Robert's Market Report

Rozin and Oprah Visit the Market

Oprah (the website) visited the Reading Terminal Market with Paul Rozin, a 44-year veteran psychology professor at the Univwersaity of Pennsylvania. The purpose was for Rozin to expound on the psychology of the pleasure of eating, in between tastes of crusty nut-raisin loaf, spanakopita, and Bassetts' ice cream.

As the article's author, Michelle Staley writes:

Oddly, the foodstuff that thrust Rozin into that landscape had more to do with pain than pleasure: It was hot chili peppers. In the early 1970s, Rozin's then wife, cookbook author Elisabeth Rozin (they divorced in 1991), was writing The Flavor-Principle Cookbook. In it she reported on how various cultures use hot peppers as a central flavoring element. But why, Paul Rozin wondered, did it ever even occur to people to eat chilies—substances that cause pain when first encountered?

Find out why here.