Fabio Parasecoli, 52, an internationally recognized authority on the intersection of food and culture, commutes from his high-rise apartment in Fort Lee to Greenwich Village in Manhattan, where he is an associate professor and director of the Food Studies Initiatives program at the New School. Born and raised in Rome, he spent two years studying contemporary Chinese history in Beijing, earned his PhD. in agricultural sciences in Germany, and came to America in 1998 as U.S. correspondent for the authoritative Italian food and wine magazine, Gambero Rosso.

Parasecoli was co-editor, with Peter Scholliers, of the six-volume A Cultural History of Food (2012). His other books include Bite Me: Food in Popular Culture (2008), Al Dente: A History of Food in Italy (2014), and this summer’s Knowing Where It Comes From: Labeling Traditional Foods to Compete in a Global Market. We spoke in his apartment overlooking the Hudson River.