Tomatoes: A Love Story
8/19/202551 min
The tomato is Gastropod’s favorite flavor of summer, and we’re not alone: today, it’s the most popular vegetable on the planet, despite the fact that it's technically a fruit. But, until a couple of hundred years ago, the tomato wasn't really anyone's favorite. In South America, where the tomato originates, no one even bothered to domesticate it; in Mexico, the Aztecs seem to have preferred tomatillos; Renaissance Europeans thought this member of the nightshade family was practically poisonous; and, until the 1830s, most Americans considered them an “acquired taste.” Even in Italy, where the culinary mainstays of pizza a...
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First 90 secondsSpeaker 00:01
Yes, you like potato and I like potato. You like tomato and I like tomato. Potato, potato, tomato, tomato. Let's call the whole thing off Hmm, I wonder what this episode is about.
Nicola Twilley· Host0:19
Is it about the way I say tomato?
Cynthia Graber· Host0:21
No, but this is the perfect time to remind all you lovely listeners that Nikki is in fact British. I know, I know, she's been here for so long that she almost sounds like an American, but then there are some words that we differ on, like the tomato.
Nicola Twilley· Host0:34
Or in fact, tomato.
Cynthia Graber· Host0:36
[laughs] We're definitely not gonna call the whole thing off.
Nicola Twilley· Host0:38
Our relationship is solid, Cynthia, but the tomato, that's a more troubled love affair, and we've got the whole story this episode of Gastropod, the podcast that looks at food through the lens of science and history. I am Nicola Twilley.
Cynthia Graber· Host0:52
And I'm Cynthia Graber.
Nicola Twilley· Host0:54
This episode, we're finally telling the story of one of my favorite vegetables of all time. Or wait, is it a fruit?
William Alexander· Guest1:00
Oh, well, the United States Supreme Court said it's a vegetable, but the reality is it's a, botanically it is most definitely a fruit.
Nicola Twilley· Host1:09
[laughs] Not the first time the Supreme Court has been wrong. Either way, the tomato is extremely beloved. I love it, the world loves it. It's up there with the potato as the most consumed item in the produce category. So why did humanity's relationship with this delightful vegetable fruit get off to