Faculty

Krishnendu Ray

Assistant Professor of Nutrition and Food Studies

Phone: 212 998 5580
Email:

Krishnendu Ray received his Ph.D. in Sociology from SUNY Binghamton in 2001.  He also holds a master’s degree in Political Science from Delhi University, India, and a master’s degree in Sociology from SUNY, Binghamton, USA.  Prior to joining the NYU faculty in 2005, Krishnendu was a faculty member and an Associate Dean for Curriculum Development at The Culinary Institute of America (CIA) from 1996.

A food studies scholar with interests in the social, historical and cultural contexts of food, he is the author of The Migrant’s Table: Meals and Memories in Bengali-American Households (Temple University, 2004), as well as several chapters such as "Exotic Restaurants and Expatriate Home Cooking" in David Inglis and Debra Gimlin, eds., The Globalization of Food (Oxford: Berg, 2009), and articles such as “Nation and Cuisine: The Evidence from American Newspapers ca. 1830-2003,” Food & Foodways, 16, 4 (August 2008): 259-297, “Domesticating Cuisine: Food and Aesthetics on American Television,” Gastronomica 7, 1 (Winter 2007): 50-63, “Ethnic Succession and the New American Restaurant Cuisine,” in David Beriss and David Sutton, eds., The Restaurants Book: Ethnographies of Where we Eat (Oxford: Berg Publishers, 2007), and “Why do Ethnic Restaurants Have Terrible Service?” (2003). 

He is currently working on his next book-length project tentatively titled "Taste, Toil and Ethnicity."  He serves on the editorial board of the journal Food, Culture & Society.


Degrees Held

  • B.A. Delhi University
    Political Science
  • M.A. Sociology
  • Ph.D. Sociology

Publications

  • "Dreams of Pakistani Grill and Vada Pao in Manhattan: Reinscribing the Immigrant in Metropolitan Discussions of Taste." Food, Culture & Society vol. 13. no. 4 (December 2010).
  • "A Taste for Ethnic Difference: American Gustatory Imagination in a Globalizing World." In Globalization, Food and Social Identities in the Asia Pacific Region, ed., James Farrar (Tokyo: Sophia University Institute of Comparative Culture, 2010). (link)
  • "Nation and Cuisine: The Evidence from American Newspapers ca. 1830-2003," Food & Foodways, 16, 4 (August 2008): 259-297.
  • "Domesticating Cuisine: Food and Aesthetics on American Television," Gastronomica, 7, 1 (Winter 2007): pp. 50-64.
  • "Ethnic Succession and the New American Restaurant Cuisine," in David Beriss and David Sutton, eds., The Restaurants Book: Ethnographies of Where we Eat (Oxford: Berg Publishers, 2007).
  • "Making the Edible Legible. The Invention of French Cuisine." A Review of Priscilla Parkhurst Ferguson's "Accounting for Taste" in "Social Forces" 84, 1, pp. 616-18.
  • "Ethnic Succession: A Review Essay." In "Food, Culture and Society" 8,1, (Spring), pp. 124-131.
  • The Migrant's Table: Meals and Memories in Bengali-American Households (link)
  • "Political Economy of Food." Contribution to Scribner's Encyclopedia of Food.
  • "Indian-American Food," in Oxford Encyclopedia of American Food
  • "Why Do Ethnic Eateries Have Terrible Service?" Gastronomica (Summer 2003), pp. 3-5.
  • "Smellscapes of our Pasts. A review essay." Newsletter of ASFS
  • "What I learned from MFK Fisher about living after 9/11." Gastronomica, (August )
  • "Why isn't Irish food hip? A review essay." Newsletter of ASFS
  • A Review of Alan Richman's "Fork it Over", Gastronomica

Awards

  • Excellence in Teaching, NYU
  • Excellence in Teaching, CIA
  • Excellence in Teaching, SUNY Binghamton
  • NYU Humanities Institute Grant -- Food for Thought
  • NYU Institute for Public Knowledge Grant -- Menus in the Media
  • NYU Curriculum Development Challenge Grant -- Food Systems Curriculum
  • Distinguished Dissertation Award
  • Co-Winner of the American Sociological Association's PEWS Book Award
  • University Grant's Commission, India, National Research Fellow
  • Gold Medal/Valedictorian Master of Arts, Delhi University, India

Courses

  • Contemporary Issues in Food Studies
  • Theoretical Perspectives in Food Studies
  • Food & Nutrition in a Global Society

 

Editorial Boards

  • Since 2004: Food, Culture and Society, Editorial Board Member

Research Interests

  • He is currently working on his next book-length project tentatively titled "Taste, Toil and Ethnicity."