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Porridge people: the heirloom grains of the past are fueling the porridge revolution of the present

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Porridge people: the heirloom grains of the past are fueling the porridge revolution of the present

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Content PORRIDGE PEOPLE:
THE HEIRLOOM GRAINS OF THE PAST ARE FUELING THE PORRIDGE REVOLUTION
OF THE PRESENT
by
Olivia Dansky
A Thesis Presented to the
FACULTY OF THE USC ANNENBERG SCHOOL
UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
In Partial Fulfillment of the
Requirements for the Degree
MASTER OF ARTS
(SPECIALIZED JOURNALISM)
May 2024
Copyright 2024 Olivia Dansky

ii
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Abstract……………………………………………………………………………………….…..iii
Introduction………………………………………………………………………………………..1
Chapter 1: Heirloom Corn……..………………………………………………………………….6
Chapter 2: Heirloom Rice…………………………………………………………..………..…..11
Bibliography……………………………………………………………………………………..17

iii
Abstract
Porridge is a universal language with its uncanny ability to transcend culture, socioeconomic status and geography. Made from a grain, pulse or vegetable mixed with a liquid, its
simplicity belies its importance as a vital form of sustenance and source of protein for all peoples
throughout time. While it has historically had a reputation of dull practicality, newfound
attention in recent years has elevated it to something of a worldwide trend.
This shift in perception is, in large part, due to a renewed interest in heirloom grains in
the United States and beyond. While the term has no exact definition within the culinary world,
the general idea is that a grain qualifies as heirloom if it has existed without genetic modification
for at least 100 years. Yielding far less than their hybrid counterparts, what heirloom grains lack
in quantity, they make up for in diversity of flavor, texture, color and nutritional composition.
Whether it is made from oats or lentils, corn or rice, porridge is an important tool for
understanding where we came from and where we are going. It built empires, fed nations and
sustained an entire world of people. And thanks to the increasing popularity of the heirloom
grain movement, porridge tastes better than ever.

1
Introduction
The packaged oats were instant, the flavor was dominated by an amount of brown sugar
bordering on the obscene and the fun came in the form of the dinosaur sprinkles nestled inside
egg-shaped blobs of what I want to say was hardened marshmallow. The idea was simplicity
itself: hot water would simultaneously hydrate the oats and melt the egg blobs, hatching cutesy
Tyrannosaurus rexes perpetually caught in roars of greeting, and the horned heads and bulbous
bodies of Triceratopses frozen in rictuses of feigned friendliness. It was a Jurassic adventure with
the added benefit of whole grains.
In other words, a bowl of Quaker’s Dinosaur Eggs was a bowl of sticky-sweet magic.
My mornings came to revolve around the big green box with its little brown oatmeal
packets. Think of Dinosaur Eggs as my entrée into the wholesome world of oats — steel-cut,
rolled, milked and floured. From oats, I would eventually expand outward, dabbling with the
likes of grits and atoles, arroz caldos and joks, dals and upmas. Oats were my beginning, and
there is no end in sight.
“If we do it well enough, everything is porridge,” said Glenn Roberts, founder of Anson
Mills. “You can’t make bread unless you make porridge because the best breads are highhydration. Even though we’re breaking the rules to say it, you’re making a porridge out of grapes
to make wine. It’s about mashing things up in order to get higher nutrition and more flavor.”1

While my moment of enlightenment came by way of oats and dinosaurs and sugar,
Roberts found his in a truly terrible bowl of corn grits in Charleston, South Carolina in 1996.
Dissatisfied with the quality of the grains being sold on the market, he set out to grow his own.
1 Roberts, Glenn. Phone Interview. January 20, 2024.

2
Across the globe in southern China, it was a life-altering bowl of black rice congee in the
1990s that led Ken Lee and Caryl Levine to found what would eventually become Lotus Foods
out of Richmond, California. Rice, through that single serving of congee, became the lodestone
by which they would orient their lives and devote their careers.
With an uncanny ability to transcend culture, social class and geography, porridge is both
a universal language and a permanent fixture in every cuisine. The histories of peoples and
places are hidden among these grains and groats. And while its subtlety and ubiquity have
historically given porridge a reputation of dull practicality, newfound attention in recent years
has elevated the dish to something of a worldwide trend that appeals to all social classes.
The excitement rolling off of chef Minh Phan as she debated the merits of homemade
stock versus filtered water when cooking porridge was intense enough to heat the bubble of air
surrounding our tiny two-person table at Friends & Family in East Hollywood. Situated as we
were by the door, which was constantly swinging open to admit a steady stream of diners and
frigid gusts of January wind, the extra warmth was welcome.
As the owner of Porridge + Puffs in Hollywood, Phan is deeply familiar with the
porridge-making process. Bolstered by an intense devotion to the dish, she declared that for the
luckiest people in life, their “first bite will be of warm porridge and their last bite, when their
teeth have fallen out due to advanced age, will be warm porridge.” And with a smile on her face,
she added: “What other food can you say this about?”2
Within every bowl, Phan sees an entire ecosystem of farming, foraging and fermentation.
She sees endless opportunities for creativity and sustainability. And she is right. Porridge can be
an incredible everything-but-the-kitchen-sink meal, which is a particular boon to professional
2 Phan, Minh. In-Person Interview. January 5, 2024.

3
kitchens where margins are slim and food waste is antithetical to survival. In porridge, papery
onion skins, broken rice grain and other kitchen scraps find a new home and renewed purpose.
“We can really help the environment if we can understand that porridge is a great pantry
item,” Phan said. “Porridge is a means of reducing waste as much as it is a means of celebrating
nuance and culture. There are no limitations.”3
The idea came to her at the Hollywood Farmers Market in the early 2010s where she
envisioned turning “seconds” — imperfect or leftover fruits and vegetables — into a viable
restaurant. Phan sourced her rice from Koda Farms out of the California Central Valley town of
Dos Palos and her vegetables from farmers market leftovers, and proceeded to design dishes
meant to celebrate these ingredients. Her efforts resulted in Porridge + Puffs, which burst onto
the restaurant scene in 2014 with a menu of lacto-fermented pickles, savory jams, braised meats
and fried dough for dipping, which she called puffs.
“I’m Vietnamese, so when we eat porridge, we usually have a piece of bread or youtiao
with it,” Phan said. “I made my version of puffs with the same materials as the porridge. What I
wanted to do with this project was deep-dive grains and liquid, which is all porridge is.”4
Her restaurant met with almost immediate success after famed critic Jonathan Gold wrote
a glowing review in the Los Angeles Times in 2014:
“The porridge is prepared with the obsessive care that the hairy-chested kitchens devote
to charcuterie and is served in flights as if rare vintages of Montrachet. It is easy to laugh
at the idea of a porridge-intensive restaurant until you taste a spoonful of the rice porridge
with pickles and jam: an arrangement of herbs, fermented mustard greens and a spoonful
of a sharp, lemongrass-infused chile condiment as dazzling in its complexity as anything
coming out of the most famous kitchens in town.”
5
3 Phan, Minh. In-Person Interview. January 5, 2024.
4
Ibid.
5
Jonathan Gold, “Review: At Porridge and Puffs, spoonfuls of devotion in every bowl,” Los Angeles Times.
December 12, 2015, https://www.latimes.com/food/la-fo-gold-porridge-20141213-story.html.

4
The local and global interest in this little porridge shop was shocking to Phan in its
intensity and tiring in its unceasing popularity. She is now taking a much-needed break from the
hustle and bustle of restaurant life and is devoting her time to other artistic pursuits. Phan might
return to porridge, or she might not. Either way, hers is a business model worth replicating. It
emphasized sustainability by reducing food waste, championed flavor by exploring ferments and
pickles and invested in simple quality by utilizing heirloom rice.
Porridge + Puffs is just one example of the porridge revolution sweeping the globe. In
1994, residents of Carrbridge, Scotland established the Golden Spurtle World Porridge Making
Championship. Three decades later, hundreds of spectators still flock to the little town to watch
competitors from around the world rhapsodize about steel-cut oats and debate water-to-oat ratios.
The winners are gifted a literal golden spurtle, a 15th Century Scottish dowel-shaped rod
invented to aid in the stirring of porridge.
Before its closure due to the COVID-19 pandemic, OatMeals, a tiny shack of a restaurant
in Greenwich Village, dished out more than 30 combinations of sweet and savory bowls of
oatmeal to hungry New Yorkers. The café survived for nearly 10 years, from 2012 to 2021, an
impressive feat for any business in The Big Apple.
Meanwhile, across the Atlantic Ocean, Neal’s Yard in London’s Covent Garden
neighborhood has played host to porridge restaurant 26 Grains since 2015. Owner Alex HelyHutchinson’s focus on seasonal produce and an impressively diverse roster of grains has earned
the café a cult-like following and a devoted fan base.
Travel from London to Copenhagen and you are likely to come across GRØD. Opened in
2011, this porridge bar specializes in everything from risottos to congees. It has since expanded
across Denmark with nine locations and counting.

5
If you were to leave Europe and head into Asia, rice-based porridge restaurants dominate.
From Mui Kee, which has operated since 1979 in Hong Kong, to Singapore’s Eminent Frog
Porridge & Seafood with its Michelin Bib Gourmand status, porridge is both celebrated and
sought out across the continent.
I could continue cataloging the people and places that exist to spread the porridge gospel,
but it would be the work of a lifetime. It is enough to say that this list could be expanded to
include every inhabited region in the world.
Naturally, a good porridge is inextricably linked to the quality of its ingredients. The two
entities go hand-in-hand. It follows that superior seedstock is a necessary first step in this circle,
and that the road to improving one has invariably impacted the other. As such, this porridge
renaissance, particularly in the United States, has blossomed alongside the purposeful revival of
heirloom grains. The lengthier explanation of agricultural policies and seed varieties will come in
later sections, but it is enough to know that culinarians are more interested in grains because
those available to them are more interesting. The movement has also allowed us to preserve our
history — both the good and the bad — and make the agricultural industry more equitable by
putting money and control back in the hands of smallholder farmers.
Whether it is made from oats or lentils or corn or rice, porridge is an important tool for
understanding where we came from and where we are going. It built empires, fed nations and
sustained an entire world of people.
While most grains have undergone a similar overhaul of agricultural practices, corn and
rice, as two of the most important staple foods in the world, have been at the forefront of these
movements. As such, they will be the focus of the next two sections.

6
Chapter 1: Heirloom Corn
It was with an air of forced naiveté that I, a Coloradan by birth, committed to a one-year
fellowship in Birmingham, Alabama. One year slipped away into four, but the surreal quality of
my time living and working in the Deep South never faded. I was a tourist in my own country; a
stranger who could never quite accustom myself to the humidity or to the looming presence of
the church. I quickly discovered that immersing myself in the local food scene was the best way
to keep the homesickness at bay. It was just familiar enough to provide a sense of comfort but
still foreign enough to excite me.
It was our first morning in Birmingham, and my mom and I were gearing up for a long
day of apartment hunting. I had read about a place near the airport that was supposedly one of
the best breakfast joints in the city, so there we went. I ordered the cheesy grits with a fried egg,
Conecuh sausage and greens, most likely collard. After that meal, the terror I felt in the wake of
my decision to move to this place I had never been before seemed just a little less all-consuming.
The grits were comfort in a bowl. Cheesy, greasy, squishy comfort. The best kind there is.
The menu helpfully identified the corn’s place of origin as McEwen & Sons, a local
gristmill owned and operated by Frank McEwen and his family in Wilsonville. It was a name
and product I would become deeply familiar with over the next four years. Alabamians feel
strongly about their grits, and none so passionately as those who champion McEwen & Sons.
Anyone would be hard-pressed to find a restaurant in Birmingham that sources ground corn from
elsewhere.
Unlike sweet corn, which conjures memories of backyard barbecues and 90-degree
weather, or dent corn, which is primarily grown to feed livestock and capitalism, flint corn is the
grain we most often grind, nixtamalize and pop. Of course, the practical implementation of how

7
each variety is consumed differs when you move away from the larger picture of mass
production. Southern tradition demands that grits and cornmeal be milled from soft dent corn,
while Italian custom dictates that polenta be made from flint corn, although many modern mills
play it fast and loose with these rules.
“If you’re buying grits on grocery store shelves, the germ is removed from the process so
it can sit on the shelf longer,” said Susan McIntosh, McEwen’s sister and author of the
cookbook, “Glorious Grits.” “With stone-ground grits, like ours, the whole corn kernel is intact:
the bran, the endosperm and the germ. It means they’re healthier and more delicious.”6
Polenta is another excellent example of how ground corn has been engineered to look and
taste how we think ground corn should. The packaged polenta found in most grocery stores is a
mish-mash of corn sourced from multiple farms, combined with additives to achieve a uniform
flavor and texture and stripped of most nutritional value. In effect, the personality has been bred
out of the corn we eat.
Kimberly Krebs, education director at Texas-based Barton Springs Mill, wrote via email:
“Commercial polenta producers are not focused on single-varietal corn products, which pay
direct homage to the distinct flavors, aromas and histories of the strains of corn.”7
A desire for higher yields and uniformity — at the cost of nutrition and biodiversity —
can be traced to World War II and beyond to the Green Revolution of the 1960s and ’70s when
farmers were encouraged to transition away from the open-pollinated varieties of corn that had
characterized their crops to the hybrid seeds that would grow to dominate corn production. As is
so often the case, quantity was deemed more important than quality. Now, many farmers are
6 McIntosh, Susan. Phone Interview. January 16, 2024.
7 Krebs, Kimberly. Email Interview. February 8, 2024.

8
returning to the heirloom seedstock of the past in an effort to preserve the future and flavor of
corn and other grains.
Barton Springs is just one of many U.S. producers working to maintain the collective
heritage of all peoples in this country through the purposeful revival of heirloom corn such as
Hopi Blue and Oaxacan Green. Anson Mills out of South Carolina is doing the same with
Carolina Gourdseed White and John Haulk Yellow corn varieties.
In the same way that sourdough starter and kimchi and chili crisp would all come to
dominate the news cycle at different points over the past decade, grains, such as corn, were
trending. Mills were listed alongside dishes on menus; cookbook authors, business owners and
pastry chefs such as Roxana Jullapat were championing specific varieties like Bloody Butcher;
and artisan purveyors including Masienda were loudly and proudly identifying their corn as
“heirloom.”
While the word heirloom has no exact definition within the culinary world, the general
idea is that an heirloom grain is one that has existed without genetic modification for at least 100
years. And while organically grown hybrid corn can still be delicious and nutritious depending
on how it is grown, harvested and milled — McEwen & Sons is a great example of this —
heirloom grains are the future.
Jorge Gaviria founded Masienda in Los Angeles in 2014 with this idea in mind. He saw
an opportunity to celebrate the birthplace of domesticated corn and 9,000 years of history by
sourcing directly from farmers in Oaxaca, Mexico. Armed with quality grains, and bolstered by
the wisdom of the local population, Gaviria nixtamalized, ground and dried his way to a better
masa harina. His approach not only yielded more delicious tortillas and atoles, it also more
accurately represented the incredible range of color and flavor that is inherent in heirloom corn.

9
The brand is as bright and colorful as its grains. The website peddles electric blue tortilla
presses, toasted Chicatana ants from Oaxaca and chocolate champurrado mix made with singleorigin 70% dark chocolate. And with its recipes for marbled blue and yellow cornbread and pink
chilaquiles, Masienda is making heirloom food fun and masa approachable to a wider audience
of people.
“There’s value in biodiversity from not just an environmental outlook, but from the
perspective of flavor and purpose,” Gaviria said. “There’s no such thing as a monoculture in
nature, and the more we limit diversity, the more we do so at the expense of ecology.”8
Roxana Jullapat, co-owner of Friends & Family in Los Angeles, echoed this sentiment. In
her debut cookbook, “Mother Grains,” she highlighted the eight ancient grains that are grown in
the U.S.: barley, buckwheat, corn, oats, rye, rice, wheat and sorghum. Her book is a love letter to
grain diversity and the many flavors, histories and opportunities that are woven into the DNA of
each one.
“In a country where we’re talking about health and food policy, where there are extremes
of undernourished children and high rates of obesity, eat your medicine becomes vital,” Jullapat
said. “It feels common sensical. Using these more natural and wholesome ingredients builds a
better workforce, a more capable student body and increases the functionality of people in
society.”9
As is evident from the popularity of Jullapat’s café and the praise she received upon
publishing her James Beard Award-nominated cookbook, heirloom grains sell. It seems that
people are eager to embrace the nutty nuance of Hopi Blue, the earthy and robust notes of
Oaxacan Green and the red-tinged hues of Bloody Butcher. And as the culinary community
8
Gaviria, Jorge. Video Interview. February 6, 2024.
9
Jullapat, Roxana. Phone Interview. January 30, 2024.

10
becomes more interested in provenance, diversity and history, Jullapat noted that it has allowed
millers specializing in heirloom crops to “own their grains so much more.”
10
“Heirloom-specific farmers ensure that the public can continue to enjoy the flavor
nuances and important histories of older varietals of corn (and other crops), which would
otherwise be overtaken by more modern strains,” wrote Krebs. “Growing these heirloom
varieties ensures that we maintain diversity within the species, and can continue to enjoy higher
flavor, nutritional value and historical & cultural importance.”11

The grain revolution is spreading, and we need only look to the past to progress further
into this golden age of growing. With it will come more bowls of cheesy, greasy, squishy grits,
and more mugs of steaming champurrado made with better-tasting masa. The future looks and
tastes good.
10 Jullapat, Roxana. Phone Interview. January 30, 2024.
11 Krebs, Kimberly. Email Interview. February 8, 2024.

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Chapter 2: Heirloom Rice
The floor of my Birmingham apartment was covered in a layer of dust thick enough to
leave a trail of footprints wherever I walked, and my car was protesting my months-long absence
by sputtering and clicking rather than turning on. What I thought was going to be a two-week
stay with my parents in Denver had turned into three months of fear and isolation while the
world sorted through the beginning stages of the pandemic. I had packed haphazardly and
without thought, bringing along a small carry-on bag with random bits of clothing, forgetting my
jewelry in the unlocked bottom drawer of my nightstand and leaving behind apples and
sourdough starter to rot in my fridge.
It was only because my lease was ending that I finally returned to Birmingham, and I
only returned long enough to move away once more. With my work office closed for the
foreseeable future and my apartment no longer binding me to Alabama, I had the freedom to
relocate to Atlanta: the home of Coca-Cola, an impressive collection of peach-named streets and
Emory Medical School, where my fiancée was enrolled as a second-year medical student.
When I showed up at his door with most of my worldly possessions and a bad attitude
(packing your entire apartment by yourself and schlepping your stuff to a new state can do that to
a person), the only thing I cared about was dinner. I wanted a meal so delicious it would salvage
a moving day designed to frustrate and enrage. I asked, and Atlanta delivered in the form of a
Thai restaurant called Talat Market.
A vegan menu was on offer that night. While this would typically send me sprinting in
the other direction, I could not get myself to care, weighed down as I was with exhaustion and
hunger. For once, my lack of patience served me well. Four years have passed and I can still
taste the steamed tofu made from chickpeas and the pandan tapioca dessert with fresh coconut.

12
They linger, but it is the porridge — the mushroom jok with patango croutons and fried garlic —
that haunts me.
“Jok was something my mom would make for the family,” said Parnass Savang, coowner of the restaurant alongside Rod Lassiter. “It’s quick, cheap, and comforting. Before we
opened Talat, we used to do jok and patango pop-ups at farmers markets in Atlanta. People really
liked them.”12
There was quite a bit stacked against Talat’s rice porridge that night. It was tinged in
unappetizing shades of beige and lukewarm after the drive from the restaurant to our apartment. I
was practically begging to be disappointed and looking to pick a fight, but even my horrid mood
could not find fault. Quiet and subtle, soothing and exciting, the jok felt at once foreign and
familiar, somehow both new and old.
I had never tried savory porridge made from rice, but it immediately conjured memories
of the sugary oats, marshmallow blobs and dinosaur-shaped sprinkles that were a hallmark of my
childhood. It is then that I realized the power of porridge: The grain is irrelevant and the toppings
are unimportant because within every bowl exists a sense of recognition and an innate feeling of
comfort.
Porridge + Puff’s Phan shared this sentiment. She spoke about how porridge became a
means of self-expression by speaking to both her familial identity and artistic nature. “Porridge is
a philosophy and a way of life,” she said. “The construct of porridge by others, especially in the
U.S., is something that is part of my activism. Despite what some people think, it has no social
class because every single culture in the world has a porridge.”13

12 Savang, Parnass. Phone Interview. December 8, 2023.
13 Phan, Minh. In-Person Interview. January 5, 2024.

13
Like most things in life, the end product is dependent on a strong foundation. Phan found
hers in an heirloom Japanese-style rice called Kokuho Rose from Koda Farms. It was a natural
choice given its quality and location. The savory jams and pickles, the short ribs and scallops, the
cooking liquid — often homemade stock, but sometimes filtered water depending on the desired
end flavor — and, of course, the side of fried puffs, were all purposeful decisions made in
service of the rice.
“Cooking a good bowl of porridge could be super easy or super challenging in a good
way,” said Phan, “but using Koda’s rice narrowed the focus a little bit.”14
Kokuho Rose is just one variety that belongs to the Oryza sativa family. The species from
which all Asian rice derives — basmati, jasmine and arborio, included — can be further subcategorized into japonica or indica, and still further by length and color of grain. From ruddy
reds to purple-tinted blacks, pearlescent whites to caramelly browns, each color comes with its
own unique flavor, nutritional makeup and place in history. Grocery store shelves in the U.S. are
just now starting to reflect the technicolored landscape that is O. sativa. Even so, the diversity, or
lack thereof, is a sad showing when compared to what once existed.
The Green Revolution that defined the 20th Century completely changed the agricultural
landscape in North America and much of the world. As with corn, smaller heirloom rice
seedstock was ousted in favor of higher-yielding and faster-growing hybrid varieties. Naturally,
as biodiversity dwindled and monoculture took root, farmers grew more reliant on chemicals and
the health of both soil and consumer took a backseat.
14 Phan, Minh. In-Person Interview. January 5, 2024.

14
It has been the work of generations to help the agricultural community recover from this
value shift, and it is only through the efforts of purveyors such as Koda Farms, Anson Mills and
Lotus Foods that a market exists in the U.S. for heirloom rice.
Olivia Vent works as the Lotus Foods System of Rice Intensification (SRI) liaison. She
has devoted her career to the study of SRI and its ability to produce high rice yields with fewer
seeds and less water. “What we’re trying to do with Lotus Foods is create a market for these
more traditional varieties,” Vent said. “We want to preserve heirloom seedstock and provide
these smallholder farmers with a living so they can continue to operate their farms, with the end
goal of encouraging more equity in the food system.”15
We went on to discuss an article we both had read about a new product called “beef
rice”
16 from South Korea. In a bid to make rice more nutritious, a team of scientists from Yonsei
University combined bovine stem cells with white rice in a petri dish. While the resulting “rice”
has more nutrition than the average white, it is also reportedly pink in color and somewhat brittle
in texture.
Neither of us could fathom why this particular experiment was necessary when nature has
already given the world black rice. Depending on the variety, black rice has almost nine grams of
protein per 100 grams of rice, a deliciously chewy texture, a nutty flavor and an impressive
number of antioxidants built into each grain. Innovation is an amazing thing, but it is equally as
important to invest in existing systems. More often than not, nature has already provided us with
an answer to the question we are only now thinking to ask. We just have to care enough to look.
15 Vent, Olivia. Phone Interview. February 19, 2024.
16 Rima Sabina Aouf, “Scientists develop hybrid ‘beef rice’ as future meat alternative,” dezeen, February 22, 2024.
https://www.dezeen.com/2024/02/22/beef-rice-meat-alternative-yonsei-university/.

15
Luckily, we have researchers (Vent of Lotus Foods), artisan producers (Roberts of Anson
Mills) and cookbook authors (Jullapat) who can do some of the legwork for us. Theirs is a
symbiotic relationship. While one researches the most effective growing techniques, the other
plants and harvests these near-extinct varieties and the last shines a spotlight on them through
creative recipes and gorgeous cookbooks. And as these heirloom grains become more familiar to
the wider public and, in turn, increase in popularity, the process can start over again with
additional near-extinct strains. This investment in biodiversity is not only good for the
environment and the economy, it is also good for our health and our taste buds.
As the world transitions back to its agricultural roots, it is also reverting to its culinary
roots. There are Golden Spurtle competitions in Scotland, porridge cafés in New York, London,
Hong Kong and Copenhagen, entire sections devoted to polenta at restaurants such as Jon &
Vinny’s in L.A., and Carolina Gold middlins served at highly lauded establishments including
Mashama Bailey’s The Grey in Savannah, Georgia.
“There’s something charming about a peasant food that becomes popular,” Jullapat said.
“All of a sudden, there are really cool different grains to cook with, and we realize that they’re
good for us. It’s one of those fads that turns out to be true. Let’s have a porridge café because
every culture has a version of porridge. There are endless sources of inspiration.”17
As for my original source of inspiration, it has been close to 20 years since my last
Dinosaur Eggs fix, but it seemed important to sample it once again for scientific reasons. In the
noble pursuit of a question asked and answered, I made a pilgrimage to my local Ralph’s. I
bought a box, came home, dumped it in a bowl, added hot water and watched as the spectacle
unfolded before my eyes. It was excitement, compounded with nostalgia, that compelled me to
17 Jullapat, Roxana. Phone Interview. January 30, 2024.

16
eat the mushy oats streaked with the unnatural reds and greens and oranges of the wilting
dinosaur sprinkles. Of course, the whole gloopy mess was way too sweet. The egg-shaped blobs
tasted like plastic, and the instant oats had none of the texture and bite I have come to expect
from their steel-cut cousins. I say all of this, but I still ate the entire bowl. And went back for
another. It tasted like chemicals and calories, innocence and ignorance.
It is thrilling that, with the dedication of its promoters, heirloom grains are becoming
increasingly commonplace, and they will continue to guide the evolution of porridge. But I can’t
deny the power of my formative memory: a bowl of Dinosaur Eggs will always seem magical to
me.

17
Bibliography
Aouf, Rima Sabina. “Scientists develop hybrid ‘beef rice’ as future meat alternative.” dezeen.
February 22, 2024. https://www.dezeen.com/2024/02/22/beef-rice-meat-alternativeyonsei-university/.
Gaviria, Jorge. Video Interview. February 6, 2024.
Gold, Jonathan. “Review: At porridge and puffs, spoonfuls of devotion in every bowl.” Los
Angeles Times. December 12, 2015. https://www.latimes.com/food/la-fo-gold-porridge20141213-story.html.
Jullapat, Roxana. Phone Interview. January 30, 2024.
Krebs, Kimberly. Email Interview. February 8, 2024.
McIntosh, Susan. Phone Interview. January 16, 2024.
Phan, Minh. In-Person Interview. January 5, 2024.
Roberts, Glenn. Phone Interview. January 20, 2024.
Savang, Parnass. Phone Interview. December 8, 2023.
Vent, Olivia. Phone Interview. February 19, 2024.

Abstract (if available)

Abstract Porridge is a universal language with its uncanny ability to transcend culture, socio-economic status and geography. Made from a grain, pulse or vegetable mixed with a liquid, its simplicity belies its importance as a vital form of sustenance and source of protein for all peoples throughout time. While it has historically had a reputation of dull practicality, newfound attention in recent years has elevated it to something of a worldwide trend.

This shift in perception is, in large part, due to a renewed interest in heirloom grains in the United States and beyond. While the term has no exact definition within the culinary world, the general idea is that a grain qualifies as heirloom if it has existed without genetic modification for at least 100 years. Yielding far less than their hybrid counterparts, what heirloom grains lack in quantity, they make up for in diversity of flavor, texture, color and nutritional composition.

Whether it is made from oats or lentils, corn or rice, porridge is an important tool for understanding where we came from and where we are going. It built empires, fed nations and sustained an entire world of people. And thanks to the increasing popularity of the heirloom grain movement, porridge tastes better than ever.

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Asset Metadata

Creator Dansky, Olivia (author)

Core Title Porridge people: the heirloom grains of the past are fueling the porridge revolution of the present

School Annenberg School for Communication

Degree Master of Arts

Degree Program Specialized Journalism (The Arts)

Degree Conferral Date 2024-05

Publication Date 05/17/2024

Defense Date 05/17/2024

Publisher Los Angeles, California (original), University of Southern California (original), University of Southern California. Libraries (digital)

Tag Agriculture,Corn,heirloom,mill,OAI-PMH Harvest,Oats,porridge,Rice

Format theses (aat)

Language English

Contributor Electronically uploaded by the author (provenance)

Advisor Garza, Oscar (committee chair), John Fogarty, Heather (committee member), Keough, Colleen (committee member)

Creator Email odansky@usc.edu,oliviadansky@gmail.com

Permanent Link (DOI) https://doi.org/10.25549/usctheses-oUC113939965

Unique identifier UC113939965

Identifier etd-DanskyOliv-12940.pdf (filename)

Legacy Identifier etd-DanskyOliv-12940

Document Type Thesis

Format theses (aat)

Rights Dansky, Olivia

Internet Media Type application/pdf

Type texts

Source 20240517-usctheses-batch-1153 (batch), University of Southern California (contributing entity), University of Southern California Dissertations and Theses (collection)

Access Conditions The author retains rights to his/her dissertation, thesis or other graduate work according to U.S. copyright law. Electronic access is being provided by the USC Libraries in agreement with the author, as the original true and official version of the work, but does not grant the reader permission to use the work if the desired use is covered by copyright. It is the author, as rights holder, who must provide use permission if such use is covered by copyright.

Repository Name University of Southern California Digital Library

Repository Location USC Digital Library, University of Southern California, University Park Campus MC 2810, 3434 South Grand Avenue, 2nd Floor, Los Angeles, California 90089-2810, USA

Repository Email cisadmin@lib.usc.edu