The European Studies program invites you to “From la mère Brazier to cheffes de cuisine: Finding French women in the professional kitchen,” a lecture by Dr. Rachel Black (associate professor of Anthropology at Connecticut College).

Dr. Black’s presentation engages with the idea that women have always played an important part in the creation of French cuisine, a national treasure and international point of pride. Despite their centrality, women’s contributions in the professional French kitchen are often left out of culinary histories. Her talk will look at the reasons for these historical lapses and the ways in which women’s contributions are being brought to light in the media and film. Through an exploration of the life and achievements of Eugénie Brazier, one of the most lauded female chefs of the early twentieth century, this talk will show how Brazier’s legacy lives on as women continue to shape regional cuisines in France.

Dr. Black is an associate professor of Anthropology at Connecticut College. Her research focuses on issues of food and wine in Italian and French culture. Black is the author of "Cheffes de Cuisine: Women and Work in the Professional French Kitchen" (University of Illinois Press, 2021), "Porta Palazzo: The Anthropology of an Italian Market" (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2012), and co-editor of "Wine and Culture: From Vineyard to Glass" (Bloomsbury, 2013). She is currently writing an ethnographic novel about climate change and the power of cooperative agriculture and love to save a way of life in a wine-producing village in Northern Italy.