AuthenticFood.com™
Not Just
Another
Food Blog...
At AuthenticFood.com we believe that the exploration of food is more than just recipes and nutritional information, it is about social experiences and history. Food provides a channel to understand collective identities through social interactions. These social interactions can construct concepts like authentic food.
Our Mission
At AuthenticFood.com™, our mission is to explore and document the evolving meaning of authentic food across cultures. Through global fieldwork, storytelling, curated experiences, and original documentaries, we amplify the voices of cooks, chefs, farmers, scholars, and restaurateurs to preserve food traditions and spark conversation about how authenticity is created, challenged, and shared.
Our
Story
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Our
Founder
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DR. JANNA M. TAMARGO
Our
Story
After traveling to over 40 countries across all 7 continents, Janna Tamargo's passion for food and culture deepened. A pivotal dining experience in Milan, where she shared a table with strangers, ignited her curiosity about food’s role in building social connections. This interest took her to Istanbul, where she studied the sociology of food at Boğaziçi University, focusing on the evolving concept of authenticity in meyhane culture.
She became fascinated by the evolving concept of authenticity, particularly within the context of Istanbul's meyhane culture that has existed for over 100 years. This exploration of how food intertwines with social, political, and economic factors further inspired her to pursue a PhD in sociology at the University of Florida, focusing on food, culture, and authenticity.
Janna founded AuthenticFood.com as a platform to document the exploration of authentic dining experiences and challenge preconceived notions of what "authentic" food truly means; focusing on the fluidity of authenticity and its importance in understanding culinary culture beyond mere taste.
Her research has gained international recognition, including winning a prestigious scholar award for her study on meyhane, a type of restaurant in Turkey that has existed since the Byzantine era. Her work has been featured in Rolling Stone Italia, and she has also researched authenticity in 70 Italian restaurants across Florida. Her global fieldwork continues to shape her insights into the intersection of food, culture, and authenticity.
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ABOUT US
At AuthenticFood.com™, we collaborate with writers, photographers, and researchers from around the world who share our passion for food as culture. Our contributors bring deep local knowledge and unique perspectives to uncover meaningful stories—whether it’s a centuries-old cooking tradition, a disappearing dish, or the people reshaping food culture today. We prioritize narrative-rich storytelling and immersive visuals that celebrate food not just as something we eat, but as something that connects us.
CONTRIBUTORS
