Online Food Studies Graduate Certificate

At a Glance

Completion Time

Months

Credits Required

Tuition

$14,850–$16,630

Part-Time*

Please note that most online Food Studies courses run on a 14-week schedule.
**Based on 2025–2026 Boston University tuition and fees.

Refine Your Expertise in Food and Culture

Ideal for students and professionals who are considering a career change or seeking to enhance their credentials, the Online Graduate Certificate in Food Studies provides a solid foundation in food studies and valuable connections to a vibrant food-focused community of scholars and students.

A good choice for those who may not be in a position to commit to a full degree program, BU MET’s four-course Food Studies certificate program can be completed on a part-time basis in one year by taking two courses per semester. Additionally, Boston University’s Programs in Food & Wine include a variety of seminars, lectures, and certificates, including: Cheese Studies; Culinary Arts; Pastry Arts; Seminars in Food & Wine; and Wine Studies.

The Food Studies Graduate Certificate is also available on campus in Boston. Learn more.

Curriculum

A total of 16 units is required.

Please note that most online Food studies courses run on a 14-week schedule.

Certificate Courses

(Four courses/16 units)

Choose two courses from the following:

MET ML 622 History of Food

4 credits. Fall and Spring

History is part of a holistic, interdisciplinary approach to food studies. Knowing where our food comes from chronologically is just as important as knowing where it comes from geographically. Historical forces bring our food to the table and shape the agricultural practices, labor arrangements and cultural constructions that make meals possible. We will read, research and write food history to explore the ways in which the history of food has shaped our world today, paying careful attention to structural inequalities that restrict food access. We will examine ways in which contemporary questions and problems inform historical inquiries and vice versa. Readings and projects in this course will typically focus on one geographic region but as a class we will be taking into account global connections and influences. The course material is organized both chronologically and thematically, with subthemes such as race, urbanization and industrialization. Students will learn about historical methodology and apply it to their own research.

Section A1, SPRG 2026 Jan 20th to Apr 30th
Instructor	Type	Days	Times	Location
Elias	Independent	W	06:00:00 PM–08:45:00 PM	FLR 121

Section E1, SPRG 2026 Jan 20th to Apr 30th
Instructor	Type	Days	Times	Location
Figueroa	Independent	ARR	12:00:00 AM–12:00:00 AM

MET ML 641 Anthropology of Food

4 credits. Fall and Spring

Ethical Reasoning
Research and Information Literacy
Social Inquiry I

This course introduces students to the anthropological study of food and to the concept of food as a cultural system. In this cross-cultural exploration, we will examine the role of food and drink in ritual, reciprocity and exchange, social display, symbolism, and the construction of identity. Food preferences and taboos will be considered. We will also look at the transformative role of food in the context of culture contact, the relationship between food and ideas of bodily health and body image, food and memory, and the globalization of food as it relates to politics, power, and identity. Effective Spring 2021, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Ethical Reasoning, Social Inquiry I, Research and Information Literacy.

Section A1, SPRG 2026 Jan 20th to Apr 30th
Instructor	Type	Days	Times	Location
Jafarova	Independent	M	06:00:00 PM–08:45:00 PM	FLR 131

MET ML 701 Introduction to Gastronomy

4 credits. Fall and Spring

This course is designed to introduce students to current and foundational issues in food studies and gastronomy. Through this focus on central topics, students will engage directly in the interdisciplinary method that is central to food studies. Each week will introduce a unique view of the holistic approach that is central to a liberal arts approach to studying food and a new research technique will be presented and put into practice through the readings and course exercises. This course will give Gastronomy students a better understanding of the field as a whole. While providing an overview and methodological toolbox, it will act as a springboard in to areas of specialization of the course. 4 credits.

Section E1, SPRG 2026 Jan 20th to Apr 30th
Instructor	Type	Days	Times	Location
Elias	Independent	ARR	12:00:00 AM–12:00:00 AM

And two additional courses from the following (please note that not all courses are available in the online format):

MET ML 565 Food Marketing

4 credits. Fall and Spring

The course applies the fundamental concepts and tools of marketing and brand management to the food industry, with a particular focus on the burgeoning New England culinary scene. This class will focus on marketing throughout key stages of the food-to-table supply chain, from raw ingredients and processing equipment in early production stages, through immersive culinary experiences targeted to distinct consumer segments. An additional emphasis of the course will be on marketing food products vs. services, and the strategic challenges and strategies that each portion of the food industry requires.

Section A1, SPRG 2026 Jan 20th to Apr 30th
Instructor	Type	Days	Times	Location
Buckbee	Independent	R	06:00:00 PM–08:45:00 PM	CAS 233

MET ML 626 Food Waste: Scope, Scale, & Signals for Sustainable Change

4 credits. Fall and Spring

Food waste is a hot topic but not a new one. Some wasted food is the sign of a healthy system - if there were exactly enough calories produced to meet each of our needs, there would be mass starvation, riots, and hoarding as we all scrambled to get our share. But by some estimates, food loss and waste account for nearly 40% of the food produced. How much wasted food is too much? At the same time this food is wasted, food insecurity is everywhere, even on BU's campus. Is all wasted food "trash"? Need it be? Why is food wasted and where along the supply chain is it wasted? What are the ethics of donating surplus food/waste/trash of those who have too much to those who don't have enough? This hybrid course explores the history, culture, rhetoric, and practicalities of wasted food, from farm, through fork, to gut (is overeating a form of food waste? What about wasting micronutrients by converting them to ultraprocessed foods?). Each week includes readings, discussion, application activity; and several weeks will include a guest lecture from a food system practitioner. Students will develop practical solutions in a final project.

MET ML 629 Culture and Cuisine of the African Diaspora

4 credits.

The foodways of the people displaced from the African continent are interwoven with many societies, cultures, and cuisines across the globe. In this course, we will study five geographic regions of Africa; north, central, east, west and south. The list of the countries that encompass each region will follow. Cookbooks, maps, songs, poems, and even some folklore will be used as texts to analyze and add context to the history of the people of the diaspora. This course will have real, and courageous, and respectful conversations including race and power and how those two elements are embedded into the food systems in North America, Central America, South America, the Caribbean and Europe. We will trace ingredients that came with the enslaved people and track their integration into cuisines and cultures (agriculture, pop culture, aquaculture etc.) as a collective group and then independently as a capstone course project.

MET ML 630 Cookbooks and History

4 credits. Fall and Spring

What can cookbooks and recipes tell us about an individual? A community? A culture? What does the language of the recipe say about systems of knowledge and ways of thinking about the world? The movement of ingredients and food technology? The transmission of cooking knowledge? Does the analysis of historical cookbooks have contemporary applications? In this course, students will consider these questions through a survey of historical cooking texts and in-class exercises. We will examine cookbooks as a source of culinary history and a window into the changing material culture, practices, spaces, and relationships associated with food preparation and consumption. In addition, students will examine cookbooks and recipes as social documents that reveal the presence of social and economic hierarchies, networks and alliances, and political, economic, and religious structures. We will also examine these documents as cultural texts that reveal the construction of ethnic, gendered, and other identities. Students will study and analyze a selection of cookbooks from different historical periods and geographic regions leading to a final project and paper.

MET ML 698 Cook Like a Pro: Mastering Culinary Essentials

4 credits. Fall and Spring

Designed for beginners and aspiring cooks alike, this course will guide you through the fundamentals of meal preparation, ingredient selection, and proper seasoning. Learn to master essential techniques, from handling a knife like a pro to chopping, sautéing, baking, and plating—all while developing good kitchen practices and habits. Classes are available online or in our state-of-the-art kitchen and are taught by the same team of highly acclaimed chefs who teach in our professional culinary program.

Section A1, SPRG 2026 Jan 20th to Apr 30th
Instructor	Type	Days	Times	Location
Palmer	Lab	M	06:00:00 PM–08:45:00 PM	FLR 128

Section E1, SPRG 2026 Jan 20th to Mar 6th
Instructor	Type	Days	Times	Location
Douglass	Lab	ARR	12:00:00 AM–12:00:00 AM

MET ML 716 Sociology of Taste

4 credits. Fall and Spring

Taste has an undeniable personal immediacy: producing visceral feelings ranging from delight to disgust. As a result, in our everyday lives we tend to think about taste as purely a matter of individual preference. However, for sociologists, our tastes are not only socially meaningful, they are also socially determined, organized, and constructed. This course will introduce students to the variety of questions sociologists have asked about taste. What is a need? Where do preferences come from? What social functions might our tastes serve? Major theoretical perspectives for answering these questions will be considered, examining the influence of societal institutions, status seeking behaviors, internalized dispositions, and systems of meaning on not only what we enjoy - but what we find most revolting.

With advisor approval, students may choose to take courses outside of the electives list.

Dates & Deadlines

View BU MET’s academic calendar for online programs, including important dates and deadlines.

Application Requirements

Learn about application requirements for BU MET graduate degree and certificate programs.

A person engaged in an online activity smiling at a laptop

How You Benefit from a
Boston University Education

A BU credential can help lay the foundation for career advancement and personal success.

Enjoy an average 24:1 student-to-faculty ratio in courses that are 100% online, while tackling complex issues alongside peers with solid academic and practical experience.
Food Studies courses offer interplay between academic research and critical thinking as well as exploring food through the senses—providing rare and exceptional range and depth to food studies scholarship. Courses are enhanced by regular guest lectures and special events.
Benefit from working closely with highly qualified Boston University faculty who draw from active research and extensive field experience in all aspects of food studies: policy, history, anthropology, marketing, entrepreneurship, hospitality, journalism, and science.
Experience one of the only programs in which you can earn academic credit by completing hands-on culinary courses in Cheese Studies, Pastry Arts, and Wine Studies.
BU MET’s legacy in food studies goes back to 1991, when the Gastronomy Master’s degree program was founded by Jacques Pépin and Julia Child, two legends of the culinary world.

Graduate with Expertise

Students who complete the Food Studies graduate certificate will be able to demonstrate:

Interdisciplinary and holistic approaches to the study of food through a liberal arts perspective.
Advanced knowledge of social theory applicable to food studies.
An ability to critically analyze current and foundational issues in food studies and food systems.
Research skills in food studies and knowledge of qualitative and quantitative methodologies for interdisciplinary food studies research.
Competence in the written and oral presentation of complex ideas and arguments in scholarly and professional contexts.

“I feel so lucky to be a part of the food studies community, and to have had the opportunity to grow as a researcher and writer during my time in the Gastronomy program.” Read more.

Dana Ferrante (MET’23)
Writer, Editor, Producer, and Independent Food Studies Scholar
MA, Gastronomy

Advance Your Career

BU MET’s Food Studies Graduate Certificate program prepares graduates who are insightful, adaptable, and creative. BU’s Food Studies and Gastronomy alumni hold positions in academia, food writing and publications, media and communications, policy, tourism, marketing, food enterprise and distribution, and many other areas. Their range of professions and endeavors is as unusual, exciting, and diverse as they come.

Recent graduates have found job opportunities and career paths in companies such as:

Johnson & Wales University
America’s Test Kitchen
The Pioneer Woman and Food Network Magazines
Food Tours at Intrepid Travel
PepsiCo
Oceania Cruises
Legal Sea Foods
Amazon
Oldways Trust
Culture Brewing Co.
The Boston Globe

Allrecipes.com
Datassential
culture: the word on cheese magazine
Clean Plates OmniMedia
Aramark
Whetstone Media
Cornell University
Oxfam America
New England Culinary Institute

Take Advantage of Career Resources at BU MET

You will find the support you need in reaching your career goals through MET’s Career Development office, which offers a variety of job-hunting resources, including one-on-one career counseling by appointment for online students. You can also take advantage of tools and resources available online through BU’s Center for Career Development.

Food Studies Faculty

Megan Elias

Associate Professor of the Practice and Director, Gastronomy

Interested in Learning More?

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Online Food Studies Graduate Certificate

At a Glance

Refine Your Expertise in Food and Culture