Cynthia D. Bertelsen is an author and photographer with expertise in international culinary history and foodways.
Life and Education
Cynthia Bertelsen was born in Sacramento, California into a family of academics. She spent her early years in Pullman, Washington, later moving to Gainesville, Florida when her father took a position at the University of Florida
After graduating from Eckerd College with a B.A. in Latin American Studies, she joined the Peace Corps. She trained for her home economics posting in Ponce, Puerto Rico, before arriving in Fram, Paraguay, a village comprised of native Paraguayans, as well as Japanese and Ukrainian immigrants.
When she returned to the United States, Ms. Bertelsen earned a Master’s degree in history from the University of Wisconsin-River Falls and a Master’s degree in Human Nutrition & Foods from Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, Virginia. In 1994, she attended the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and received a Master’s degree in Library and Information Science.
She also attended several short courses at Le Cordon Bleu cooking school in Paris.
Work
Ms. Bertelsen worked as a nutritionist while living in Honduras, Haiti, Morocco, and Burkina Faso, where she also studied and cooked the cuisines of those countries and regions. In between stints in Morocco and Burkina Faso, she lived in Cedar Key, Florida, where she wrote 81 weekly food columns devoted to food history, “Thoughts of Food and Such,” for the local newspaper, The Cedar Key Beacon. While in Morocco, she wrote and produced a fund-raising international cookbook for the International school – The Communal Bowl: A Celebration of the World’s Food – and worked as a Peace Corps trainer on maternal and infant nutrition.
She managed the U.S. Embassy Commissary in Burkina Faso and trained local staff in a project to update and revitalize the American Club restaurant there.
For seven years after finishing library school, Ms. Bertelsen worked as a freelance indexer, specializing in food- and medical-related materials, indexing The Journal of the Dietetic Association as well as books such as Food: A Culinary History, edited by Jean-Louis Flandrin and Massimo Montanari. Altogether, she indexed over 350 books and journals.
She began writing her blog, “Gherkins & Tomatoes,” in 2008, covering all manner of culinary-history topics. Following the blog, she began contributing articles to food-related encyclopedias and reviewing books for Library Journal, DOMES (Digest of Middle Eastern Studies), Gastronomica, The New York Journal of Books, Food Culture & Society, and The Roanoke Times. For the latter, she reviewed 49 books. Bertelsen now writes occasional pieces for Modern Salt, a U.K. online magazine. Her first book, Mushroom: A Global History, appeared in 2013, published by Reaktion Books in the U.K.
Cynthia served as Associate Editor of Bacopa Literary Review in Gainesville, Florida for 2017 and 2018. She also acted as interim blogmaster for the Writers Alliance of Gainesville’s blog. Currently, she volunteers for Friends of the Library’s Book House book sale with the cookbooks table in Gainesville, FL.
Ms. Bertelsen lives in Gainesville, Florida.
Languages
English, French, Spanish, Guaraní, Italian, Portuguese, Latin.
Awards
Julia Child Independent Scholar grant in 2011: spent a month in Paris and Aix-en-Provence, researching at the Bibliothèque Nationale de France and Archives Nationales d’Outre-Mer
Scholar’s Grant from the Culinary Historians of New York, 2011
Reading Historic Cookbooks seminar by invitation with Barbara Ketchum Wheaton, Schlesinger Library, Harvard, May 2011
Gourmand World Cookbook Awards, “A Hastiness of Cooks,” Best in the USA and the World in the Culinary History category, 2020
Next Generation Indie Book Awards, Meatballs & Lefse, Finalist, Lifestyle/Cooking/How-To/Home, 2021
Gourmand World Cookbook Awards, Stoves & Suitcases, Best in the USA and the World in the Food Writing Category, 2022
President’s Book Awards Silver Medalist, Stoves & Suitcases, Florida Authors and Publishers Association, 2022
President’s Book Awards Silver Medalist, Meatballs & Lefse, Florida Authors and Publishers Association, 2022
President’s Book Awards Silver Medalist, Take a Goose or a Duck, Florida Authors and Publishers Association, 2023
Gourmand World Cookbook Awards, Take a Goose or a Duck, Best in the USA and the World, Cookbook History and Writing, 2023
President’s Book Awards Bronze Medalist, Mangoes & Roosters, Florida Authors and Publishers Association, 2023
Semi-Finalist, Royal Palm Literary Awards, Florida Writers Association, Mangoes & Roosters, 2023
President’s Book Awards Finalist/ Bronze Medalist, Dispatches from a Kitchen Table, Florida Authors and Publishers Association 2024.
Finalist, Royal Palm Literary Awards, Florida Writers Association, Dispatches from a Kitchen Table, 2024.
Memberships
American Historical Association
PEN America Professional Member
Publications
Books
Season of the Wolf: A Riveting Saga Set in World War II France. Turquoise Moon Press, Fall 2024.
Dispatches from a Kitchen Table, Turquoise Moon Press, Spring 2023.
Mangoes & Roosters: Stories and Tales of Haiti. Turquoise Moon Press, Fall 2022.
Take a Goose or a Duck: Eclectic Essays on English Cooking Through the Ages. Turquoise Moon Press, Spring 2022.
Stoves & Suitcases: Searching for Home in the World’s Kitchens. Turquoise Moon Press, 2021.
Meatballs & Lefse: Memories and Recipes from a Scandinavian-American Farming Life. Turquoise Moon Press, 2020.
Wisdom Soaked in Palm Oil: Journeying Through the Food and Flavors of Africa. Turquoise Moon Press, 2020.
“A Hastiness of Cooks: A Practical Handbook for Use in Deciphering the Mysteries of Historic Recipes and Cookbooks, For Living-History Reenactors, Historians, Writers, Chefs, Archaeologists, and, of Course, Cooks. Turquoise Moon Press, 2019.
In the Shadow of Ravens: A Novel. Turquoise Moon Press, 2019.
Mushroom: A Global History, Reaktion Books (U.K.), September 2013.
Chapters in Books
“Market Day, Haiti.” In: So Spoke the Earth: The Haiti I Knew, The Haiti I know, The Haiti I Want to Know. Edited and published by Women Writers of Haitian Descent, Inc. October 2012.
“International Affairs: Indexing Ethnic Cookbooks.” In: Indexing Specialties: Cookbooks, edited by Alexandra Nickerson, Fred Liese, and Terri Hudoba. Information Today, 2009.
Handbook of Indexing Techniques: A Guide for Beginning Indexers, with Linda Fetters and Do Mi Stauber. 3rd Edition. FimCo Books, 2001.
“Indexing Food and Nutrition Materials.” In: Medical Indexing: Indexing Specialties Series, edited by L. Pilar Wyman. Information Today & American Society of Indexers, 1999.
The Communal Bowl: A Celebration of the World’s Food, Rabat American School, Rabat, Morocco, 1990. (Fundraising cookbook for school.)
Articles Published in Print and Online
“Saying Goodbye to My Mother: Dealing with the Stuff of Death.” Medium, June 11, 2024.
” Why Do We Cook? What Does it Mean to Cook?” Medium, May 8, 2024.
“About French Cooking – It’s Not All Haute: Dispelling the Myths.” Medium, April 22, 2024.
“Eating Green: Becoming Vegetarian is Nothing New.” Medium, April 7, 2024.
“The Power and Glory of Dining Alone: Women Eating Alone in the Day and Age.” Medium, March 25, 2024.
“There’s Always Paris: A Reaction to the TV Series ‘Emily in Paris.'” Medium, March 16, 2024.
“My First Real Job. And Why I Quit.” Medium, March 9, 2024.
“Coco Chanel, Eternal Fashion Icon or Nazi Collaborator? Medium, February 28, 2024.
“The Art of Writing History: A Satirical Approach.” Medium, February 17, 2024.
“The Women – A Vietnam Saga.” Medium, February 10, 2024.
“A Little Side Trip to the Dordogne/Périgord.” Medium, February 6, 2024.
“Adventures at the DMV*: Stopping an Older Adult from Driving in a Culture Founded on Rugged Individualism.” Medium, January 29, 2024.
“‘We’ll Always have Paris’: Memories are Made of Many Things.” Medium, January 19, 2024.
“The End Times: When a Parent is Dying.” Medium, January 13, 2024.
“What Scares me More than Stephen King’s ‘The Shining.'” Medium, January 13, 2024.
“The Beans are In: A Family Tale.” Medium, December 31, 2023.
“Facing Evil, Surviving Evil.” Medium, December 1, 2023.
“A Different Slant: A German Officer in Occupied Paris, 1940-1944.” Medium, November 17, 2023.
“Losing It: An Ongoing Encounter with Dementia.” Medium, November 12, 2023.
“A.J. Liebling’s Appetite for Paris.” Medium, November 10, 2023.
“Lessons from World War II for Today.” Medium, October 27, 2023.
“Why My Muse is Clio, the Ancient Goddess of History.” Medium, October 17, 2023.
“The Mythical Aura of Paris.” Medium, October 2, 2023.
“A Meditation on The Nightingale: A Novel, by Kristin Hannah.” Medium, August 15, 2023.
“Proverbs and Idioms: Tools for Writers.” Hogtowne Quill, May 10, 2023.
“How Bibliographies Benefit All Writers.” Hogtowne Quill, March 29, 2023.
“Do You Dare? Writing about Still-Living People in Your Memoir,” Hogtowne Quill, March 1, 2023.
“Self-Publishing Your Book? How Not to Look Like an Amateur (Part 2),” Hogtowne Quill, February 15, 2023.
“Self-Publishing Your Book? How to Not Look Like an Amateur (Part 1),” Hogtowne Quill, February 1, 2023.
“Reasons to Write (Hint: Money is Not the Answer),” Hogtowne Quill, November 2, 2022.
“So, You Want to Write a Historical Novel? Story? Play? 4 Research Tips to Get You Started,” Hogtowne Quill, September 14, 2022.
“The Artist Date: A Crucial Tool for Writers,” Hogtowne Quill, August 17, 2022.
“At a Loss for a Word: Above and Beyond the Thesaurus,” Hogtowe Quill, July 6, 2022.
“What We Talk About When We Talk about Food Writing,” Hogtowne Quill, Jun 29, 2022
“Re-Vision,” Hogtowne Quill, June 15, 2022.
“Book Reviewing: Literary Criticism or Hatchet Job?,” Hogtowne Quill, May 4, 2022.
“Simple Editing: A Checklist,” Hogtowne Quill, March 9, 2022.
“Recipe for Success: Blogging for WAG (and Beyond),” Hogtowne Quill, February 9, 2022.
“Give the Gift that Keeps on Giving: Share Your Expertise,” Hogtowne Quill, December 15, 2021.
“Why I Write,” Hogtowne Quill, December 1, 2021.
“The Courage to Write,” Hogtowne Quill, November 17, 2021.
“Becoming a Writer,” Hogtowne Quill, November 3, 2021.
“If You Want to Write,” Hogtowne Quill, October 6, 2021.
“Colors of Survival.” The Tishman Review, 2018.
“The Fish Shack.” Saw Palm, Volume 12, Spring 2018.
“Avoid Cringeworthy Culinary Anachronisms,” Hogtowne Quill, January 17, 2018.
“Revisiting the Loneliness of the Long-Distance Writer,” Creative Nonfiction, Issue #65, Fall 2017.
“Eating Flowers, Eating Beauty.” Modern Salt, October 1, 2017.
“10 Painful Truth about Writing.” Writers Alliance of Gainesville Blog, September 6, 2017.
“Stone Crabs.” Modern Salt, May 15, 2017.
“Wonder Bread and Velveeta – My Summer Cooking at the American Pompeii.” Modern Salt, October 8, 2016.
“Madhur Jaffrey’s ‘Vegetarian India: A Journey through the Best of Indian Home Cooking.“Modern Salt, August 13, 1026.
“Edna Lewis and the Mythology Behind Modern Southern Food.” Modern Salt, June 19, 2016.
“Describing Seething Meat in the New World.” The Recipes Project, June 16, 2016.
“Picturing Seething Meat in the New World.” The Recipes Project, June 14, 2016.
“A Cookbook, Two Cooks, and A President.” Modern Salt, April 30, 2016.
“Mail Call – The 100-Mile Cookbook.” Modern Salt, April 2, 2016.
“For English Girls in the Eastern Empire … .” The Recipes Project, February 9, 2016.
“Moonshine! The Drink of Legends and Outlaws.” Modern Salt, January 4 2016.
“Jumbles: Cookies that Travelled Across an Ocean and Through Time.” Modern Salt, January 16, 2016.
“My Kitchen Year: 136 Recipes that Saved My life.” (Review) Modern Salt, November 29, 2015.
“Xerophthalmia,” in Food Issues: An Encyclopedia, Sage Publications, July 2015.
“Minerals,” in Food Issues: An Encyclopedia, Sage Publications, July 2015.
“Seventh-Day Adventist Foodways,” in Food Issues: An Encyclopedia, Sage Publications, July 2015.
“Cassava: The Sleeping Beauty of the African Kitchen.” Zester Daily, March 6, 2015.
“Peanuts Add West African Flare to Dinner.” Zester Daily, February 5, 2015.
“Vin d’Orange: Sweet Sunshine in a Wine Glass.” Zester Daily, December 16, 2014.
“High Living: Recipes from Southern Climes,” In: Plate by Plate: California Recipes from the Gold Rush through “California Cuisine.” Edited by Randall Tarpey-Schwed. Book Club of California, 2014.
“Around the World in 27 Cookbooks: Time-Life’s Foods of the World Series,” Repast, Fall 2014, pp. 2, 14-17.
“Southern-Style Holidays: Butter It. Fry It. Pickle It.” Zester Daily, October 18, 2014.
“The Pies Have It: An Ode to the Pumpkin.” Zester Daily, October 22, 2014.
“Find Southern Comfort in Crookneck Squash Gratin,” Zester Daily, September 26, 2014.
Jean-Georges Vonerichten, in Oxford Encyclopedia of Food and Drink in America, 2nd edition, 2012.
“Daily Life Through Cooking and Cookbooks: A Brief Guide to Using Cookbooks as Tools in Historical Archaeology,” Artifact, November 2012.
“Diana Kennedy,” in Icons of American Cooking, edited by Victor W. Geraci and Elizabeth Demers, 2011.
“Haiti,” in Food Cultures of the World Encyclopedia, edited by Ken Albala, Greenwood press, 2011.
“Honduras,” in Food Cultures of the World Encyclopedia, edited by Ken Albala, Greenwood press, 2011.
“A Greedy Woman: The Long, Delicious Shelf Life of Elizabeth Robins Pennell,” Fine Books Magazine, August 2009.
“Aztec Entertaining,” in Entertaining from Ancient Rome to the Super Bowl: An Encyclopedia, edited by Melitta Weiss Adamson and Francine Segan, Greenwood Press, 2008.
“Colonial Mexico,” in Entertaining from Ancient Rome to the Super Bowl: An Encyclopedia, edited by Melitta Weiss Adamson and Francine Segan, Greenwood Press, 2008.
“Cookbooks, History of,” in Entertaining from Ancient Rome to the Super Bowl: An Encyclopedia, edited by Melitta Weiss Adamson and Francine Segan, Greenwood Press, 2008.
“Inca,” in Entertaining from Ancient Rome to the Super Bowl: An Encyclopedia, edited by Melitta Weiss Adamson and Francine Segan, Greenwood Press, 2008.
“Saints’ Days,” in Entertaining from Ancient Rome to the Super Bowl: An Encyclopedia, edited by Melitta Weiss Adamson and Francine Segan, Greenwood Press, 2008.
“The Politics of AIDS: The Invisible Cure,” National Catholic Reporter, October 31, 2007.
“Novelists Train Their Sights on Islamic Terrorism,” National Catholic Reporter, October 6, 2006.
“Vincent van Gogh and starvation,” The Virginia Culinary Thymes, Spring 2006.
“Culinary historiography, or methodology in writing culinary history,” The Virginia Culinary Thymes. Winter 2005.
“Julia Child: America’s Bright Shining Star,” The Roanoke Times, August 18, 2004.
“AIDS in Africa: ‘Mass Murder by Complacency?,’” The Roanoke Times, 2004. “Far from desperate in Iraq,” The Roanoke Times, November 7, op-ed page 7, 2003.
“Now let’s reach out to the rest of the world,” The Roanoke Times, December 18, op-ed page 9, 2003.
“Now pass the pigweed, that is if there’s any more in the gourd,” with Barbara A. Purdy. The Daytona Beach News-Journal. December 16, 5A, 2003.
“Piece of Cake? Cookbook Indexing: Basic Guidelines and Resources,” KEY WORDS. 7(1): 1, 6-12, 1999.
“Indexing Food and Nutrition Materials,” in Medical Indexing: Indexing Specialties Series. American Society of Indexers, 1999.
“Medical Reference Tools for Indexers,” in Medical Indexing: Indexing Specialties Series. American Society of Indexers, 1999.
“Indexing Chinese Names: Some Basic Guidelines,” KEY WORDS 6(1): 16-17, 1998.
“Coming to Terms: Humanities Reference Tools for Indexers,” KEY WORDS 5(5): 11-15, 1997.
“Coming to Terms: Science and Technology Reference Resources for Indexers,” KEY WORDS 5(3&4): 30-33, 1997.
“Coming to Terms: Social Science Reference Tools for Indexers,” KEY WORDS 5 (3&4): 26-29, 1997.
“Coming to Terms: Medical Reference Tools for Indexers,” KEY WORDS 5(1): 7-9, 1997.
“Thoughts of Food and Such.” Cedar Key Beacon, Cedar Key, FL. (81 weekly columns on food history and nutrition) 1990-1991)
Selected Book Reviews
Reviews – a total of 49 written for The Roanoke Times appear at The Book Omnivore.
Plus several dozen mini-reviews written for Library Journal from 1995 -2000.
Seventeen reviews on French culture and food appeared in The New York Journal of Books between 2011 and 2012.
Defiance of the Patriots: The Boston Tea Party & the Making of America, by Benjamin L. Carp, Gastronomica 12(1): 119 – 120, Spring 2012.
Taste or Taboo: Dietary Choices in Antiquity, by Michael Beer, Food Culture & Society 14 (4): 613 – 616, December 2011.
Empires of Food: Feast, Famine, and the Rise and Fall of Civilization, by Evan D. G. Frasier and Andrew Rimas, Culinary Historians of New York newsletter, Fall 2011.
Every Home a Distillery: Alcohol, Gender, and Technology in the Colonial Chesapeake, by Sarah Hand Meacham, Gastronomica, 11(3): 108, August 1, 2011.
Flavours of Byzantium, by Andrew Dalby, Culinary Historians of New York newsletter, Fall 2010.
Medieval Cuisine of the Islamic World, by Lilia Zaouli, Food Culture & Society 12(1): 117 -120, March 2009.
Mrs. Charles Darwin’s Recipe Book, by Dusha Bateson and Weslie Janeway, Culinary Historians of New York newsletter, Fall 2009.
The Age of American Unreason, by Susan Jacoby, National Catholic Reporter, May 2, 2008.
Do You Believe? Conversations on God and Religion, by Antonio Monda, National Catholic Reporter, February 8, 2008.
Women in God’s Kitchen: Cooking Eating and Spiritual Writing, by Cristina Mazzoni, National Catholic Reporter, February 10, 2006.
The Penguin Historical Atlas of Ancient Egypt, by Bill Manley, Digest of Middle Eastern Studies 7(1): 88 -89, Winter 1998.
Arab Women: Unequal Partners in Development, by Shirin J. A. Shuki, in Digest of Middle Eastern Studies 6(2): 65 – 67, Spring 1997.
The Bedouins and the Desert: Aspects of Nomadic Life in the Arab East, by Jibrail S. Jabbur, in Digest of Middle Eastern Studies 5(4): 78 -81, Fall 1996.
Culinary Cultures of the Middle East, by Sami Zubaida and Richard Tapper, Digest of Middle Eastern Studies 4(3): 93 – 97, Summer 1995.
Websites
Gherkins & Tomatoes: Cynthia D. Bertelsen’s Musings on Nature and Culture, Since 2008