Monosodium Glutamate (MSG): Friend or Foe?
Taught by Sarah Lohman
Sarah Lohman is a culinary historian and the author of the bestselling books Endangered Eating: America’s Vanishing Foods and Eight Flavors: The Untold Story of American Cuisine. She focuses on the history of food as a way to access the stories of diverse Americans. Endangered Eating was a New York Times Editors’ Choice, and was named one of the Best Books of 2023 by Amazon’s Editors, Food & Wine, and Adam Gopnik on the Milk Street podcast. It was a finalist for the Nach Waxman Prize for Food & Drink Scholarship and winner of the Ohioana Library Book Prize for Nonfiction. Lohman’s work has been featured in The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, and NPR. Lohman has lectured across the country, from the Smithsonian Museum of American History in Washington, DC to The Culinary Historians of Southern California
Sarah Lohman, author of Eight Flavors: The Untold Story of American Cuisine, will trace the long history of MSG in traditional Japanese food, as well as the story of Dr. Kikunae Ikeda, the scientist who discovered it.
She'll unveil how MSG ended up on American shores--and why Americans eventually grew to fear it. We'll debunk "Chinese Restaurant Syndrome" and find MSG's many relatives in everyday foods.
