The Farmer, the Gastronome, and the Chef: In Pursuit of the Ideal Meal

The Department of English presents a celebration of Associate Professor Daniel Philippon’s The Farmer, the Gastronome, and the Chef: In Pursuit of the Ideal Meal (University of Virginia Press, 2024). In the book, Philippon explores how writers and activists Wendell Berry, Carlo Petrini, and Alice Waters have changed America’s relationship with food over the past 50 years. In pursuit of his own “ideal meal,” Philippon planted and harvested vegetables in central Wisconsin, spoke with growers and food producers in northern Italy, and visited with chefs and restaurateurs in southeastern France.

This in-person event is free and open to the public. For questions about accessibility services and the venue, please email sutt0063@umn.edu or call 612-626-1528.

Professor Philippon will briefly describe his methods in addressing the legacy of Berry, Petrini, and Waters in the sustainable food movement. With moderation by History Professor Tracey Deutsch, panelists will follow with short responses to the book’s investigations of

• Wendell Berry and community-supported agriculture, by Brian DeVore, Land Stewardship Project Managing Editor & Media Coordinator
• Carlo Petrini and Slow Food in Italy, by Animal Science Professor Mike White, teaches “Sustainable Food Systems of Italy”
• Alice Waters and French country cooking, by award-winning restaurant and food writer Dara Moskowitz Grumdahl.

In The Farmer, the Gastronome, and the Chef, Philippon considers what a sustainable food system might look like and what role writing can play in making it a reality. Warning of the dangers of “agristalgia,” Philippon instead advocates for a diverse set of practices he calls “elemental cooking,” which would define sustainable food from farm to table, while also acknowledging the importance of seeking social justice throughout the food system.

Daniel Philippon is the author of Conserving Words: How American Nature Writers Shaped the Environmental Movement. He is past president of the Association for the Study of Literature and Environment (ASLE) and has served as Senior Fellow at the Rachel Carson Center for Environment and Society in Germany, Fulbright Scholar at the University of Turin and University of Gastronomic Sciences in Italy, and Visiting Professor at the École Normale Supérieure de Lyon in France. His teaching on environmental humanities, literary nonfiction writing, and sustainability studies has been honored with the Horace T. Morse–University of Minnesota Alumni Association Award for Outstanding Contributions to Undergraduate Education and the College of Liberal Arts Arthur “Red” Motley Exemplary Teaching Award.

Tracey Deutsch is Professor of History and CLA Associate Dean for Arts & Humanities. She is the author of “Home, Cooking: Women’s Place and Women’s History in Local Foods Discourse,” among other articles, as well as Building a Housewife's Paradise: Gender, Government and American Grocery Stores in the Twentieth Century, which won the American Society for Food Studies’ 2011 Best Book in Food Studies.

Brian DeVore has been a Land Stewardship Project staff member since 1994. He is the author of Wildly Successful Farming: Sustainability and the New Agricultural Land Ethic. He has written articles for a wide range of agricultural and environmental magazines and contributed chapters to such publications as The Farm as Natural Habitat: Reconnecting Food Systems with Ecosystems.

Dara Moskowitz Grumdahl has written about food, wine, health, and the environment for Mpls.St.Paul, Delta Sky, Gourmet, Saveur, Food & Wine, USA Today, and Bon Appetit, among others. She is the author of The Essential Dear Dara and Drink This: Wine Made Simple. She has been awarded six James Beard Awards; a Loft McKnight Fellowship; two Minnesota State Arts Board grants; and five CRMA magazine awards. Her writing has also been included in several editions of the Best Food Writing in America anthology.

Mike White is Professor of Animal Science in the College of Food, Agricultural and Natural Resource Sciences (CFANS). He regularly teaches study abroad courses examining sustainability in relation to food production and culture in both Italy and France. He is the recipient of the Horace T. Morse Alumni Award for Outstanding Contributions to Undergraduate Education and the author of numerous refereed articles, book chapters, and invited papers and research reports.