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Professor of History, University of the Pacific

Ken Albala is Professor of History at the University of the Pacific in Stockton, California. He has authored or edited 25 books on food including Eating Right in the Renaissance, Food in Early Modern Europe, Cooking in Europe 1250-1650, The Banquet, Beans (winner 2008 IACP Jane Grigson Award), Pancake, Grow Food, Cook Food, Share Food, Nuts: A Global History and most recently Noodle Soup: Recipes, Techniques, Obsession.

He was co-editor of the journal Food, Culture and Society and has also co-edited The Business of Food, Human Cuisine, Food and Faith and edited A Cultural History of Food: The Renaissance and The Routledge International Handbook of Food Studies.

Albala was editor of the Food Cultures Around the World series, the 4-volume Food Cultures of the World Encyclopedia and the 3-volume Sage Encyclopedia of Food Issues published in 2015. He is also series editor of Rowman and Littlefield Studies in Food and Gastronomy for which wrote Three World Cuisines (winner of the Gourmand World Cookbook Awards best foreign cuisine book in the world for 2012). He has also co-authored two cookbooks: The Lost Art of Real Cooking and The Lost Arts of Hearth and Home. His course Food: A Cultural Culinary History is available on DVD from the Great Courses and for free as a podcast.

Experience

  • –present
    Professor of History, Director of Food Studies, University of the Pacific