Meet San Francisco’s very own Food Ethnographer and explore the worlds we are making and making ourselves ready for through food culture. Talking about food is a safe way to open up portals into the complexity and hot messes of our deepest needs, most desperate desires and wildest dreams. Cooking for yourself and others is a sign of wellbeing and a tool to feel better when you don’t. Everything connects through food. 

What tastes remind you of home? Share your food philosophy. Explore your journey with food. How does food deepen connections? Let's debunk separation myths and foster a vibrant food culture in San Francisco.

This will be a fun guided group discussion with flavor tasting. 

June Jo Lee is a food ethnographer, bridging ‘what we eat’ with ‘who we are becoming’ for senior leadership at Google and other businesses. She delivers strategic insights (improvements, innovations, transformation) for businesses to maintain relevance and even bend culture. 

June Jo Lee serves as a food ethnographer, forging connections between "what we eat" and "who we are becoming" for top executives at Google and various other enterprises. Through her work, she offers strategic insights aimed at enhancing, innovating and transforming businesses to remain pertinent and even bend culture.

She founded Food Ethnographer LLC to address modern disconnections. Her work includes food-centered qualitative research informing business strategies, an educational platform called Readers to Eaters promoting food culture for children, and Wunderland Lab exploring the edges of food culture and taste-making.

She studied medical and food anthropology from Harvard, has worked as an ethnographer for major consumer packaged brands like Nestle and General Mills, retailers ranging from Walmart to Whole Foods and various food services including university and corporate sectors. Lee held the position of VP of Strategic Insights at The Hartman Group, leading qualitative consumer research for food brands. For the past 9 years, she has been the Resident Food Ethnographer for Google's Workplace Services. Additionally, she is a speaker at national conferences in the food and education industries and co-authored picture book biographies such as Sandor Katz and The Tiny Wild (2022) and the award-winning Chef Roy Choi and the Street Food Remix (2017).

June Jo grew up transnationally between Seoul, Palo Alto and Austin, Texas, eating her mom’s alien kimchi. San Francisco is home. 

Space limited. Reservations required: email@sfpl.org or call (415) 355-2835.

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