On Thursday 14 November, Katharine von Stackelberg delivered a Brock Talk at the St Catharines Public Library titled, “How to Eat a Flamingo: What Ancient Rome Can Teach Us About Our Relationship with Food.” In the talk she addressed the food of ancient Rome as a byword for excess and the grotesque: dormice coddled in honey, geese drowned in wine, red mullets boiled alive in glass bowls. But the cuisine of ancient world Rome offers more than feelings of pleasurable disgust, it also prompts questions about what foods represents to the people who consume it. In Apicius’ cookery book from the 2nd century CE, a recipe for braised flamingo provides an opportunity to explore the social, cultural and economic underpinnings of “taste” and examine our own relationship with food, dining, and the holidays.

Click here to hear von Stackelberg discuss the topic with Matt Homes of the One O’Clock Talk on 610 CKTB.