Ken Albala is a professor of history at the University of the Pacific. He is the author or editor of 14 books on food history, including Beans: A History, which won the 2008 International Society of Culinary Professionals Jane Grigson Award and the Cordon D'Or award for Food History/Literature. He has also edited three food series and a 4-volume Food Cultures of the World Encyclopedia for Greenwood Press. Albala serves as the co-editor of the journal Food Culture and Society.