Delicious History

I am an enthusiastic raconteur on the subject of food, especially Florida’s food.  I have been a Roads Scholar for the Florida Humanities Council and been introduced as a lecturer to the Southern Foodways Alliance by a fellow named Rat Head.  I’d like to speak for your group or event.  I bring lots of cool pictures from past and present.

Here are four or my talks.  All are accompanied with exquisite photos from past and present.

“Florida’s Delicious History” is a meditation on the “connective tissue” between food and Florida’s unusually rich history.  It is like my plate at the end of an excellent buffet: there’s a little bit of everything.  Most of all, I set out to show that food offers an opportunity to delve into (and relate to) serious history in a fun, engaging way.

“Tampa’s Delicious History” (similar to above, but focused solely on Tampa)

I just created “In Search of Florida Cuisine” to reflect specifically on Florida’s food.  I attempt to answer the question “What is Florida food”, and look at immigrant cuisine, old time Southern food, and Floribbean flights of fancy.  It is testament to Florida’s multidimensional culture that it takes a full lecture to answer that question with any measure of effort.

For an interesing food and drink based talk on Pohibition, I will soon offer “Florida’s Noble Disaster: Prohibition and Repeal”, a look at righteous, God-fearing prohibitionists, shamless smugglers, the fall of fine dining, the rise of the criminal underworld, the land (and booze) boom, flappers and feminism, hard liquor at soft drink stands, a sudden enthusiasm for billiards, moonshining and NASCAR, all in the crazy place we call Florida.

I also look forward to offering “The Columbia Restaurant: A century of history, culture, and cuisine.” That lecture tells the story of the Columbia Restaurant’s remarkable history, food, and family.  I tell the story in broad strokes while making time for stories from the book along the way.  If walls could talk, the Columbia’s would tell the most incredible stories.  This lecture (and the book!) is the next best thing.