Building an Oxford Companion – when food and scholarship converge
136 views · Published 4 June 2015 · 1:52 · Indexed 31 October 2026
Channel: Oxford Academic (Oxford University Press) · 2015 · Education
Even when she was advised to write a more “serious” dissertation, Darra Goldstein never let go of her passion for food and its history. http://global.oup.com/academic/product/the-oxford-companion-to-sugar-and-sweets-9780199313396 Edited by Willcox and Harriet Adsit Professor of Russian at Williams College Darra Goldstein, The Oxford Companion to Sugar and Sweets offers collective knowledge of 265 expert contributors, from food historians to chemists, restaurateurs to cookbook writers, neuroscientists to pastry chefs. The Companion takes readers around the globe and throughout time, affording glimpses deep into the brain as well as stratospheric flights into the world of sugar-crafted fantasies. More than just a compendium of pastries, candies, ices, preserves, and confections, this reference work reveals how the human proclivity for sweet has brought richness to our language, our art, and, of course, our gastronomy. In nearly 600 entries, beginning with "à la mode" and ending with the Italian trifle known as "zuppa inglese," the Companion traces sugar's journey from a rare luxury to a ubiquitous commodity. Darra Goldstein is the Willcox and Harriet Adsit Professor of Russian at Williams College, having earned her Ph.D. in Slavic Languages and Literatures from Stanford University. She combines her love of literature with a passion for food studies, a field she helped pioneer by founding Gastronomica: The Journal of Food and Culture, which has been called a culinary New Yorker for its incorporation of photography, poetry, and art alongside thoughtful articles on all aspects of the foods we eat. She serves as the Series Editor for California Studies in Food and Culture (UCAL Press) and the Food Editor for Russian Life magazine. Goldstein is also a prolific author who has written or edited thirteen books, including four award-winning cookbooks. © Oxford University Press
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