Sarah Lohman | |
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 Sarah Lohman with copies of her book | |
| Born | |
| Nationality | American |
| Occupation(s) | historian, author |
Sarah Lohman is an American historian, specializing in the history of food. [1] She is the author of Eight Flavors: The Untold Story of American Cuisine. [2] [3] [4]
As a teenager, growing up in Hinckley, Ohio, Lohman worked, in costume, as a historic re-enactor. [1] [5] [6] Her duties there included showing visitors how Americans used to prepare food. In 2005, she earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the Cleveland Institute of Art. [7]
She traveled to New York City in 2006. [1] She worked for Grub Street, upon her arrival, and worked at the Tenement Museum from 2009. [7] [8]
In 2016, she told The New York Times that she "searches old cookbooks and other records to recreate forgotten recipes as a way of studying history". [1] [9] She then prepares food, according to those recipes. She called eating those foods "an elaborate form of performance art".
Her book, Eight Flavors, published in 2016, has eight chapters, which each trace a signature taste crucial to the development of modern American cooking: black pepper, vanilla, curry powder, chili powder, soy sauce, garlic, MSG, and Sriracha. [3] Several reviewers praised Lohman's deep research, and told readers her writing was informed by wide travel to conduct that research. [8] [10] [11]
Lohman was one of the food historians used as an expert in a PBS documentary series entitled "The Poison Squad", first broadcast in 2020. [12]
Lohman is working on a second book, documenting cookery at risk of disappearing, entitled Endangered Eating: Exploring America’s Vanishing Cuisine, scheduled for publication in 2021. [13]
Vietnamese cuisine encompasses the foods and beverages of Vietnam. Meals feature a combination of five fundamental tastes : sweet, salty, bitter, sour, and spicy. The distinctive nature of each dish reflects one or more elements, which are also based around a five-pronged philosophy. Vietnamese recipes use ingredients like lemongrass, ginger, mint, Vietnamese mint, long coriander, Saigon cinnamon, bird's eye chili, lime, and Thai basil leaves. Traditional Vietnamese cooking has often been characterised as using fresh ingredients, not using much dairy or oil, having interesting textures, and making use of herbs and vegetables. The cuisine is also low in sugar and is almost always naturally gluten-free, as many of the dishes are rice-based instead of wheat-based, made with rice noodles, papers and flour. Vietnamese cuisine is strongly influenced not only by the cuisines of neighboring China, Cambodia and Laos, but also by French cuisine due to French colonial rule over the region from 1887 to 1954.
Fried rice is a dish of cooked rice that has been stir-fried in a wok or a frying pan and is usually mixed with other ingredients such as eggs, vegetables, seafood, or meat. It is often eaten by itself or as an accompaniment to another dish. Fried rice is a popular component of East Asian, Southeast Asian and certain South Asian cuisines, as well as a staple national dish of Indonesia. As a homemade dish, fried rice is typically made with ingredients left over from other dishes, leading to countless variations. Fried rice first developed during the Sui Dynasty in China.
Penne alla vodka is a pasta dish made primarily with vodka and penne pasta, usually accompanied with heavy cream, crushed tomatoes or tomato sauce, onions, and sometimes small meats and vegetables like sausage, pancetta or peas. The alcohol apparently helps intensify and accentuate flavors in the dish, among other claims.
Rémoulade is a cold sauce. Although similar to tartar sauce, it is often more yellowish, sometimes flavored with curry, and often contains chopped pickles or piccalilli. It can also contain horseradish, paprika, anchovies, capers and a host of other items.
Chili powder is the dried, pulverized fruit of one or more varieties of chili pepper, sometimes with the addition of other spices. It is used as a spice to add pungency (piquancy) and flavor to culinary dishes. In American English, the spelling is usually "chili"; in British English, "chilli" is used consistently.
Adobo or adobar is the immersion of cooked food in a stock composed variously of paprika, oregano, salt, garlic, and vinegar to preserve and enhance its flavor. The Portuguese variant is known as carne de vinha d'alhos. The practice, native to Iberia, was widely adopted in Latin America, as well as Spanish and Portuguese colonies in Africa and Asia.
Tea egg is a typical Chinese savory food commonly sold as a snack, in which a boiled egg is cracked slightly and then boiled again in tea, and sauce or spices. It is also known as marble egg because cracks in the egg shell create darkened lines with marble-like patterns. Commonly sold by street vendors or in night markets in most Chinese communities throughout the world, it is also served in Asian restaurants. Although it originated from China and is traditionally associated with Chinese cuisine, other similar recipes and variations have been developed throughout Asia. Tea eggs originated in Zhejiang province as a way to preserve foods for a long time but is now found in all provinces.
Massaman curry is a rich, flavourful, and mildly spicy Thai curry. It is a fusion dish, combining ingredients from three sources: Persia, the Indian Subcontinent, and the Malay Archipelago with ingredients more commonly used in native Thai cuisine to make massaman curry paste. The substance of the dish is usually based on chicken or other meat, potatoes, onions, and peanuts. The richness comes from the coconut milk and cream used as a base, as for many Thai curries.
A michelada is a Mexican drink made with beer, lime juice, assorted sauces, spices, and chili peppers. It is served in a chilled, salt-rimmed glass. There are numerous variations of this beverage throughout Mexico.
Chili sauce and chili paste are condiments prepared with chili peppers.
Korean barbecue is a popular method in Korean cuisine of grilling meat, typically beef, pork or chicken. Such dishes are often prepared on gas or charcoal grills built into the dining table itself. Some Korean restaurants that do not have built-in grills provide customers with portable stoves for diners to use at their tables. Alternatively, a chef uses a centrally displayed grill to prepare dishes that are made to order.
Inihaw, also known as sinugba or inasal, are various types of grilled or pit-roasted barbecue dishes from the Philippines. They are usually made from pork or chicken and are served on bamboo skewers or in small cubes with a soy sauce and vinegar-based dip. The term can also refer to any meat or seafood dish cooked and served in a similar way. Inihaw are commonly sold as street food and are eaten with white rice or rice cooked in coconut leaves (pusô). Inihaw is also commonly referred to as Filipino barbecue or (informally) Pinoy BBQ.
Manchurian is a class of Indian Chinese dish made by roughly chopping and deep-frying ingredients such as chicken, cauliflower (gobi), prawns, fish, mutton, and paneer, and then sautéeing them in a sauce flavored with soy sauce. Manchurian is the result of the adaptation of Chinese cooking and seasoning techniques to suit Indian tastes. It has become a staple of Indian Chinese cuisine.
Puerto Rican Chinese cuisine is a popular style of food exclusive to restaurants in Puerto Rico developed by its Chinese immigrants. The food is a variation of Cantonese cuisine with some elements of Puerto Rican cuisine. A typical dish consists of fried rice, a choice of meat, and French fries. The fried rice itself varies in every restaurant, but can contain many ingredients such as ham, beef, shrimp, egg, lettuce, and onions. In 2020, there were an estimated 450 Chinese restaurants in Puerto Rico and the owners suffered discrimination during the COVID-19 pandemic in Puerto Rico.
The cuisine of New Orleans encompasses common dishes and foods in New Orleans, Louisiana. It is perhaps the most distinctively recognized regional cuisine in the United States. Some of the dishes originated in New Orleans, while others are common and popular in the city and surrounding areas, such as the Mississippi River Delta and southern Louisiana. The cuisine of New Orleans is heavily influenced by Creole cuisine, Cajun cuisine, and soul food. Later on, due to immigration, Italian cuisine and Sicilian cuisine also has some influence on the cuisine of New Orleans. Seafood also plays a prominent part in the cuisine. Dishes invented in New Orleans include po' boy and muffuletta sandwiches, oysters Rockefeller and oysters Bienville, pompano en papillote, and bananas Foster, among others.
Hot and sour soup is a popular example of Sichuan cuisine. Similar versions are found in Henan province, near Beijing, and in Henan cuisine itself, where it may also be known as hulatang or "pepper hot soup" (胡辣汤). Also popular in Southeast Asia, India, Pakistan and the United States, it is a flexible soup which allows ingredients to be substituted or added depending on availability. For example, the American-Chinese version can be thicker as it commonly includes corn starch, whilst in Japan, sake is often added.
Chili oil is a condiment made from vegetable oil that has been infused with chili peppers. Different types of oil and hot peppers are used, and other components may also be included. It is commonly used in Chinese cuisine, Southeast Asian cuisine, and elsewhere. It is particularly popular in western Chinese cuisines such as Sichuan cuisine, Hunan cuisine, Guizhou cuisine, and Shaanxi cuisine where it is used as an ingredient in cooked dishes as well as a condiment. It is sometimes used as a dip for meat and dim sum. It is also employed in the Korean Chinese noodle soup dish jjamppong.
Sweet soy sauce is a sweetened aromatic soy sauce, originating in Indonesia, which has a darker color, a viscous syrupy consistency and a molasses-like flavor due to the generous addition of palm sugar or jaggery. Kecap manis is widely used with satay. It is similar to, though finer in flavor than, Chinese Tianmian sauce (tianmianjiang). It is by far the most popular type of soy sauce employed in Indonesian cuisine, and accounts for an estimated 90 percent of the nation's total soy sauce production.
Ranji Smile was an immigrant to the United States who, following his efforts to popularize different methods of food preparation, in the early 20th Century, has triggered calling him "America’s first celebrity chef".
Now she works part time as an educator at the Tenement Museum on the Lower East Side, leading tours and creating food programming.
Smile's biography is revealed in Eight Flavors: The Untold Story of American Cuisine, a new book by Sarah Lohman that unpacks the diverse history of a nation's palate via eight distinct ingredients.
But a young historical gastronomist named Sarah Lohman discovered that American food is united by eight flavors: black pepper, vanilla, curry powder, chili powder, soy sauce, garlic, MSG, and Sriracha.
When Sarah Lohman describes herself as a "historic gastronomist," she is being too modest. She is, in addition, an accomplished writer, an intrepid traveler, dogged researcher and pundit. She knows what Americans eat, what our ancestors ate, and why.
Sarah Lohman has made everything from colonial-era cocktails to cakes with black pepper to stewed moose face. She is a historical gastronomist, which means she re-creates historical recipes to connect with the past.
Sarah Lohman is a culinary historian. She was introduced to the idea back in high school when she worked at a living history museum. Back then, it was a summer gig she did in costume and in character.
Sarah Lohman is originally from Hinckley, Ohio where she began working in a museum at the age of 16, cooking historical food over a wood-burning stove. She graduated with a BFA from the Cleveland Institute of Art in 2005. For her undergraduate thesis, she opened a temporary restaurant/installation that reinterpreted food of the Colonial era for a modern audience.
I've also worked for the last seven years at the Lower East Side Tenement museum, which has made me aware of and connected to immigration in a way I never was before -- it underlies everything in American culture. So I knew that in writing the stories of these flavors, I was going to be writing American stories -- and in the process, making an argument for a broader definition of what America is and who Americans are.
Here's how Sarah Lohman talks about them in her new book, 'Eight Flavors, The Untold Story of American Cuisine.'
As Lohman continues with her blend of food and travel writing, history and chemistry, personal memoir and thumbnail biographies, the reader finds out how soy sauce enjoyed an early popularity in this country only to be replaced by ketchup and Worcestershire sauce. Then, later waves of Chinese and Japanese immigrants reintroduced soy sauce, paving the way for Kikkoman to start manufacturing it in Wisconsin and popularize its use.
She's also impressively plucky, traveling, for example, to a remote Mexican vanilla plantation, where she's subject to a full-body mosquito attack (par for the course, the woman who runs it admits).
Her current project, Endangered Eating: Exploring America's Vanishing Cuisine will be released with W.W. Norton & Co. in 2021.
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