Food Studies

I took this course a while ago, but I’m reviewing it now because I see it’s being taught again potentially. This course sounded awesome from the description. Everyone there was absolutely thrilled to spend a J term making bread and pickles, but it should be noted this class is a time COMMITMENT. I wish I were exaggerating when I say I walked to the kirk center (I hope it’s being taught closer to campus in future) in the dark at least a dozen times, spent hours and hours watching my sourdough/doing my final project, and came in early (~6am) a few times because of something going wrong with a fermentation. Suffice to say, those of us who wanted to spend most of term skiing and some of it enjoying some bread were a bit disappointed. Fun field trips to local farms, a smidge out of touch with food-realities sometimes, presentation-focused for sure. Definitely learned some stuff about fermentation but unsure if it was worth a full month of staring at my sourdough for hours, waiting for it to proof so I could finally go home. All in all, I would do the class again. The people made it fun, but just be aware of its time commitment.

I took this course a while ago, but I’m reviewing it now because I see it’s being taught again potentially. This course sounded awesome from the description. Everyone there was absolutely thrilled to spend a J term making bread and pickles, but it should be noted this class is a time COMMITMENT. I wish I were exaggerating when I say …Read more

I overall really enjoyed taking this course. There is a lot of reading that you are generally expected to at least skim because class participation is important. I had never taken a food studies class before, and it definitely gave me a new perspective on the topic and revealed how food plays an important role when studying history. I also liked the final project where we were each assigned a cookbook and had to write a paper on it, present on it, and create a recipe from the book. There are also several food labs throughout the course that were highlights of the experience.

I overall really enjoyed taking this course. There is a lot of reading that you are generally expected to at least skim because class participation is important. I had never taken a food studies class before, and it definitely gave me a new perspective on the topic and revealed how food plays an important role when studying history. …Read more

This course was really fun and definitely one of my favorites I have taken at Middlebury. The labs were very interesting and broke up the class content quite well. Professor Armanios is passionate and a great professor!