Speaker: Lizzie Collingham, Food Historian
Cravings for sweetness and spice appear to be a matter of personal taste. In fact they are the product of the forces of empire. The British know that tea is Chinese and curry from India but they persist in thinking of one as a typically British drink and the other as the British national dish. This talk traces the way in which the empire embedded foodstuffs from other places in the British national diet and how they became essential to the British performance of Christmas as a national ritual.
Lizzie Collingham is an independent historian who writes in her garden shed. Her books include Curry: a tale of cooks and conquerors, The Taste of War: World War II and the battle for food, The Hungry Empire: how Britain’s quest for food shaped the modern world and The Biscuit: the history of a very British indulgence. She is currently a Visiting Fellow at Jesus College, Cambridge.
The talk will be followed by an online Q&A session.
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