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Food History

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Smithsonian Voices

Seven Native American Chefs Share Thanksgiving Recipes

These original Thanksgiving foods are far different from the modern celebrations, but tradition is never static

An elegant solution—raise money from donors to underwrite the purchase of food locally for polling stations in each city—tacos in Milwaukee, barbecue in Atlanta, cupcakes in Houston, empanadas in Portland, burritos in L.A.

Chefs Are Helping Hungry Voters Waiting in Line at the Polls

One clear winner this election season? Everything from empanadas to barbecue, courtesy of star chef José Andrés and his partners

A new form of entertainment and a wandering trainload of frozen turkey triggered a convenience food boom.

A Brief History of the TV Dinner

Thanksgiving’s most unexpected legacy is heating up again

Xanthia DeBerry, with her daughters Angelica and Aniaya, is part of the seed saving project.

New Project Aims to Revive Ozark Cuisine Through Seeds

St. Louis chef Rob Connoley looks to reconnect black farmers to heritage crops, using records from a 19th century seed store

Dani Nierenberg wants to ensure equal access to healthy food, produced in a way that’s sustainable for the planet.

Meet the Award-Winning Activist Campaigning for Food Justice

Danielle Nierenberg, the recipient of the 2020 Julia Child Award, is working to make global food systems more equitable

The museum's chocolate fountain is the largest in the world, standing nearly 30 feet tall and featuring around 1,500 liters of liquid chocolate.

The World’s Largest Chocolate Museum Debuts in Switzerland

Launched by Lindt, the attraction features a 30-foot-tall chocolate fountain and a tour of the sweet treat’s history

People enjoy a picnic at the Zeytiburna coastline in Istanbul, Turkey, on August 23, 2020.

How Do People Picnic Around the Globe?

Outdoor dining is having a moment. Let these traditions from eight different places help you put together the ultimate open-air meal

Researchers prepared meals made out of maize, wheat and venison every week for a year.

New Research

Millennia-Old Cookware May Be the Key to Recreating Ancient Cuisine

A year-long experiment’s ingredients, tools and cleaning techniques imitated early culinary practices as closely as possible

A Brief History of the Mason Jar

Around since 1858, the home canning classic is a sought after item for pandemic gardeners this summer

The chocolate factory in Olten, Switzerland, quickly fixed its ventilation problem and resumed production.

Last Week, This Swiss Town Was Briefly Showered in Cocoa Powder

A broken ventilation system at a Lindt factory spewed crushed cocoa nibs into the air

The newly discovered banana cultivation site

Cool Finds

Traces of 2,000-Year-Old Banana Farm Found in Australia

The discovery contradicts conceptions of early Indigenous peoples as exclusively hunter gatherers

Fannie Farmer oversees one of her students, Martha Hayes Ludden, at the Boston Cooking School in 1900.

How 12 Female Cookbook Authors Changed the Way We Eat

A new book examines the recipes of a dozen cooks who made groundbreaking contributions across the food industry

Archaeologists discovered a Roman coin and remnants of an ancient pub while renovating this extension of the Virgin Mary Assumption Church, known as Old Town Hall, in the Slovakian town of Spišské Vlachy.

Cool Finds

Archaeologists Unearth Remnants of 18th-Century Pub in Slovakia

The team found a rare Roman coin, wall graffiti and ceramic fragments underneath the tiny village’s town hall

A former logging town, Leavenworth, Washington, received a facelift sometime in the early 1960s.

Ten American Towns That Feel Like Europe

You don’t have to travel far to get a taste of European culture right here in the United States

A "wine window" in Florence

Covid-19

Centuries-Old ‘Wine Windows’ Open for Business in Florence

A low-risk alternative to curbside pickup, the portals may have helped fight an outbreak of bubonic plague in the 1630s

Police discovered a total of 13 Roman amphorae and an 18th-century anchor inside a frozen seafood shop in Alicante, Spain.

Cool Finds

Police Confiscate Roman Amphorae Found Stashed in Spanish Seafood Shop

The store owner’s son allegedly discovered the 13 clay vessels on fishing trips and brought them back as decorations

Frans Snyders' Fruit Stall features a vast spread of produce from the 17th century.

Art Meets Science

Centuries-Old Paintings Help Researchers Track Food Evolution

Art inadvertently documents the domestication of carrots, wheat, watermelon and other culinary delights

Lynne Olver's personal library contains more than 2,300 food-related books.

You Could Help Curate This Ambitious Timeline of Food History

The family of Lynne Olver, the librarian who launched the online portal in 1999, needs help keeping her legacy alive

“For the elite, the nobility, everything did change radically—the administration of the country, legal frameworks, the organization of the landscape,” says study co-author Richard Madgwick. “But at a lower level, people adapted to the new normal rapidly.”

New Research

How Did the Norman Conquest Change English Cuisine?

After the invasion of 1066, pork and possibly chicken spiked in popularity

The third president evidently had a love of vanilla ice cream.

Make Thomas Jefferson’s Recipe for Ice Cream

The co-author of the Declaration of Independence also drafted a radical recipe

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