Harry Pagancoss · Food / Culture / History
Origins.
Everywhere we look, something has a story.
Begin exploringReel I
Nothing stays still.
01 / The Atlas
Follow one ingredient.
Ingredients crossed oceans. Customs traveled with people. What we eat today carries journeys that began centuries ago.
A wild berry from the Andes, and the long road to a sauce in Naples.
Choose one. Watch where it went.
Open the drawers · Small discoveries
A fruit with a passport
Tomatoes originated in the Americas. Today they are inseparable from many Italian dishes. Their journey is one of the stories food can tell about exchange, adaptation, and time.
Follow the Atlas to explore how ingredients travel and acquire new meanings.
What makes a dish traditional?
Recipes rarely stand still. Ingredients change, families improvise, and techniques move between places. A dish can be deeply traditional even when its history includes change.
Listen to a place
Markets before sunrise. A kitchen opening for the day. Some places stay with us because of what we heard.
Reel II
The research desk.
02 / The Research Desk
Field Notes.
Collected observations on food, culture, and the strange routes that connect them. Pick up a card.
Reel III
Some stories need to be seen.
03 / Moving Images
The house lights go down.
Now showing · Origins · Preview
Places, people, encounters, and moments worth lingering over. More reels as they're ready.
Watch the filmsReel IV
Every place has a sound.
04 / The Listening Room
Put a record on.
Markets before sunrise. A kitchen opening for the day. Conversations drifting through a street. Some places stay with us because of what we heard.
The needle's down. Press play below.
Open in Apple MusicWhat's on Side B?
Field recordings and music from the places in Origins, each with context and attribution. Until they're ready, a few records from my own shelf.
Reel V
From the past to the table.
05 / The Table
History ends up in the kitchen.
Ingredients and techniques carry their journeys into what we cook today.
A question for the table
Which dish in your family traveled the farthest to get to you?
There is always another story.
Fin · for now