Event Details

“The Farmer, the Gastronome, and the Chef: In Pursuit of the Ideal Meal”

Speaker:  Daniel Philippon

Professor Daniel Philippon will share his new book (University of Virginia Press, 2024) exploring sustainable food systems and the impact of writers Wendell Berry, Carlo Petrini, and Alice Waters. In the book, Philippon explores how writers and activists Wendell Berry, Carlo Petrini, and Alice Waters have changed America’s relationship with food over the past 50 years. In pursuit of his own “ideal meal,” Philippon planted and harvested vegetables in central Wisconsin, spoke with growers and food producers in northern Italy, and visited with chefs and restaurateurs in southeastern France.

Daniel Philippon is the author of Conserving Words: How American Nature Writers Shaped the Environmental Movement. He is past president of the Association for the Study of Literature and Environment (ASLE) and has served as Senior Fellow at the Rachel Carson Center for Environment and Society in Germany, Fulbright Scholar at the University of Turin and University of Gastronomic Sciences in Italy, and Visiting Professor at the École Normale Supérieure de Lyon in France. His teaching on environmental humanities, literary nonfiction writing, and sustainability studies has been honored with the Horace T. Morse–University of Minnesota Alumni Association Award for Outstanding Contributions to Undergraduate Education and the College of Liberal Arts Arthur “Red” Motley Exemplary Teaching Award.