Making a Meal of It podcast

18/06/2024

Making a Meal of It — episode 116: Pudding

This episode ends season one of Making a Meal of It on a sweet note, but also a savoury one, as well as a lofty (but reasonable) proposition for using pudding as an icon for systemic change. Conversations with food scientist Richard Hartel and saucissier-philosopher Nick Amberg show that the proof of the puddings is not just in the eating, but also in a whole series of steps both before and after. Maxime and David ponder the pleasure of nostalgia during ‘Stick This in Your Mouth!’ and the episode concludes with questions proposed by past Food Questionnaire respondents.

https://rss.com/podcasts/makingamealofit/1529833/

11/06/2024

Making a Meal of It — episode 115: Mushrooms

Mushrooms are the magical focus of this episode, though we only just touch the tip of their mycelial majesty. Conversations with entrepreneurs Nanae Watabe and Judith Noel Gagnon bridge the worlds of foraging, restaurants, humans, and mycelia, while Maxime and David taste two fungal flavours during ‘Stick This in Your Mouth!’ Closing things off is the Food Questionnaire with artist and food scholar, Annika Walsh.

https://rss.com/podcasts/makingamealofit/1521036/

04/06/2024

Making a Meal of It — episode 114: Fish & Sustainability

This episode is all fish, fishing, and fisheries, including the fluid and dynamic ways that things change when water and humans meet. Conversations with fisheries researcher Kristen Lowitt and pisciculture entrepreneur Nicolas Paquin net out with a hefty catch of ideas about relationships, livelihoods, ecosystems, and innovation. For the fish edition of ‘Stick This in Your Mouth’, Maxime and David peel the metallic lid off a couple of cans of fish, and we close with art-scientist Christy Spackman's responses to the Food Questionnaire.

https://rss.com/podcasts/makingamealofit/1510134/

29/05/2024

Making a Meal of It — episode 113: Meat & Power

This episode is all about the meaty meatness of meat, including power and privilege, language and taste. Conversations with food scholar Julie Guthman and charcutier-and-butcher Phil Viens (Aliments Viens) cut to the bone when it comes to politics, technocracy, artisanship, and trust. David and Maxime moderate their meat intake during ‘Stick This in Your Mouth’, and physicist (and chili-sauce lover) Liz Ainsbury responds to the Food Questionnaire.

(Phil Viens photo: Alison Slattery )

https://rss.com/podcasts/makingamealofit/1495585/

21/05/2024

Making a Meal of It — episode 112: Voices from the FLOW Project

This special episode of Making a Meal of It features 11 short conversations with participants in the FLOW Partnership, a seven-year international food systems research project. The team met in Montreal in May 2024 to share their progress, plan future research activities, and discuss ways to enable their work to transform food production, policies, and attitudes. Have a listen to the many ways that food, food culture, and food systems are both different and similar around the world.

https://rss.com/podcasts/makingamealofit/1487701/

https://www.flowpartnership.org

18/05/2024

Making a Meal of It — episode 111: Sweetness & (Dis)comfort

This episode is all about the sweet, sour, and sometimes bitter taste of sugar—and honey, maple, and molasses! Two conversations unpack the sticky subject, one with food marketing expert Jordan LeBel, and the other with pastry artist and entrepreneur, Sonya Sammut. David and Maxime taste three sweet substances during ‘Stick This in Your Mouth’, and union organizer (and podcaster sister) Elisabeth Szanto responds to the Food Questionnaire.

https://rss.com/podcasts/makingamealofit/1472862/
photo of Jordan LeBel: Lisa Graves

07/05/2024

Making a Meal of It — episode 110: Fermentation

This episode is about the dynamic, transformative, ancient, and contemporary process that is fermentation. We also get into feminist theory, the queering of food, and taste in zero gravity during conversations with fermentation experts Joshua Evans and Maya Hey. David and Maxime taste kimchi, miso, and perga (bee bread) in the fermented edition of ‘Stick This in Your Mouth’, and filmmaker Bruce La Bruce responds scrumptiously to the Food Questionnaire.

https://rss.com/podcasts/makingamealofit/1469025/

photos: Chris Tonnesen (Joshua Evans); George Nebieridze (Bruce LaBruce)

30/04/2024

Making a Meal of It — episode 109: Restaurants

This episode focuses on the design, politics, and economics of restaurants, including some of the reasons that the experience of dining out is a lot more complex than it may seem. Dr. Stephani Robson talks about restaurant consumer psychology and Christophe Dubois unpacks the concept of social gastronomy (including his work with the Parti Culinaire du Québec). David and Maxime eat a bit o' bread-and-butter, and vocalist/composer/drag performer Gabriel Dharmoo responds to the Food Questionnaire.

This episode focuses on the design, politics, and economics of restaurants, including some of the reasons that the experience of dining out is a lot more complex than it may seem. One conversation with restaurant design and consumer behaviour expert Dr. Stephani Robson, and another with chef-turned-...

23/04/2024

Making a Meal of It — episode 108: Eco-gastronomy

This episode unpacks gastronomy and whether an idea like "eco-gastronomy" is too much when socio-political-environmental crises keep us focused on short-term needs. Mark Panayiotis Notaras (Tiger Mark) talks about the Agora Food Studio social enterprise in Timor-Leste, David and Maxime taste something that's neither plant nor animal, and Taras Grescoe responds to the Food Questionnaire.

https://rss.com/podcasts/makingamealofit/1439332/

16/04/2024

Making a Meal of It — episode 107a: Gastronomy is dead, long live gastronomy...

This mini-episode explains why it’s not the actual gastronomy episode, but is instead a placeholder for the eventual episode 108. Due to a late-arriving bit of bad news, one of the original conversations couldn’t be used, so we’re pivoting and re-editing. In the meantime, and to keep you occupied for the next week, check out the first ever Making a Meal of It crossword puzzle at https://www.iceboxstudio.com/IS/podcast/mmi-107a-the-crossword-puzzle/.

You can either download and print it out, or play online. And yes, it makes references to past episodes, so you might have to go back and listen again. Enjoy!

https://rss.com/podcasts/makingamealofit/1431450/

10/04/2024

Making a Meal of It — episode 107: Booze
Time for a drink, I think! Alcoholic or non, cocktails offer a great opportunity to think about balance, generosity, and identity. And wine does the same for... yoga? This episode takes a few different perspectives on alcohol—including making, serving, drinking, and not drinking it—as well as the associated benefits, effects, and privileges. Guests include 'liquids entrepreneur' Jean-Sébastien Michel, food/wine/yoga/wellness educator Alessandra Castelli, and biophysicist Ruth Wilkins.

ALSO: and (courtesy of )

https://rss.com/podcasts/makingamealofit/1428572/

02/04/2024

Making a Meal of It — episode 106: Kitchens
This kitchens episode focuses on the ways in which our cooking spaces enable connection making, both among friends and family as well as within our inner selves and the world of imagination and poetry. ALSO: and . Plus a fond memory of and . Guests include kitchen-creator Hubert Taschereau, literature scholar Alexia Moyer, and designer Dawn Lee. https://rss.com/podcasts/makingamealofit/1406763/