Speaker: Christopher Beckman

Sausalito, California

SPEAKER BIO

Christopher Beckman was born in San Francisco and holds a doctorate in Near Eastern Archaeology, with a research focus on the intersection of material culture and subsistence patterns – how the small, often overlooked details (like the humble anchovy) have shaped civilizations more than we realize. His fieldwork has taken him across the Middle East, Africa, and Europe where he has been living for the last two decades.

His professional journey began not in a library but knee-deep in salmon – starting as a teenage commercial fisherman in Bristol Bay, Alaska, home to the world’s largest wild salmon fishery. After ten seasons battling fish and freezing rain, he ended up in Hollywood, working for the legendary king of B-movies, Roger Corman. That stint launched him into the gloriously bloody world of horror, where he produced numerous features, including Trauma with Italian horror maestro Dario Argento.

A documentary on Sacred Sites eventually took him to Egypt and sparked his enduring passion for the ancient world and all things food-related.

Most recently, Christopher completed a diploma in plant-based cuisine from Le Cordon Bleu. His aim: to champion the anchovy as a flavor enhancer par excellence in plant-forward diets – just as it was used historically across Europe and Asia. He’s currently based in Melbourne, Australia, where he’s researching his forthcoming companion volume on anchovies in Asia.

He is the author of Twist of the Tail: How the Humble Anchovy Flavored Western Cuisine.

TALK DESCRIPTION

From Roman garum and British condiments to French haute cuisine and modern Spanish tapas, anchovies have long played a quiet but powerful role in enhancing taste across cultures and centuries. Yet for all their culinary impact, anchovies have often been overlooked—or even scorned—as too small, too bony, or too humble for refined palates.

Their fluctuating status tells a rich and surprising story about food, class, and cultural identity. Drawing on cookbooks, literature, and art, this talk explores how an often-overlooked fish has played an outsized role in shaping Western cuisine.

In his presentation for the Culinary Historians of Washington, D.C., Christopher will delve into two chapters from his book A Twist in the Tail that chart the anchovy’s shifting fortunes in France and the United Kingdom. In France, anchovies reached the very heights of haute cuisine—only to fall from favor, due in large part to two of the country’s most influential chefs. Across the Channel, the British reimagined the anchovy entirely, transforming it into savory condiments that left a lasting mark on their national palate.