The Ten: Adrienne Katz Kennedy

I’m a researcher and writer within food culture and the food and drinks industry.

Where were you born and where do you live now?

I was born in Cleveland, Ohio. I’ve lived in London, England for the last 18 years.

How you describe what you do?

My freelance work is centred around people and individual stories, personal and community history and how it intersects with food. My more corporate-leaning work involves researching around wider food trends and trying to understand the social drivers behind them.

How much did you spend on your last cup of coffee?

I probably spent about £2 in total on the cup of coffee I made for myself this morning (energy, beans, oat milk, water etc).

What is one ingredient that is crucial to your life?

Self drive and a sense of curiosity, and also eggs (more so for life than work currently, though not exclusively so). I am currently trying to navigate how to feed a time poor family that includes one vegetarian, two aging adults and one omnivore with a number of allergies and very strong opinions about many kinds of beans and their preparations. The answer at the moment is often eggs, which goes a long way towards fuelling the first two attributes.  

What does a food system mean to you?

You know that speech that Meryl Streep delivers to Anne Hathaway’s character in The Devil Wears Prada about her cerulean blue sweater? That, but with food/drink. Basically everything touches everything else; the way marketing execs (or lobbyists or governments) decide to frame something will eventually trickle down to what goes on the school lunch menu, what foods are valued and how those who are serving or cooking the meal (wherever that is) are perceived or valued. I realise this is a system has more to do with the framing of food and drink more than the production of it but I think it plays a huge role, too.

How does your immediate environment affect your work?

As a parent of two nearly teenage girls, I think about their experiences with food, food education and food marketing a lot in general. There are a lot of 90s food trends that are being revived, which is currently popping up in some of my work. Having lived through the SnackWells era as a teenager, so much of it was steeped in diet culture, which leaves me feeling quite curious/concerned about what the actual drivers are behind resurgence of this trend and what I need to be aware of as a parent to help combat some of the bullshit being marketed as nostalgia.

Where do you draw inspiration from, in your work?

I am really driven and endlessly fascinated by individual perspectives and narratives; how unique and powerful one person’s story can be, but also, how it can have these moments where it overlaps with wider history or other stories to form something bigger. For whatever reason I feel almost relieved every time I’m able to see that connection. It’s reassuring, both as a kind of universal truth and also when navigating my own life. As someone who can get a bit tunnel visioned, it serves as a reminder that sometimes it is just as important and validating to zoom out as it is to zoom in.

What impact do you want to have?

Most importantly, I want the people or communities I write about and with to feel like they are really being seen and understood. I do hope the way in which I write about them to spark something in readers, whether it’s curiosity, empathy or something they can relate to, but that’s secondary.

What change do you want to see in the food and/or drinks system?

I’d love to see changes to the ways in which food and drinks are marketed and regulated.

Adrienne is part of the Sourced team, looking after partnerships and collaborations - get in touch with her if you want to work with the Sourced team!