Sarah Lohman to Visit Fanwood Libary to Discuss her New Book: Eight Flavors: The Untold Story of American Cuisine

On February 26th at 2pm Sarah Lohman will visit the Fanwood Library to discuss her latest book, Eight Flavors: The Untold Story of American Cuisine.

Sarah Lohman is an author and a “historical gastronomist,” which means she re-creates historical recipes to connect with the past. She says, “You can take a collection of words and measurements written long ago, and turn it into a physical object. You can create something that looks, smells, and tastes just like it did hundreds of years in the past. And that’s the next best thing to time travel: it lets you understand a little bit about another way of life.”

In her new book, Ms. Lohman explores archived cookbooks, merchant’s tales and historical accounts from chefs, botanists and farmers to uncover how eight influential flavors first made their way into the American kitchen. She then traces each flavor forward to its present use in homes and by well-known chefs. Ms. Lohman also recounts her own adventures recreating the long-forgotten recipes included in her book.

Sarah Lohman is originally from Cleveland, Ohio, where she began working in a museum at the age of sixteen, cooking historic food over a wood-burning stove. Lohman moved to New York in 2006 to work for New York magazine’s food blog, Grub Street, and now works with museums and galleries around the city to create public programs focused on food. Her work has been featured in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and NPR, and she has appeared in NYC-TV’s mini-series Appetite City cooking culinary treats from New York’s past. The author of a twice-monthly food feature for Etsy called “Kitchen Histories,” Eight Flavors is her first book.