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Profs & Pints “History of Food as Art, Holiday Edition” (SF)

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Tuesday, November 25, 2025 - 6:00 pm to 8:00 pm | Cost: $13.50*
*Advance ticket: $13.50. At the door: $17.00. $2.00 off with student I.D.
Barlett Hall Brewery | 242 O'Farrell Street

Event Details

Submitted by the Event Organizer

Profs and Pints San Francisco presents: “A History of Food as Art, Holiday Edition,” on the centuries-old relationship between feasts for our palates and feasts for our eyes, with Carolyn Tillie — founder of Bay Area Culinary Historians and former adjunct professor of art history at several California community colleges — as your guide.

If you are looking for culinary inspiration this holiday season, come journey back in time to long before the first Thanksgiving to explore the millennia-old relationship between what people eat and what they use to make art.

We’ll start with the first evidence of food-related art, in the form of decorated ostrich eggs dating back 73,000 years and found by archaeologists in South Africa. You’ll learn how the carving of gourds and squashes dates back 10,000 years in East Asia and South America, how various vegetables were the first sources of dyes, and how saffron was used for coloring long before it was used for seasoning.

From there we’ll talk about ancient uses of egg-based paint, the elaborate centuries-old Japanese food garnishing art known as Mukimono, and the birth in the 1500s of an Oaxacan radish-carving festival that still takes place today.

You’ll learn how the tables set for kings varied tremendously by historical period, with the late 1400s ushering in a long period of “show food” featuring elaborate tablescapes made with carved meats and cheeses and sculptures formed from sugar and butter.
We’ll trace gingerbread back to ancient Greece, examine the Victorian era rise of the elaborate wedding cake, chart the rise of marzipan sculptures, and consider the evolution over the centuries of beloved Scandinavian Christmas cookies featuring decorative patterns. Returning to the present, we’ll examine how chocolate is being used to make sculptures that tower over any foil-wrapped Santa Claus.

Disclaimer: Please double check event information with the event organizer as events can be canceled, details can change after they are added to our calendar, and errors do occur.


Cost: $13.50*
*Advance ticket: $13.50. At the door: $17.00. $2.00 off with student I.D.
Categories: Christmas, Eating & Drinking, In Person, Lectures & Workshops, Thanksgiving
Venue: Barlett Hall Brewery
Address: 242 O'Farrell Street