Feast & Fast:

How Clean Eating Came to Early Modern Europe

The Feast is back! Just in time for the month of healthy New Year’s resolutions, our season premiere features a rich discussion on the history of feasting and fasting in Europe. We talk to Dr. Victoria Avery and Dr. Melissa Calaresu, co-curators of the exhibition “Feast & Fast: The Art of Food in Europe 1500–1800” at the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge, England, to learn some of the questions early modern Europeans were asking about what to eat and where their food came from. How can I eat clean? What is a moderate diet? Should I adopt a plant-based lifestyle? Such questions might sound very 21st century, but these topics wouldn’t have been out of place in the 17th or 18th centuries as Europeans wrestled with the idea of how to adopt a moderate and nutritious diet. We’ll also look at some of the most epic feasting traditions of early modern Europe, from architectural sugar sculptures to ten-foot tall pineapples, but we’ll also uncover the questionable and often dark histories that lay at their root. Join us for a feast and fast of epic proportions on the Season 4 premiere of The Feast.  

Written and Produced by Laura Carlson

Digital Director & Photography: Mike Portt

Reporter in the Field: James Berrill

Special Guests:

Dr. Victoria Avery

Dr. Melissa Calaresu

Learn more about the Fitzwilliam exhibition and see more of the beautiful sugarwork sculpture and culinary recreations by Ivan Day by visiting: https://feast-and-fast.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/