Ramin Ganeshram (born June 21, 1968[1]) is an American journalist and culinary historian. She is known for her work in polycultural American history and historic foodways.
Ramin Ganeshram | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | June 21, 1968 New York City, U.S. |
| Occupation | Food Writer, Novelist, Nonprofit executive |
| Education | Institute of Culinary Education |
| Alma mater | Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism |
| Spouse | Jean Paul Vellotti (photojournalist) |
Early life and education
editGaneshram was born in New York City to an Trinidadian father and an Iranian mother. She attended Stuyvesant High School of Science and earned a master's degree in journalism from Columbia University, both in Manhattan. Later she trained at the Institute of Culinary Education[2] also in New York City, where she has also worked as a chef instructor.
Journalism career
editIn addition to contributing to a variety of major food publications, Ganeshram is the author of several cookbooks. She was as a reporter and writer on Molly O'Neill's magnum One Big Table (Simon & Schuster 2010).
Ganeshram has received multiple awards for food writing, an International Association of Culinary Professionals' Bert Greene culinary journalism nomination and Cookbook of the Year Award.[3]
In January 2010, she founded the charity Food 4 Haiti,[4] to raise money for the UN World Food Programme's effort in the earthquake ravaged Haiti.
Ganeshram's first work of fiction Stir It Up![5] focuses on a teen chef who gets a shot at cooking competition show on Food Network. Ganeshram has appeared on Food Network on the show Throwdown! with Bobby Flay and has made appearances on CNNfn, Good Day New York, and other news and lifestyle shows for both radio and television.[6]
Work as a nonprofit director and novelist
editSince 2018, Ganeshram has been the executive director of Westport Museum for History & Culture (formerly Westport Historical Society)[7][better source needed] in Westport, Connecticut, where she has emphasized an inclusive history, representative of people of color, immigrants, women and the LGBTQ community. In 2018-19 she curated the exhibit "Remembered: The History of African Americans" in Westport, that largely revealed the history of enslavement and racial injustice toward African Americans in the Fairfield County, Connecticut town. Artifacts in the exhibit include "shackles and a reconstructed crawl space where two girls, household slaves, might have slept."[8] The exhibit gained the museum awards from the Connecticut League of History Organizations; American Association for State & Local History, and the New England Museum Association.
In 2018, Ganeshram published The General's Cook: A Novel, (Skyhorse, NY) about Hercules Posey, the African-American chef enslaved by George & Martha Washington who self-emancipated in 1797. In early 2019, as reported by Craig LaBan of the Philadelphia Inquirer in March 2019, Ganeshram and her Westport Historical Society colleague Sara Krasne uncovered compelling evidence suggesting Hercules, who had never been seen again after 1801, in fact lived in New York City where he died on May 15, 1812.[9] The discovery offered never-before seen scholarship on Hercules—including his surname—that earned Ganeshram and the Museum praise from historians at Mount Vernon and the writer/historian Professor Erica Armstrong Dunbar, whose work also focused on Oney Judge, also enslaved by the Washington family.
See also
edit
References
edit- ^ "Happy Birthday To Westport's Ramin Ganeshram". Westport Daily Voice. 2014-06-21. Retrieved 2021-04-06.
- ^ "Unique Culinary Careers: Ramin Ganeshram | DICED: The Official Blog of ICE". Blog.iceculinary.com. Retrieved 2012-10-06.
- ^ "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2015-06-10. Retrieved 2015-06-10.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link) - ^ "Food 4 Haiti Westporter organizes event with help of 50 food celebs - Thehour.com: Arts And Life". Thehour.com. 2010-01-27. Retrieved 2012-10-06.
- ^ Ganeshram, Ramin (2011). Stir it up! : a novel (1st ed.). New York: Scholastic. ISBN 978-0-545-16582-2. OCLC 694833021.
- ^ "Bobby Flay loses spicy chicken wing throwdown to Colette Burnett of Super Wings NY". November 2010. Retrieved 28 March 2018.
- ^ "Westport Museum for History and Culture". Retrieved 2022-01-24.
- ^ Lang, Joel (2019-03-15). "Study of slavery in Westport hits home for both author and readers". Connecticut Post. Retrieved 2021-04-06.
- ^ George Washington's slave chef, who cooked in Philadelphia, disappears from painting, but may have reappeared in New York