Transcript (Full Episode)

00:00.00
sparke03 (Stephanie Parker)
Hello today is November Fourteen Twenty Twenty three and I am here with Dr Rebecca Bosar and my name is Stephanie and Rebecca and so. I'm getting this correct as the curator. Um there's some particular event that we're gonna be hosting in 2024 and I was wondering if Rebecca if you can tell us more about it.

00:17.28
Rebecca Beausaert
But Rob.

00:25.82
Rebecca Beausaert
Um, right? um.

00:31.41
Rebecca Beausaert
Right? So I am'm technically a curator alongside Melissa Mcafee but then also the students are they're really the curators they are the ones that are doing all of the research and sort of helping just structure the exhibit so we are all sort of. Co-curators I would say um so the exhibit that's coming up in 2024 collaborative project between my course history thirty Two 40 Melissa's course history 35 60 and then also the culinary historians of Canada. So. 2024 is the culinary historians of Canada's Thirtieth anniversary. It's quite a milestone so we want to celebrate it. Um, they actually approached me about doing an exhibit in honor of their anniversary and we decided to have as the focus. The. Um, cookbook writers and food writers who have been honored in the taste Canada Hall Of Fame The Taste Canada awards every year inducts well-known canadian food writers and the culinary historians of Canada sponsor that hall of fame. So we thought that would be a great way to Mark. What the culinary historians of Canada has contributed to the study of food history in Canada so our exhibit is focusing on all of those cookbook writers who have been inducted in the taste Canada Hall of fame and the exhibit is a look at their work.

02:06.12
Rebecca Beausaert
Um, at their lives what they have done to sort of shape canadian food whether it's how people cook how they consume how they shop what they know about canadian food. So it's really about the significance of cookbook writing in Canada.

02:25.60
Rebecca Beausaert
That's what we're really celebrating and of course we get to use the wonderful selection of canadian cookbooks that are housed at archival and special collections. So. It's a lot about the history of cookbooks and cookbook writing and then also about taste Canada and the culinary historians of Canada. And there will be a physical exhibit where cookbooks will be on display in the gallery on the second floor of Mclaughlin library and then there will be a digital component that highlights other aspects of the exhibit that we can't show in person on what Canada ate.

02:58.43
sparke03
Very nice I'm really looking forward to this and exhibit I think it's gonna be such a unique aspect of Canadian history and just Canadian culinary history in general.

03:11.68
Rebecca Beausaert
Yes, yes, it's something that I don't think has been done before so we're breaking some exhibit.

03:15.22
sparke03
Yeah, well, you actually produced a culinary invent Mac in 2029 and 2019 I believe it was and it was. When kinding around foods around covid nineteen and health and wellness around covid nineteen.

03:38.23
Rebecca Beausaert
Um, I co-wrote an article is that what you mean? Oh yes, um yes, so I co-wrote an article a few of us got together that study.

03:42.68
sparke03
Um, yes, that is what I mean.

03:53.47
Rebecca Beausaert
Food history and food systems at the University Of Guelph and quite early on in the pandemic. We collaborated on this article that talked about sort of in the past throughout canadian history during other you know times of crisis.

04:05.38
sparke03
And.

04:12.38
Rebecca Beausaert
How have Canadians coped from sort of a food perspective because whenever there's chaos food systems also seem to be in chaos Whether it's the World Wars or the great depression so to sort of contextualize what canadians.

04:23.30
sparke03
Is.

04:30.34
Rebecca Beausaert
During the pandemic. You know we're going through and basically saying you know in the past Canadians have experienced similar trauma in a way so we talked about how people you know manage the first world War How they managed the great depression how they adjusted their food styles shopping styles cooking styles. Um. Just a way to sort of help people in the present connect with the past because the pandemic we've gone through such a traumatic event I would say for a lot of people and it maybe helps people understand the past if they sort of get a sense of what people. Went through in a similar way. So That's why we wrote it.

05:11.23
sparke03
Um, very nice and so for my first official question I wanted to ask you? Why did you agree to this particular interview.

05:23.18
Rebecca Beausaert
I agree to the interview because I really like the rationale behind it which is to reach out to and speak to people in Canada who are involved in the study of food in some way whether it's you know. Operating a restaurant or writing cookbooks or in my case setting the history of food so I was really honored to be included because food history has become this new field of study that I'm involved in. So. So I was happy to participate if if I can add anything to the conversation about the place of food in Canada today. I'm happy to.

06:04.70
sparke03
Amazing and so for my second question what I wanted to ask you was um, thinking man to your childhood who mainly into know cooking in your home and what was your favorite meal that they made.

06:20.77
Rebecca Beausaert
Oh my mom did most of the cooking. My dad did the barbecuing very kind of traditional in that sense I think a lot of households were like that and still are um.

06:37.69
Rebecca Beausaert
Favorite meal that was produced in the home. Um I love my mom's turkey dinner. So easter Thanksgiving Christmas we would have turkey and. I would always look forward to that I still look forward to that. That's probably still my favorite meal that comes out of my childhood homes kitchen traditional drinky dinner with all the fixings.

06:58.56
sparke03
In.

07:04.23
sparke03
Amazing! And so for your mom's choing dinner was there particular side just not you really enjoyed or wasn't the. Family asks about being around you your mom and your dad and your siblings.

07:24.50
Rebecca Beausaert
Ah, so favorite side dish I Love stuffing I call it stuffing because we have it in the turkey as opposed to dressing. It's usually um, cooked on the side. Um I like my mom's stuffing because she uses my Grandma's recipe.

07:31.18
sparke03
And.

07:41.56
Rebecca Beausaert
So There's that sort of family connection. Food Memories. You know it reminds me of of my grandma um going to her house for Holidays. So That's probably my favorite. Um, but it is also about the sort of spending time in the kitchen piece because. My mom taught me to cook. She encouraged me to be in the kitchen and to help her and that's where my love of cooking came from so I make my stuffing the exact same way that she did she does and I love it and it's so nostalgic.

08:13.26
sparke03
Merry Nice it is.

08:19.39
Rebecca Beausaert
And I'm going to continue it forward and if my son decides that he wants to cook then I will teach him how to do it as well.

08:27.10
sparke03
Amazing and you mentioned that you done in a lot of bar hearinging. Let start in particular favorite and pin baring cue that you enjoyed.

08:38.66
Rebecca Beausaert
Um I like a good burger if anything's going to be barbecued I like a good burger So that's probably the one Nice, nice and nice. Simple burger. Nothing fancy, fresh ground beef salt and pepper.

08:46.10
sparke03
I agree but is on the best.

08:56.69
Rebecca Beausaert
Ah, nice char on it. That's all I need.

08:58.35
sparke03
Incredible, Especially if that has I particularly kind of pickle for me though.

09:05.35
Rebecca Beausaert
Um, oh yeah I like a nice nice sharp dill pickle I agree. Um.

09:07.37
sparke03
Yeah, as the crue really adds something is and now for mainly the more questions that I have for you. The first one is what is it about. Teaching food histories that you really enjoy.

09:29.39
Rebecca Beausaert
There's a lot that I enjoy about teaching food history. Um, the first is that a lot of people don't know that food history exists when I mentioned to people you know. Outside of academia that I teach food history The response I often get is oh that's a thing they don't They don't know that there's actually ah a genre or a field of study called food history and then the second response is often. Oh I Wish I could have taken that so I could have taken it when I was when I was in Undergrad. So.

09:54.66
sparke03
Is.

10:01.40
Rebecca Beausaert
I think food history is kind of filling a niche that students need we all eat. So I think it's important to understand where our food comes from why we eat what we do? Why we have the technology that we do. So I think a lot of the things that I talk about in the course really opened up students' eyes and especially I get a lot of students who are studying agriculture and nutrition and hospitality. So they often say that the course is. Ah, nice sort of historical context what they're studying in their other courses and helps them better understand what they are majoring in the other thing I love with the course is that we get the opportunity to do an experiential learning component with what Canada ate and using the cookbooks.

10:38.83
sparke03
Very nice.

10:49.40
sparke03
Who.

10:50.97
Rebecca Beausaert
So Having that wonderful resource. Those cookbooks means that I can give students a really unique learning Experience. Give them some skills that they can carry with them into postgraduate work or. Ah, career or whatever they're planning to do in the Future. So for me, there's a lot of benefits of teaching the course.

11:13.23
sparke03
Absolutely absolutely and I do apologize I'm gonna have to put this into you and pause for a second because.