20 Facts About Darra Goldstein

Darra Goldstein was born on April 28,1951 and is an American author and food scholar who is the Willcox B and Harriet M Adsit Professor of Russian, Emerita at Williams College.

Darra Goldstein is the founding editor of Gastronomica: The Journal of Food and Culture, which won the 2012 James Beard award for Publication of the Year, and she served as its editor-in-chief from 2001 to 2012.

Darra Goldstein served as editor-in-chief of the short-lived magazine CURED from Zero Point Zero Production.

Darra Goldstein is the founding series editor for California Studies in Food and Culture and from 2002 to 2016 was the food editor for Russian Life magazine.

Darra Goldstein has served on a number of culinary diplomacy programs including as Cultural Envoy from the US Department of State to the Republic of Georgia and as a consultant on food and diversity for the Council of Europe along with other USAID and Council of Europe culinary projects.

Darra Goldstein has been honored as both a Distinguished Visiting Fellow in Food Studies at the Jackman Humanities Institute, University of Toronto and as a MacGeorge Fellow at the University of Melbourne in Australia.

Darra Goldstein's father was an organic chemist who specialized in wood and paper science.

The prize included a pewter bowl, which Darra Goldstein still has to this day, and a hundred cans of sardines, which Darra Goldstein remembers receiving in care packages while she was a student at Vassar College.

Darra Goldstein's interest in Russia traces back to her grandmother who was a Russian Jew.

Darra Goldstein spent her early academic career studying Russian modernist poetry, and she wrote a number of articles on and gave academic talks about Russian poets and artists such as Zabolotsky and Pavel Filonov.

Darra Goldstein pursued her interest in Russian art after Milo Beach, then chair of the art department at Williams College, encouraged her to apply for a Mellon Grant.

The course integrated close readings of Russian literature with a hands-on approach to Russian cuisine, enabling students to experience the intersection of the scholarly and experiential that Darra Goldstein finds crucial to the study of food.

Darra Goldstein consulted for the Russian Tea Room, organized several museum exhibitions, and published numerous books and exhibition catalogues.

Darra Goldstein advised the restaurant team about Russian culture and investigated bakeries around New York City to find one that could produce the dense, dark sourdough bread needed for a Russian meal.

Darra Goldstein consulted for the Council of Europe as part of an international group exploring ways in which food can be used to promote tolerance and diversity, serving as editor of Culinary Cultures of Europe: Identity, Diversity and Dialogue.

Darra Goldstein broadened her scholarship by publishing Fire and Ice, a cookbook of classic Nordic home cooking that was nominated for awards in 2016 by both the IACP and the James Beard Foundation.

Also in 2015, Darra Goldstein published the 900-page Oxford Companion to Sugar and Sweets, for which she served as editor-in-chief.

The first issue of Gastronomica appeared in 2001, and Darra Goldstein served as the magazine's founding editor and editor-in-chief from 2001 to 2012.

For many, Gastronomica is best known for its covers where Darra Goldstein blended her passions for art and food.

Darra Goldstein stepped down as editor-in-chief of Gastronomica at the end of 2012 when the University of California Press decided to cut its production budget.