David S Shields is the Carolina Distinguished Professor emeritus in the College of Arts & Sciences at the University of South Carolina. He currently writes and co-hosts the ETV television series, The Savers of Flavor (launching May 2026). A scholar in the fields of early American culture, the history of photography, and food studies, Shields has published sixteen books. Two of the books have been James Beard Book Award finalists in Food History & Reference, another won the Brown award for the Best Book in American Popular Culture published in 2013.
Shields is known throughout the South by his nickname, “The Flavor Saver,” for his role in recovering the lost ingredients of classic southern cookery. His work as Chair of the Carolina Gold Rice Foundation has been instrumental to rediscovering a pantry full of heirloom grains, vegetables, and fruits, including the Carolina African Runner Peanut, the Dyehouse Cherry, Purple Ribbon Sugar Cane, the Rice Pea, Purple Straw Wheat, Benne, Cocke’s Prolific Corn, the Bradford Watermelon, and Carolina Gold Rice. For his efforts he has been awarded the Southern Foodways Alliance’s Ruth Fertel “Keeper of the Flame” award, and Slow Food USA’s “Snailblazer of Biodiversity.” His most recent title is Taste the State Georgia (University of South Carolina Press, 2025)
Shields chairs the Slow Food Ark of Taste Committee for the South and was co-author with Giselle Kennedy Lord of The Ark of Taste, Delicious and Distinctive Foods that Define the United States (2023).