Introduction: An Edible Lieu de Mémoire: Food, Memory and Oral History in Practice, in Culinary Chronicles: Oral Histories of Food Mobility and Belonging

This edited volume brings together a collection of oral histories that explore how food carries memory across generations, geographies, and histories. Centered on interviews with elders, the chapters trace various journeys from Italy to Switzerland, Bulgaria to Turkey, and across regions of India, revealing how migration, war, gender roles, and political upheaval shape culinary practices. From antifascist pastasciutta to Maharashtrian home cooking, each contribution shows how recipes, kitchen spaces, and shared meals function as living archives of resilience and belonging. Blending scholarly insight with creative expression, the book positions food as both intimate memory and collective history, inviting readers to see their own family tables as sites of remembrance.