About us

The Oxford Food Symposium exists to celebrate, explore, and share leading food research from around the world in a collaborative, collegial, and inclusive environment. We are an evolving community of writers, academics, chefs, scientists, producers, and passionate amateurs whose members bring a diverse host of experiences and perspectives to the study of food and cookery. Our goal is to change the conversation around food, expand the table and improve the plate, through lively debate and the annual publication of our Symposium Proceedings.

Keynote speakers are invited each year to address our chosen topic and to guide our thinking in new directions. These have included Harold McGee, Sidney Mintz, Marion Nestle, James Rebanks, Paul Rozin, Simon Schama, and Laura Shapiro. However, our symposiasts remain the heart and soul of the gatherings and of its mission. Around 50 papers are chosen each year by committee and, after being presented, these are edited, published in the annual Proceedings, freely available online. With a 40-year back catalogue, they represent an important resource that is internationally valued by academics and students of food and cookery.

The Symposium Weekend at St Catherine’s college in Oxford/UK is about much more than scholarly discussion: it is about making new friends and meeting old ones, having fun, enjoying wonderful food and drink, and opening up new horizons. Most symposiasts stay in college, and for many, the spectacular themed feasts held in the Great Hall are a real highlight, curated by celebrated cooks from around the world with the invaluable collaboration of St Catz head Chef Tim Kelsey, and stunning menus by designer Jake Tilson. Since 2020, the Weekend is followed by the two weeks long online Conference, with all the keynotes and paper presentations, live discussions with the speakers, presenters and chefs, social gatherings and much more – not the least the riotous fun of democratically choosing the topic of three years hence.

The Symposium goes back to 1979 when two noted Oxford scholars, food historian Alan Davidson and social historian Theodore Zeldin, were bold enough to research a then revolutionary topic for academe – food. The first two seminars considered the themes of cookery books and ‘Food and Cookery: the Impact of Sciences in the Kitchen’. Among the attendees were Elizabeth David, Jill Norman, Jane Grigson, Richard Olney, Paul Levy, the physicist Nicholas Kurti as well as Claudia Roden and Sri and Roger Owen. Their success persuaded Davidson and Zeldin to expand the seminars into full-scale symposia, the first of which was held at St. Antony’s College, Oxford, in 1981.

In addition to our filmed keynotes, we have a wealth of recorded material you can explore. In our podcast series Ox Tales, speakers at the Symposium are invited by host Anna Sigrithur to expand on their specialist theme. Guests so far have included the renowned food writer Bee Wilson, food activist Fozia Ismail, and fermentation revivalist Sandor Katz.

The Oral History Project was launched by Máirtín Mac Con Iomaire in 2017 in order to capture some of the stories, philosophies and memories of past symposiasts. Interviewees so far have included the distinguished food writer, inaugural symposiast, and former Chair Paul Levy, long term president Claudia Roden, The Sifter founder Barbara Ketcham Wheaton, and the Symposium’s co-founder, Theodore Zeldin.

The virtual Kitchen Table is where we host informal monthly conversations with invited speakers. First launched in October 2020 in response to the overwhelmingly enthusiastic reaction to our first online Symposium, the Kitchen Table is your chance to get up close and personal with your heroes. With speakers including Marion Nestle, Harold McGee, Asma Khan, and Kamal Mouzawak, the Kitchen Table has established a devoted following – draw up a chair and join us!

We also hold a monthly Wiki Club meeting as well as a meeting of those who are working on the Sifter (a revolutionary search engine for historic cookery books and other documents). Since 2023 we have been delighted to host the Kitchen Lab and KL Techniques events.

As a registered charity with a remit to educate and inform, the Oxford Food Symposium relies almost entirely on volunteer labour by its Board of Trustees, a group of food writers, academics, and practitioners, many of whom are themselves long-standing symposiasts. Our current Chair is food historian Cathy Kaufman, and our President is the celebrated author Elisabeth Luard.