A Few Words on How I Got Here

Ahh...there they are: the illustrious graduates of the '08 Masters in Food Culture: Communicating Quality Products at the University of Gastronomic Sciences near Parma in Italy. And there I am, Catherine Giarrusso, fifth lady from the left, proudly holding my degree certifying my grasp of Anthropology, History, Psychology, Technology, Semiotics, Marketing and Branding, and Journalism and Photography all as they relate to the world of food. It also indicates the completion of a two month internship about which I wrote my thesis: "Nailing the Niche: Strategic Planning for one of the First and Best Collective Resources in the Food Culture Field"; the resource in question being the collection at The Culinary Arts Museum of Johnson & Wales. To someone who had just spent the better part of the year doing semiotic analysis of chocolate advertisements and sitting in ice cream shops watching the behavioral patterns of consumers, the wealth of resources to be found in the museum's 300,000 plus-item collection was invigorating. The menu and corporate booklet section alone takes up an entire room--and those things are thin!

Much of my time interning at the museum was spent researching and producing text for a future exhibit on Rhode Island food traditions, but I also got to work on initiating a museum newsletter and examining the museum's mission within the academic community. It was fabulous to be working with people who so value the importance of our collective food history, which is why, after the holidays, when the museum had a temporary opening for a collections assistant while a coworker went on leave, I was thrilled to be part of the team again.

The first donation I am set to accession is this beautiful collection of silver-plated hollowware. I am about three weeks into the project and realizing I that I'm gathering quite an interesting body of knowledge together; worth preserving. So here it is. I went into this with nothing more than the significant amount of hours I logged watching BBC Prime TV shows about antiques when I was living and working abroad in Poland. The British really love the stuff, and it is completely addictive. From Bargain Hunters to Flog It! to Cash in the Attic, somehow it never got old. So I am thrilled to have this small opportunity to indulge my inner antiquing beast and learn about silver plate. I hope that having all this information in one place is helpful for other beginners unearthing their family heirlooms and rummaging around yard sales, or at least that it's amusing This is intended as a record of my white-gloved and magnified discoveries, and sources will be duly cited either in each article or linked in the sidebar to the right. Now... let's identify some hallmarks!