'The Food Explorer' Comes To Bards Alley

From Bards Alley: The American kitchen was a dull place before David Fairchild. The world traveler introduced peaches brought back from China, mangoes from India and kale from Croatia. Even the hugely-popular avocado was a Fairchild find from Chile.

Find out more about this young botanist and his influence on our plates and palates when author Daniel Stone reads from his new book, The Food Explorer: The True Adventures of the Globe-Trotting Botanist Who Transformed What America Eats, at Bards Alley on March 1 at 7 pm.

“In the nineteenth century, American meals were about subsistence, not enjoyment,” writes Stone. “But as a new century approached, appetites broadened, and David Fairchild, a young botanist with an insatiable lust to explore and experience the world, set out in search of foods that would enrich the American farmer and enchant the American eater.”

“Fairchild’s finds weren’t just limited to food: From Egypt he sent back a variety of cotton that revolutionized an industry, and via Japan he introduced the cherry blossom tree, forever brightening America’s capital. Along the way, he was arrested, caught diseases, and bargained with island tribes. But his culinary ambition came during a formative era, and through him, America transformed into the most diverse food system ever created,” says Stone.

Daniel Stone is a staff writer for National Geographic and a former White House correspondent for Newsweek and The Daily Beast. A native of Los Angeles, he holds degrees from UC Davis and Johns Hopkins University.

This event is free to attend with no reservation required. Seats are available on a first come, first served basis. For more information, contact Marketing & Communications/Events Coordinator Sarah Katz at info@bardsalley.com.

Image courtesy of Bards Alley