Featuring some amusing anecdotes, Daniel E Bender’s The Food Adventurers is a delightful expedition into the connection between travel and cuisine
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Covid-19 was a killer, not only of people, but of economies. Few areas were harder hit than the tourism industry. The UN World Tourism Organisation has suggested that losses in this sector were more than financial: food tourism, a preserver and supporter of local traditions and diversity, also took a huge hit.
In 2020, with the pandemic at its devastating height, Daniel E Bender was putting the finishing touches on a global voyage. As Canada chair in food and culture, and director of the Culinaria Research Centre, Bender was eminently qualified to embark on what he describes as ‘an eating trip around the world’.
The result of this undertaking is a tale of food adventure revealed through six travellers, two fruits, two hotel chains, ‘one meal and a glass of water’. Bender brings to light the personalities, quirks and bravery of his characters.
As travel itself became more commonplace, eating was the adventure, changing the way we all eat. Among Bender’s characters is Myra Waldo, the 1950s food consultant for Pan American World Airways and a key figure in the genre of around-the-world cookbooks. Waldo offered advice to US travellers on planning holidays that featured local foods. She was a strong advocate of curious eating, advising those who could overcome their ‘prejudice against raw fish’ to daringly try sushi when in Japan.
The narrative is packed with amusing anecdotes, some quite audacious, such as that of US celebrity chef Anthony Bourdain in Vietnam tucking into a still-quivering cobra heart while he exclaims, ‘It’s one of those cocktail party stories that’s sure to turn Mom green.’ The book, dare one say it, is a delicious gastronomic expedition into the histories of global travel and cuisine.
