Dr. Amy Trubek Amy Trubek is Chair and Professor in the Nutrition and Food Science department at the University of Vermont Trained as a cultural anthropologist and chef, her research interests include the history of the culinary profession, globalization of the food supply, the relationship between taste and place, and cooking as a cultural practice. She teaches both undergraduate and graduate courses, including Basic Concepts of Food, Qualitative Research Methods and Food Systems, Society and Policy.

Dr. Trubek is involved in two long-term research initiatives, one on the taste of place and the other on cooking as a skillful practice. The taste of place research presently involves looking at the sensory experience of tasting and evaluating artisan products from Vermont with the goal of helping producers, consumers and policymakers better understand the qualities and quality of place-based food and drink. She is hard at work transforming her research on cooking as a skillful practice into a book manuscript. She is also collaborating with Cynthia Belliveau, Lisa Heldke and Jonathan Deutsch on a food, cooking and pedagogy project. Amy lives with her family on an heirloom apple orchard, where they make fresh cider, hard cider, and ice cider, and pick lots of fresh apples, pears and plums.

Amy: "My fascination with all things culinary began in childhood. I used to watch Julia Child on public television with my mother on a weekend morning. Afterwards we would often go to the kitchen and try to make a dish or even a meal from Mastering the Art of French Cooking, an amazing culinary tome that Child wrote with Simone Beck and Louisette Bertholle. In high school I started a small catering business with a friend and worked at a great local restaurant, making cookies and bars and spending time with the quirky characters (cooks and customers) that came in and out each day. From that time on, I knew exploring food and cooking were going to be major parts of my life."