Celebration of Nile Nightshade: An Egyptian Culinary History of the Tomato
Celebration of Nile Nightshade: An Egyptian Culinary History of the Tomato
The Arabic Program and the Language House at the University of Maryland, College Park, are delighted to invite you to a celebration of Nile Nightshade: An Egyptian Culinary History of the Tomato, the award-winning new book by Dr. Anny Gaul, Assistant Professor of Arabic Studies at UMD.
Winner of the Best Culinary History Book at the Gourmand World Cookbook Awards 2025 and shortlisted for the Nach Waxman Prize for Food & Drink Scholarship, Nile Nightshade traces how the tomato — a fruit indigenous to the Americas — became Egypt's top horticultural crop and an emblem of national identity.
Nile Nightshade has been celebrated in the Wall Street Journal, the Times Literary Supplement, Foreign Policy, Al-Masry Al-Youm, and beyond. Alicia Kennedy, food writer and author of No Meat Required and On Eating, calls it "a master class in food history — deftly and accessibly navigating a complex political, culinary, and linguistic story through a now-common vegetable."
📅 Tuesday, May 5, 2026
🕔 5:00 – 6:30 PM
📍 St. Mary's Hall, Language House, Multipurpose Room
University of Maryland, College Park
Program:
5:00 PM — Dr. Gaul on the book and its making
5:20 PM — Moderated discussion & Q&A
5:45 PM — Reception & socializing
Light Middle Eastern refreshments will be served.
We hope you will join us — it is a wonderful way to wrap up the semester with great conversation and good food.