International Egodocumental Network Seminar 2/2026

We are pleased to invite you to the Second International Egodocumental Network Seminar, to be held on 12 November 2026 at 6:30 p.m. (Warsaw time).
 
The lecture, "'While They Ate, They Wept': The Egodocumentary Dimension of Édouard de Pomiane's Culinary Writings", will be delivered by Prof. Jarosław Dumanowski of Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń.
 
The seminar will be held online via Microsoft Teams. Please contact us to obtain the seminar link.
  
Below you can find information about our guest lecturer and the abstract.
 
Dr hab. Jarosław Dumanowski, professor at Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń, Poland, specialises in the history of culture. His research focuses on the history of food and culinary practices, culinary heritage, material culture, and Polish-French relations in the modern period.
 

"While They Ate, They Wept": The Egodocumentary Dimension of Édouard de Pomiane's Culinary Writings

This talk examines culinary literature as a form of egodocumentary writing, taking the work of Edward Pożerski as a case study. Known as Édouard de Pomiane, Pożerski was a food physiologist, physician, as well as a pioneer and advocate of food safety. As a professor at the Pasteur Institute in Paris and the author of books on healthy eating, he became a leading authority on nutrition in the 1920s. However, in France and beyond, he achieved his greatest fame as the author of cookbooks and host of radio programmes devoted to cooking. He was the first culinary celebrity of the mass-media era and even appeared on television at a time when the medium was still in its infancy. He contributed to Le Figaro, Elle (formerly Pour Elle), La Cuisine et Vins de France, and numerous other popular publications. He appeared in food advertisements, delivered lectures to large audiences, and taught cookery courses. He promoted the use of gas in the kitchen and developed the concept of gastrotechnie, which sought to bring together science and art—an approach that reflected his own wide-ranging interests as a painter and musician.

Born in Paris into a family of Polish émigrés who had participated in the January Uprising of 1863–1864, Pożerski attended a Polish school and grew up within Polish émigré circles, initially without learning to speak French. For him, Poland was a distant, marvellous, and idealised place. He came to know his ancestral homeland primarily through its cuisine, particularly the festive dinners organised by his father. As Polish dishes were served, guests would often weep, recalling the tastes of their childhood and the homeland they had lost.

These and other Polish culinary themes run throughout Pożerski's work, most notably in his books on Jewish and Polish cuisine. He was also the author of two memoirs devoted to the Polish school in Paris, his childhood, and his work at the Pasteur Institute.

The most intriguing and revealing material, however, can be found in the reminiscences scattered throughout his books, recounted in his culinary radio programmes, and published in numerous articles. Taken together, they reveal a distinctive form of culinary memory—one that shaped the scholar and media celebrity he became throughout his life. At the same time, these reminiscences formed part of a carefully constructed self-image. This image was conveyed not only through his writings and broadcasts but also through his physical appearance and the photographs, advertisements, and promotional leaflets in which he appeared, endorsing such products as bananas, the Thermomix, stock cubes, and peanuts.