CHoW member Karima Moyer-Nocchi will reveal insights into our notions of ‘traditional’ Italian food based on her book: Chewing the Fat – An Oral History of Italian Foodways from Fascism to Dolce Vita. 

This highly engaging and visually-driven presentation will examine the socio-political influence that the fascist era exerted on the formation of the Italian culinary identity and the role it played in the conceptual development of Italian cuisine as we know it today. The lecture will explore the tenets of oral history in general and then specifically consider how using oral history techniques can open a unique window onto food history research. 

Moyer-Nocchi analyzes the notion of “authenticity” and reveals how some of the best-loved myths of Italian food are part of an invented set of traditions. She explains how traditions, invented or otherwise, play an important part in societal healing and cultural progression in Italy. The presentation will conclude with a performance of selected excerpts from the book. 

BIO:

Karima Moyer-Nocchi is a culinary historian specializing in Italian food. She teaches in the Modern Languages department at the University of Siena and for the Enogastronomy master’s program at the University of Rome. 

In her books, she reconstructs history through the lens of food as seen in the critically acclaimed Chewing the Fat – An Oral History of Italian Foodways from Fascism to Dolce Vita, as well as her most recent publication The Eternal Table: A Cultural History of Food in Rome. She has an engaging website called theeternaltable.com where she encourages a hands-on approach to culinary history. She is active on Instagram and her account, @historicalitalianfood, is mostly about just that. 

Moyer-Nocchi was born and educated in the US. She has been a permanent resident in Italy since 1990 and currently resides in Umbria. At present she is working on a book about the history of pasta.