AWAITING THEIR FEAST: An Evening with Lori A. Flores and Dani Nierenberg
AWAITING THEIR FEAST: An Evening with Lori A. Flores and Dani Nierenberg
March 05, 2026 @ 07:00pm
Join Bold Fork Books as we welcome Dr. Lori A. Flores for a discussion about her book, AWAITING THEIR FEAST: Latinx Food Workers and Activism from World War II to COVID-19. Lori will be in conversation with Food Tank co-founder Dani Nierenberg.
Books will be available for pick up at the event.
ABOUT THE BOOK
Though Latinx foodways are eagerly embraced and consumed by people across the United States, the nation exhibits a much more fraught relationship with Latinx people, including the largely underpaid and migrant workers who harvest, process, cook, and sell this desirable food. Lori A. Flores traces how our dual appetite for Latinx food and Latinx food labor has evolved from the World War II era to the COVID-19 pandemic, using the US Northeast as an unexpected microcosm of this national history.
Spanning the experiences of food workers with roots in Mexico, Puerto Rico, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Haiti, and Central America, Flores's narrative travels from New Jersey to Maine and examines different links in the food chain, from farming to restaurants to seafood processing to the deliverista rights movement. What unites this eclectic material is Flores's contention that as our appetite for Latinx food has grown exponentially, the visibility of Latinx food workers has demonstrably decreased. This precariat is anything but passive, however, and has historically fought—and is still fighting—against low wages and exploitation, medical neglect, criminalization, and deeply ironic food insecurity.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Lori A. Flores is Associate Professor of History at Columbia University, where she specializes in modern U.S., Latino/x, labor, immigration, and food history. She is the author of Grounds for Dreaming: Mexican Americans, Mexican Immigrants, and the California Farmworker Movement (Yale, 2016) and Awaiting Their Feast: Latinx Food Workers and Activism from World War II to COVID-19 (UNC, 2025). Her research and writing have been supported by the Russell Sage Foundation and the Rockefeller Foundation’s Bellagio Center in Italy. She is also the creator of "The Mexican Restaurants of New York City" digital history project.
ABOUT THE MODERATOR
Danielle Nierenberg is a world-renowned researcher, speaker, and advocate on all issues relating to our food system and agriculture. In 2013, Danielle Nierenberg co-founded Food Tank (foodtank.com) with Bernard Pollack, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization focused on building a global community for safe, healthy, nourished eaters. Food Tank is a global convener, thought leadership organization, and unbiased creator of original research impacting the food system. Danielle is the recipient of the 2020 Julia Child Award.
Join Bold Fork Books to celebrate the release of HELLO, HOME COOKING with author Ham El-Waylly, in conversation with Isabel Coss!
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Ham El-Waylly is a chef, restaurant consultant, recipe developer, and video creator based in New York City. You may know him from his acclaimed Brooklyn restaurant, Strange Delight, or as a longtime contributor to NYT Cooking, where he is also one half of the YouTube sensation, Mystery Menu. He lives in the East Village with his wife (Sohla), toddler, shiba inu, English bulldog, and wild alley cat.
ABOUT THE COOKBOOK
In Hello, Home Cooking, Chef Ham El-Waylly taps into everyone’s nostalgia—his versions of beloved dishes carry a can’t-quite-put-my-finger-on-it heart-warming quality. These recipes work for cooks of all levels, using core flavors from different cuisines, and frees readers to mix, match, and shake up classic dishes from all around the world. From Macarona Bechamel that parallels mac ’n’ cheese, and an onion-laden pot roast that rivals any version you grew up eating, to cinnamon toast crunch made out of pita. Hello, Home Cooking shows you a whole new world of comforting classics—all while making sure you don’t need to go to a bunch of specialty stores or take out a second mortgage. Expect recipes like: Everything Pita, Overnight Oats with Rose, Cherries, and Pistachios Better Than Boursin, Focaccia Baladi and more!
With Ham’s guidance, you can make comfort meals adventurous, and brand new dishes will leave you reminiscing like you’ve had—and loved—them a hundred times.
ABOUT THE MODERATOR
Chef Isabel Coss has shaped two of DC’s most celebrated restaurants, the Mexican hearth-focused restaurant Pascual as the Executive Chef and the French neo-bistro Lutèce where Coss is the executive Pastry Chef.
A Mexico City native best known as a FOOD & WINE "Best New Chef in America" Class of 2023. After years of studying to become a professional ballerina in Mexico, Coss followed her passion for food into the pastry industry as a teenager. Her culinary career started in Mexico City at 17. Coss believes food is the most powerful way to share joy and tell stories, a philosophy reflected in her technique-driven, deeply personal cuisine.
