Charlemagne's Tablecloth: A Piquant History of Feasting (Hardcover)

~ (Author) "The Emperor Charlemagne had an asbestos tablecloth..." (more)
Key Phrases: banquetting stuffe, competitive feasts, coronation banquet, Middle Ages, Robert Burns, Twelfth Night (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Starred Review. We all eat, but how many of us know how to feast? If Fletcher, a food writer and occasional feast designer, has her way, we'll all be reconsidering our party habits. True, we're not likely to offer cannibalistic banquets (she discusses those of Fiji, New Guinea, the Aztecs and others), or platters of cats with rats (a dish from the 1870 siege of Paris), or Kwakiutl-style blubber-eating competitions. Even the complex Ruskin feast that Fletcher herself catered (seviche of wood pigeon, wild greens, Coniston char, and roast venison with wild bramble sauce, all served on pollen-inspired ceramic platters, with readings from Wordsworth and Ruskin) for a scholarly set of foodies in the middle of a British forest at sunset seems best left to its designated guests. But as Fletcher describes Roman, medieval, Renaissance, Persian, Japanese and Chinese feasting traditions, some universal elements emerge. Feasts often celebrate key life events and feature symbolic foods like eggs (for birth and fertility) or candied almonds (bitter and sweet, like life). Nature is either evoked or revoked, but rarely ignored. Fletcher serves her culinary history buffet-style; thematic chapters on meat or fish are followed by palate-cleansing pauses to examine oddities like 18th-century French food writer Grimod's funeral banquets or Mr. Billings's horseback dinner in 1903, followed by chapters on Victorian banquets and modern Day of the Dead rituals. This is a veritable cook's tour of a mesmerizing social custom. Photos. <
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From Booklist

For this savory history, Fletcher adopts the broadest possible definition of feasting, covering everything from groaning Lucullan tables of gluttonous overindulgence to the simple, life-affirming morsels reverently swallowed by the starving. She describes medieval feasting, where royal excesses despite the prospect of a starving peasantry led to sumptuary laws. Feasting scarcely confines itself to Western culture. The Kwakiutl hold banquets featuring competition to consume yards-long strips of blubber. At the other extreme, Japanese kaiseki meals offer dozens of vegetarian dishes eaten in a ritualized setting. Fletcher finds the common relationships in feastings from different societies and eras, noting how fish, game, and meats, particularly pork, play central roles. She delves into the origins of fast/feast cycles such as Mardi Gras and pays special homage to the American tradition of Thanksgiving. Fletcher even treats the taboo of cannibalism, especially as practiced in the Aztec culture, and she sees connections to the Christians' eucharistic feast. An extensive bibliography guides readers to a host of resources for further study. Mark Knoblauch
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 272 pages
• Publisher: St. Martin's Press; 1st US edition (July 28, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312340680
• ISBN-13: 978-0312340681
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 6.3 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #452,408 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This grand dinner can be YOURS!, March 12, 2006

By	D. Donovan, Editor/Sr. Reviewer "California B... (California, USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)

Plenty of history cookbooks have been written on early dining, but CHARLEMAGNE'S TABLECLOTH: A PIQUANT HISTORY OF FEASTING goes a step further than most, narrowing the focus to the feast or banquet tradition and surveying a history of grand dinners through the ages - both successes and failures. Ceremonies accompanying such feasts around the world are surveyed, explanations of great feasting purposes and operations revealed, and special ingredients. A 'must' for any who would understand the history of elaborate feasts.

3 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars My 2 cents, November 11, 2006

By	Debbra L. Relaford "Earthship Books" (Durango, CO United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Charlemagne's Tablecloth (Hardcover)

I enjoyed this book very much. Should be interesting to not only folks that enjoy period cooking, but tidbits of history as well.