For more than 200 years, the iconic cuisine of New Orleans, Louisiana, has drawn visitors from around the world. Lagers brewed by German brewmasters, Sazerac cocktails, gumbo, and pralines—these treasures, and more, made New Orleans a global destination for drinking, dining, and indulging. Nevertheless, despite nicknames like “The Big Easy” and “The City That Care Forgot,” the long history of New Orleans’s cuisine—and the people who made and served it—has been anything but easy or carefree.

Join us for a conversation with Theresa McCulla, Curator at Mars, Incorporated (formerly, curator of the American Brewing History Initiative at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History) and Liz Williams, founder of the Southern Food & Beverage Museum and the National Food & Beverage Foundation. They will discuss McCulla’s new book, Insatiable City: Food and Race in New Orleans (University of Chicago Press, 2024), a cultural history of the city and its people through the lens of food. How can the study of food and drink help us understand evolving ideas about race and ethnicity? How did Black New Orleanians use food and drink to achieve freedom, build autonomy, and create pleasure for themselves, their families, and their communities? By focusing on the Crescent City, what might we learn about the histories and cultures of other places?