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Material Culture: A Review Of The 2013 Oxford Symposium On Food And Cookery, Máirtín Mac Con Iomaire

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The focus of this year’s Oxford Symposium on Food and Cookery was on the stew stove not the stew; the knives not the meat; the salt pots or ‘nefs’ rather than the salt; the ‘chasen’ not the tea; the plates (whether pewter, ceramic, delftware, china, silver or gold) but not their food contents. We were gathered to discuss associated material culture of food and cookery rather than the perishable ephemeral substance that usually concerns this gathering now in its thirty-first year.

So, what did the 220 chefs, food historians, writers, scientists, anthropologists and general foodies learn from the weekend’s discussion …