150: Italian Pasta Nights with an American Accent with Renato Poliafito
Release Date: 04/22/2025
179: Looking at How We Eat to Understand Power & Social Movements with Amber Husain
AnthroDish
When it comes to talking about food, we often to choose to look at what people are eating rather than how. And it’s this distinction that today’s guest, Amber Husain, explores more fully in her new book, . Amber is a writer based in South London, UK. In addition to Tell Me How You Eat, she has also written Meat Love and Replace Me. Her essays on politics, literature, and art have been published in Granta, The New York Times, Baffler, and more. She has a PhD from UCL in the history of art and mind-body medicine in the late 20th-century Britain. She teaches history of art, creative writing,...
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178: What Makes for “Good Food” for Immigrant Women in British Columbia? with Isabela Bonnevera
AnthroDish
Sustainability is a word you hear a lot, but it tends to go uncritically examined in application. So what can it encompass when it comes to food experiences, particularly for immigrants and newcomers to Canada? My guest this week, Isabela Bonnevera, is here to unpack this further. Isabela is currently a doctoral researcher at ICTA-UAB and engages with participatory methods to explore how immigrants are shaping sustainable food transitions in cities. She also examines how sustainable food policies impact food justice outcomes for immigrant communities. She’s the co-founder of Feminist...
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177: How Can Appetites Be Shaped for the Future? with Alicia Kennedy
AnthroDish
When it comes to thinking about the future of food, is it possible to re-imagine our individual and collective appetites around what we want it to be? Taste is subjective, sure, but it’s also deeply embedded in the land, histories, politics, and sociocultural dynamics we navigate throughout our lives. And as my guest this week, Alicia Kennedy, writes, our tastes are also shaped by how we value (or don’t value) ingredients and their own histories. Alicia is a writer from Long Island. She is the author of No Meat Required: The Cultural History and Culinary Future of Plant-Based Eating,...
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176: The Forgotten History of Wheat in North Texas with Rebecca Sharpless
AnthroDish
When thinking about the food and agricultural landscape of Texas, the mind immediately goes to cattle, corn, and cotton—certainly not wheat. But as my guest this week, Dr. Rebecca Sharpless, shares, the region of North Texas had a robust wheat culture from the 1840s until the post-World War Two period. So what made North Texas a great place for wheat? And what are the implications of wheat as culture and cultivator? Rebecca is here today to talk about her new book, People of the Wheat: Culture and Cultivation in North Texas, out now through Univeristy of Texas Press. She is a professor...
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175: Food, Value, and Heritage in Singapore’s Hawker Centres with TW Lim
AnthroDish
My guest today, TW Lim, is here to explore how nation food constructions have played out in Singapore through the hawker centres the country is known for. TW writes on the relationships between politics, history, and culture and how they have shaped eating habits in Singapore. By day, he writes about technology, but he also writes about food and value, or the “regard that something is held to deserve; the importance, worth, or usefulness of something.” While known to many other countries as a “food paradise” over the last 50 years, TW unpacks how Singaporean food worth and value...
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174: The History and Symbolism of Canada's Maple Syrup Production with Peter Kuitenbrouwer
AnthroDish
My guest this week, Peter Kuitenbrouwer, is here to share some of the ways that our relationship with maple syrup is linked to culture, religion, and land in Canada. Peter is the author of the recent book, Maple Syrup: A Short History of Canada’s Sweetest Obsession. Peter grew up on a farm in Quebec, with his career as a journalist taking him to jobs in Montreal, Ottawa, Mexico City, New York, and Toronto. Among other adventures, he covered the Oka Crisis in Quebec, crossed the Atlantic on a container ship, sailed the Great Lakes on a bulk grain carrier, and was detained by guerillas in the...
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173: Bringing Caribbean Flavours to European Fine-Dining Menus with Chef India Doris
AnthroDish
When heard about the work that chef India Doris is doing with her new restaurant, Markette, in bringing Caribbean heritage and flavours to European-style fine dining, I was delighted to have the chance to speak with her. India is the co-owner and Executive Chef at Markette, which is a modern European restaurant based in Chelsea, New York, along with The Argyle, a cocktail lounge located directly below the restaurant. This past fall, she was awarded the Young Chef Award at the 2025 Northeast Michelin ceremony. Originally from London, India has lived and cooked throughout Europe at acclaimed...
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172: Learning to Cook in Front of the Entire Internet with Jamie Tracey
AnthroDish
For anyone that grew up without a strong sense of connection to cooking or eating cultural foods, it can be daunting to get into the kitchen and make your own relationship with food. But for today’s guest, Jamie Tracey, that lack of relationship was enough incentive to try an honest approach to building something that would last. Jamie is a self-taught creator and Canadian cook that created Anti-Chef, a culinary experiment that plays out in real time on his YouTube series. It captures the good, bad, chaos, and triumph that comes with learning and loving to cook. With more than...
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171: Breaking Down the Myth of a Singular Caribbean Foodway with Chef Leigh-Ann Martin
AnthroDish
When it comes to Caribbean food, there tends to be a viewpoint that it can be a monolithic culinary experience. And particularly as those living in countries like Jamaica, Cuba, Trinidad and Tobago, Bahamas, or other Caribbean countries move in the diaspora, it necessitates a nuanced look at how culinary traditions and knowledges are shared, shifted, and expanded with new generations. My guest today, chef Leigh-Ann Martin, reminds us that there is such a rich regional diversity and abundance that needs to be explored more fully. Leigh-Ann is a trained chef, thought leader, and senior...
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170: Ingredients for Building a Community Through a Cottage Bakery with Teresa Finney
AnthroDish
What does it take to make the most out of the internet when you’re building a micro or cottage bakery? My guest today, Teresa Finney, is here to explore this through her journey building At Heart Panadería. Teresa is a pastry chef and writer from the Bay Area in California, with family roots in Guadalajara, Mexico. Now based in Atlanta, Georgia, she runs At Heart Panadería, a contemporary Mexican bakery. She is also the author of Panadería: A Cookbook Zine, which contains five thoughtfully crafted original recipes from her cottage bakery. In today’s discussion, we explore how...
info_outlineThroughout this season, we’ve been exploring immigrant narratives around food: roles in food systems, labour, and diasporic food stories. Part of this is making sense of the “ish” elements to identities through food, which my guest this week, Renato Poliafito, does beautifully.
Renato is a James Beard-nominated restaurateur, pastry chef, cookbook author, designer, and entrepreneur based in Brooklyn, NY. After a graphic design and advertising career, Renato pivoted to food, training as a barista to learn more about the industry, eventually opening Baked in 2005. This kicked off a culinary renaissance in the waterfront neighbourhood, resulting in several cookbooks, a line of mixes, granola, bakeware, a location in Tokyo, and multiple James Beard nominations. After over a decade at Baked, Renato embarked on a new project. He opened Ciao, Gloria in Prospect Heights in 2019, a daytime café and neighbourhood bakery steeped in his Italian-American upbringing and heritage.
Inspired by the monthly pasta events he did briefly at Ciao, Gloria, pre-pandemic, Renato opened a sister concept on Vanderbilt Avenue called Pasta Night, a casual pasta concept, in October 2024. He is also the author of Dolci!: American Baking with an Italian Accent, his first solo cookbook featuring Italian and “Italian American-ish” cakes, cookies, pies, and pastries for any occasion.
In this conversation, Renato explores how he infused his culture and background into Ciao, Gloria, and Pasta Nights, how he switches between his Italian and American heritages to build their menus, and his perspectives on creating community in Brooklyn and Italian-American eating experiences that speak to American-style dining.
Learn More About Renato: