A panel featuring:

Heather Carlucci-Rodriguez, Chef-Owner, Lassi
Will Goldfarb, Chef-Owner, Picnick, WillPowder, WillEquipped
Frederick Kaufman, author of A Short History of the American Stomach
Adam Kaye, Vice President of Culinary Affairs, Blue Hill
Bret Thorn, Food Editor, Nation's Restaurant News

At a time of ever-increasing mediatization of food, this panel will explore how professional cooking gets translated to the public, following the thought process of chefs as they create their menu, of writers as they select which dishes to write about, and of diners as they read about and then decide where and what to eat. Panelists will discuss how ingredients and words are used in each case, what role the public plays in the creation of dishes, how new and old media are enabling and/or hindering the constitution and fragmentation of these publics, and what claims of authority and knowledge take place in each of those spheres.

This event is part of Menus in the Media, a 2008-2009 working group that aims to study the culture of cooking by bridging the traditional barriers between serious scholarship and purveyors of popular culture, while recognizing the limits of both. Menus in the Media is directed by Krishnendu Ray, assistant professor in the department of nutrition, food studies and public health at NYU, and it is sponsored by the Institute for Public Knowledge.

About the Speakers

Heather Carlucci-Rodriguez began her illustrious career with a pastry position at Tom Colicchio's Mondrian and a pastry chef gig at Union Square Cafe. Over the next 15 years she created desserts at L'Impero, Veritas and Judson Grill--each receiving 3 stars from the New York Times--and worked as a consultant for France's Michel Cluizel Chocolat and Domori Chocolate in Bologna, Italy. For her first personal venture, Ms. Carlucci-Rodriguez opened Lassi, a tiny take-out restaurant featuring Northern Indian home cooking, in 2005.

Will Goldfarb is widely regarded as "the golden boy" of pastry. He operates WillPowder, a source for specialty pastry products for the restaurant and home, which he started out of his former restaurant, Room 4 Dessert. In fall 2007, he opened Picnick, an innovative, seasonal sandwich concept with a strong green and social welfare component. His numerous accolades include being named among the 10 Best Pastry Chefs in America by Pastry Art & Design, and a James Beard nomination for Best Pastry Chef. He is a co-founder of the Experimental Cuisine Collective. He has worked in Paris, Spain at El Bulli, and Australia, among many other places.

Frederick Kaufman has written about American food culture and other subjects for Harper's Magazine, the New Yorker, Gourmet, Gastronomica, and the New York Times Magazine, among others. He is the author of A Short History of the American Stomach (Harcourt, 2008), and a contributing editor at Harper's. Mr. Kaufman also teaches at the City University of New York and CUNY's Graduate School of Journalism.

Adam Kaye joined Blue Hill in October 2000, initially as the meat cook, and eventually worked his way up to Chef/Kitchen Director. He has cooked professionally for the past nine years, moving through the kitchens of Vidalia in Washington, DC; La Panetiere in Rye, NY, and Chanterelle in Manhattan. His love of all things culinary stems from a long family tradition in the industry his great grandfather was a butcher; his grandfather owned a butcher supply and spice-milling company; and his parents owned retail cookware stores and now run a catering company. He came to the profession only after spending time in Washington working in the world of environmental policy.

Bret Thorn is food editor of Nation's Restaurant News, with responsibility for spotting and reporting on culinary trends across the country. He joined Nation's Restaurant News in 1999, after spending about five years in Thailand, where he wrote articles about business, banking and finance as well as restaurant reviews and food columns for Manager magazine and Asia Times newspaper. Mr. Thorn also studied traditional French cooking at Le Cordon Bleu Ecole de Cuisine in Paris.

This event is open to the public with photo ID.