Paul Freedman is professor of history at Yale University where he has taught since 1997 and has served as Chair of the History Department. His primary interests are in the field of medieval European history and the history of food and cuisine, and has produced many related books and articles.

In 2007 Freedman edited Food: The History of Taste, which won a prize from the International Association of Culinary Professionals and has been translated into ten languages. This began a series of studies about the role of food in shaping cultures and historical trends. Out of the East: Spices and the Medieval Imagination (2008), looks at the desire for spices in the Middle Ages and how it led to European exploration and conquest.

Freedman is the author of Ten Restaurants that Changed America (2016), a way of looking at US food history through ten examples, including Chinese and Italian cuisines adapted to American tastes. His new book, American Cuisine: How It Got This Way, will appear in October 2019.

Georgia Freedman is a food and travel writer whose articles have appeared in The Wall Street Journal, Saveur, Lucky Peach, Rodale's Organic Life, and Zester Daily. She has been traveling to China to learn about the country's culture and food since 2000. Having spent many years living in Yunnan and studying the province’s diverse food culture and regional differences, she is particularly interested in how cross-cultural trade and interaction has created a unique and delicious array of foods in Yunnan with influences from various and sometimes unexpected places.

Her new book, Cooking South of the Clouds—Recipes and Stories from China’s Yunnan Province, was published in 2018.