Rachel Laudan

I acquired a passion for good food growing up on an English farm. I studied sciences, first math, physics and chemistry, then a degree in geology. I was bowled over by the ways science had transformed the world so, following Ph. D. from the University of London, I taught and wrote about the history and philosophy of science and technology. I published several books and lots of articles while I made my way around the American academic circuit and enjoyed the luxury of visiting appointments around the world.

At the University of Hawaii, I found a way to bring together my passions for gastronomy, history and philosophy and to understand the globalization I had lived. I discovered the most amazing food culture I had thus far encountered, one that had me open-mouthed. The notes I made were finally pulled together in 1996 in The Food of Paradise: Exploring Hawaii’s Culinary Heritage, a book that explored how three diasporas had combined to create Local Food, the grass-roots fusion cuisine of Hawaii. I was thrilled when it won the Julia Child/Jane Grigson Prize.

About then, my husband and I decided to abandon academia and try new freelance careers. We moved to Mexico. Since then, I have published in journals such as Scientific American, the Los Angeles Times, Gastronomica, and Saveur. I’ve spoken to all kinds of interesting groups. In 2005 I was Scholar-in-Residence at the Dallas meetings of the International Association of Culinary Professionals.

Should you want more details, like everyone who has passed through academia I have compiled my doings into that curious, obsessive art form known as my Curriculum Vitae.

Writing down my thoughts is wonderfully helpful in clarifying what puzzles me. I am on several wonderful listserves and discussion groups but it would be boorish to inundate them with posts on problems that probably only interest me. So here you’ll find me trying to work through all kinds of unfinished business.

If you’d like to jump in, I will be thrilled. In my dream world, blogs are a way of building an intellectual community that transcends geographical and institutional boundaries.