host: Dr. Elizabeth McQueen
Producer: Stace Baran
Theme by Ronan Delisle
Audio Support from Jenevieve Bohmann

Esculent is brought to you by Professor Charlotte Bitekoff and the Darrel Corti Endowed Professorship in Food, Wine and Culture at University of California, Davis.

Sounding Culinary Time with Heidi Ross

If culinary art is already an “art,” then what does it mean to have an art practice that uses food? Culinary artist Heidi Ross joins us to begin our season on Artists to share more about her somatic practice, relationship to the culinary world, and sonic explorations. 

Tasting: An iteration of Alison Knowles “Make a Salad” (1962-) by Elizabeth McQueen

Reading of: The Futurist Cookbook by Filippo Tommaso Marinetti (1932)

Host: Dr. Elizabeth McQueen
Producer: Stace Baran
Theme by Ronan Delisle
Audio Support from Jenevieve Bohmann

Esculent is brought to you by Professor Charlotte Bitekoff and the Darrel Corti Endowed Professorship in Food, Wine and Culture at University of California, Davis.

Season 5: Artists

Season 5, Artists is finally here. We launch into conversations with artists whose medium is food, matter, and other things esculent. 

Host: Dr. Elizabeth McQueen
Producer: Stace Baran
Theme by Ronan Delisle
Audio Support from Jenevieve Bohmann

Esculent is brought to you by Professor Charlotte Bitekoff and the Darrel Corti Endowed Professorship in Food, Wine and Culture at University of California, Davis.

Building an Archive: 3500 Episodes with Chef Martin Yan

Thousands of television episodes leave a mark – not only on digital archives of our food media-saturated world – but on the host, the performer, as well. In the final episode of our second season with chefs, we speak with Chef Martin Yan, the host of Yan Can Cook. We discuss Chef Yan’s decades of work wth PBS, the importance of culinary education, not only entertainment, and the development of his archive with UC Davis Library. We are joined by Food & Wine Curator Audrey Russek, and just barely scratch the surface on all the mediums, stories, and impacts that Chef Martin Yan has made throughout his career, including his time as a UC Davis student.

Tasting: Wolfskill Reserve Olive Oil from UC Davis Olive Center

Viewing: Yan Can Cook: Winter Melon, Steamed Sea Bass, and Black Bean Chicken, aired on PBS in the 1980s

Host: Elizabeth McQueen
Producer: Stace Baran
Theme by Ronan Delisle
Audio Support from Jenevieve Bohmann

This podcast is supported by the UC Davis Library and the Mellon Foundation Sawyer Seminar, Thinking Food at the Intersections.

A 15th-Century Chef and a Recipe for Menjar Blanc de Carabasses with Professor Daniela Gutiérrez Flores

Can we tell the story of a chef from 1490? Join podcast regular Professor Daniela Gutiérrez Flores as we attempt to recreate a recipe from Mestre Robert, a 15th-century chef and the author of Libre del Coch, the first printed cookbook. Join our reenactment where we speculate salt use, concern over squash cooking, and a huge sensory disagreement over rose water.

Tasting & Viewing: Menjar Blanc de Carabasses by Mestre Robert in Libre del Coch

Host: Elizabeth McQueen
Producer: Stace Baran
Theme by Ronan Delisle
Audio Support from Jenevieve Bohmann

This podcast is supported by the UC Davis Mellon Foundation Sawyer Seminar, Thinking Food at the Intersections.

The Poetry of the Thinnest Slice of Bread in Animation History with Baker Jim Franks

Well-baked bread is an art in and of itself, but in this episode, we look at a few representational mediums of yeasty dough: poetry, photography, and animation, as forms that give new light to a thousand-year-old practice. Baker Jim Franks discusses his new book of poetry, Existential Bread (Drag City, 2025), and one of my favorite animations of food ever, evoking faint memories for both of us, just like a whiff of a good loaf.

Jim Franks’ book is out now, with a cover designed by podcast favourite Jordan Rundle of Dazer!

Tasting: Minh Phan’s Jujube Blossom Shrub

Viewing: ‘Portraits of Women with Their Weight in Dough’ by Santina Amato (2019- ) and the 1947 Animated Short, Mickey and the Beanstalk

Host: Elizabeth McQueen
Producer: Stace Baran
Theme by Ronan Delisle
Audio Support from Jenevieve Bohmann

This podcast is supported by the UC Davis Mellon Foundation Sawyer Seminar, Thinking Food at the Intersections.

A Sensory Education through Nixtamalization with Chef Emmanuel Galvan

I first smelled the freshly nixtamalized masa from Emmanuel Galvan of Bolita at the Gilman Wine Block, where the tender, vegetal umami scent carried above the crowds right into my nose. This episode, we focus on technological and labor challenges of nixtamalization in the present, specifically right in Berkeley – complicating the many ways nixtamalization makes corn esculent.

Tasting: Tessier Wine’s Pinot Noir

Viewing: “Memory,” the dish with tortillas from The Menu (2022)

Host: Elizabeth McQueen
Producer: Stace Baran
Theme by Ronan Delisle
Audio Support from Jenevieve Bohmann

This podcast is supported by the UC Davis Mellon Foundation Sawyer Seminar, Thinking Food at the Intersections.

Restaurant Doors and Roasting Ducks with Chef Brandon Jew

We are back with a dive into the archive featuring Chef Brandon Jew of Mister Jiu’s restaurant in San Francisco - featuring historic menus and historic buildings, and how this influences canonical Chinese American recipes like Peking Duck. We kick off Season 4: Chefs Pt. 2 with our literary inquiries into the work of Chefs, and how words, archives, and texts make the esculent.

Tasting: A whiff of UC Davis Special Collections

Viewing: Yan Can Cook: Winter Melon, Steamed Sea Bass, and Black Bean Chicken, aired on PBS in the 1980s

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Host: Elizabeth McQueen
Producer: Stace Baran
Theme by Ronan Delisle
Audio Support from Jenevieve Bohmann

This podcast is supported by the UC Davis Mellon Foundation Sawyer Seminar, Thinking Food at the Intersections.