From pizza slices to dumplings, pastrami sandwiches to halal carts, New York City’s foodscape is a living archive of migration, memory, and cultural exchange. This course explores the city’s iconic dishes not just as meals, but as cultural artifacts—living pieces of the city’s history and identity. Each week, students will investigate a signature NYC dish—tracing its roots, evolution, and significance in the making of urban identity. In-class tastings and optional neighborhood fieldwork will complement our readings and discussions, offering a sensory lens on the city’s neighborhoods and their edible histories. We’ll read food historians like Calvin Trillin (The Tummy Trilogy), Maria Balinska (The Bagel: The Surprising History of a Modest Bread), Carol Helstosky (Pizza: A Global History), and Ted Merwin (Pastrami on Rye) to ground dishes in their historical and cultural contexts. We’ll then look at memoirs and essays—including Anthony Bourdain (Medium Raw), Marco Pierre White (The Devil in the Kitchen), Gabrielle Hamilton (Blood, Bones, and Butter), Stanley Tucci (Taste: My Life in Food), and selections from Jim Harrison—to examine how chefs, writers, and eaters narrate food as identity, labor, and longing. Alongside this, we’ll explore critical food studies texts like Krishnendu Ray (The Ethnic Restaurateur) and William Grimes (Appetite City) to interrogate questions of authenticity, diaspora, and urban change.
Continuing Education Units (CEU) : 0
You'll walk away with
- An understanding of iconic New York City dishes as cultural artifacts that reflect histories of migration, identity, and urban transformation.
- The ability to analyze food writing from historical texts to memoirs and criticism
- Engagement in sensory and field-based research to explore the relationship between food, neighborhood identity, and social change in New York City
Ideal for
- All members of the community—working, retired, and in between
- Those with a love of food, literature, and NYC history
Upcoming courses
Registration is recommended at least three weeks before the course start date.
Upcoming courses
Registration for this course is closed.
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