Culinary Historians of Boston

The Culinary Historians of Boston, founded by Barbara Ketchum Wheaton and Joyce Toomre, was the first group of its kind and, as of 2011, has been meeting every month of the academic year since 1980. The first meeting took place on 29 May 1980, with a brown-bag lunch under a maple tree in Radcliffe Yard. Most of those who came to that first meeting did not know one another but had heard about the founding meeting by word of mouth. Wheaton recalls that it was a very informal but enthusiastic get-together. Those first members came from a variety of academic and work backgrounds, a pattern that has continued. One common theme shared by the members of the group was the desire to expose the misinformation that had been published about food and to set a standard for excellence for doing food and culinary research.