Join us for robust presentations and refreshing conversations designed to inspire your scientific palate.
Tonight’s Menu: Deadly, Delicious
When potatoes and tomatoes first arrived in Europe via Spanish ships, they were greeted with suspicions that persisted for hundreds of years. For while the Aztecs favored tomatoes and potatoes were essential to Andean diets, Europeans (and later, North Americans) considered them to be poisonous.
Along with eggplant and chili peppers, potatoes and tomatoes belong to the nightshade family (Solanaceae), a wide-ranging clan then known for toxic members such as mandrake, henbane, and deadly nightshade—powerfully psychotropic plants that were famously incorporated into medieval witchcraft. This dangerous reputation was extended to the culinary newcomers, as well as mandrake’s cachet as an aphrodisiac (mandrake, eggplant, and tomatoes have all been termed “love apples”).
By the nineteenth century, caution had given way to passion, and the pair grew inextricable from European and American cuisines. Indulge your curiosity in their shady reputation, and savor their summertime allure in nightshade-rich dishes such as ratatouille.
show less
Tonight’s Menu: Deadly, Delicious
When potatoes and tomatoes first arrived in Europe via Spanish ships, they were greeted with suspicions that persisted for hundreds of years. For while the Aztecs favored tomatoes and potatoes were essential to Andean diets, Europeans (and later, North Americans) considered them to be poisonous.
Along with eggplant and chili peppers, potatoes and tomatoes belong to the nightshade family (Solanaceae), a wide-ranging clan then known for toxic members such as mandrake, henbane, and deadly nightshade—powerfully psychotropic plants that were famously incorporated into medieval witchcraft. This dangerous reputation was extended to the culinary newcomers, as well as mandrake’s cachet as an aphrodisiac (mandrake, eggplant, and tomatoes have all been termed “love apples”).
By the nineteenth century, caution had given way to passion, and the pair grew inextricable from European and American cuisines. Indulge your curiosity in their shady reputation, and savor their summertime allure in nightshade-rich dishes such as ratatouille.
Join us for robust presentations and refreshing conversations designed to inspire your scientific palate.
Tonight’s Menu: Deadly, Delicious
When potatoes and tomatoes first arrived in Europe via Spanish ships, they were greeted with suspicions that persisted for hundreds of years. For while the Aztecs favored tomatoes and potatoes were essential to Andean diets, Europeans (and later, North Americans) considered them to be poisonous.
Along with eggplant and chili peppers, potatoes and tomatoes belong to the nightshade family (Solanaceae), a wide-ranging clan then known for toxic members such as mandrake, henbane, and deadly nightshade—powerfully psychotropic plants that were famously incorporated into medieval witchcraft. This dangerous reputation was extended to the culinary newcomers, as well as mandrake’s cachet as an aphrodisiac (mandrake, eggplant, and tomatoes have all been termed “love apples”).
By the nineteenth century, caution had given way to passion, and the pair grew inextricable from European and American cuisines. Indulge your curiosity in their shady reputation, and savor their summertime allure in nightshade-rich dishes such as ratatouille.
read more
Tonight’s Menu: Deadly, Delicious
When potatoes and tomatoes first arrived in Europe via Spanish ships, they were greeted with suspicions that persisted for hundreds of years. For while the Aztecs favored tomatoes and potatoes were essential to Andean diets, Europeans (and later, North Americans) considered them to be poisonous.
Along with eggplant and chili peppers, potatoes and tomatoes belong to the nightshade family (Solanaceae), a wide-ranging clan then known for toxic members such as mandrake, henbane, and deadly nightshade—powerfully psychotropic plants that were famously incorporated into medieval witchcraft. This dangerous reputation was extended to the culinary newcomers, as well as mandrake’s cachet as an aphrodisiac (mandrake, eggplant, and tomatoes have all been termed “love apples”).
By the nineteenth century, caution had given way to passion, and the pair grew inextricable from European and American cuisines. Indulge your curiosity in their shady reputation, and savor their summertime allure in nightshade-rich dishes such as ratatouille.
show less
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