Karima Moyer-Nocchi

Karima Moyer-Nocchi is an American food historian, author, and university professor whose work focuses on the cultural, social, and historical development of Italian cuisine. Born and raised in Ohio, she studied comparative literature at the University of Massachusetts Amherst before pursuing postgraduate studies in Florence, Italy. After relocating to Italy in the early 1990s, she built an academic career while developing a deep interest in the ways food reflects history, identity, politics, and everyday life.

Moyer-Nocchi is a professor in the Modern Languages Department at the University of Siena and has also taught and lectured in culinary and food studies programs. Her research examines the historical realities behind popular ideas of "traditional" Italian cuisine, often challenging myths and highlighting the social, economic, and political forces that shaped regional food cultures. She is widely recognized for combining rigorous historical research with an accessible writing style.

She first gained recognition with Chewing the Fat, an oral history of Italian foodways based on interviews with women who lived through the Fascist era and postwar Italy. She later published The Eternal Table, a cultural history of food in Rome, and The Epic History of Macaroni and Cheese, a study tracing the development of one of the world's most recognizable dishes from ancient Rome to modern America. Through her books, lectures, and historical cooking projects, she has become a respected voice in the field of Italian food history.