Chefs Doing History

Where does our food come from? Chefs have explored this question in farm-to-table cuisine, considering the geographical and ecological dimensions of this question. In recent years, there have also been an increasing number of chefs engaging this question historically, researching the origins, culture, and history of the dishes they serve and the foodways in which they participate.

"Chefs Doing History" is a public history project that explores how chefs and scholars are doing historically-inflected cooking, in collaboration with the American Historical Review. At present, we have three nested components:

(1) A Historical Appalachian Dinner in Blacksburg, VA, in March 2026

(2) A planned submission to the American Historical Review that features methodological conversations between chef-practitioners and historians

(3) a digital project that will produce a website showcasing the work of chefs doing history, around the world

Please contact Anna Zeide zeide@vt.edu with questions or expressions of interest.