Customer Reviews

A History of Food

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I bought this book a couple of days ago with 40% coupon at my local dummied-down Borders. I noticed right away that there were some factual mistakes starting with the first section on honey. Bees DO have good color vision! But anyway, I actually like the book. I bought it as "just to have something around to dip into". It's definitely not a research source for your Ph.D.

But a the great bulk of the information and discussion is very interesting, as is the style, if you just are going to keep it in the kitchen as a diversion by the fire. And it is physical treat as an artifact. Unlike so many of today's books it is a handsome production. The plates, of which there are many, are very, very good. I found them of antquarian culinary interest in themselves. The binding is sewn and the pages are an excellent quality art paper. It's 800+ pages of fun to read stuff and if you can get the hard cover for twenty bucks, I think you'll get twenty bucks worth of pleasure from it. A similarly produced book can cost over $100 today!

This book was originally written in French in 1987, with a second edition in 2009. Translation is by Anthea Bell.

A History of Food is not a quick and easy read. It is 705 pages, with another 50 pages of notes and index. But it is more than a history. It's an encyclopedia of food. Each topic includes science and biology, etymology, natural history, mythology and legend, economics, and often food purchasing and preparation tips. There is also more than a smattering of homeopathic medicine. I will keep it on my bookshelf as a treasured reference.

One of my favorite paragraphs is on page 39, in the chapter on "The History of Gathering". It is indicative of the dense information throughout the book.

The Roman legions gathered peas from the sands around the camps in Numidia and Palestine to supplement the rations they received, consisting of flour, oil, and salt meat, when not actually on service in the field. Our word pea is from Latin pisum, itself derived from Greek pison. The Old English term pise, becoming pease a little later, was misunderstood as a plural, and so the singular pea was coined.

In one paragraph we learned:

* The etymology of the word "pea"

* That they originated in Numidia and Palestine

* That they grew in sand

* That Roman legions received flour, oil, and salt meat as a rations.

The book is clearly Franco-centric, which at times can be irritating but understandable... it is a French book. So the book teaches that pizza is a French invention, that Salami is of Italian origin and "is seldom of very good quality". Etymological discussions often go from Greek or Latin to French, while others are clearly English. It makes one appreciate the art of the translator.

The book would be worth the purchase just for the chapter on spices (*Spice at Any Price).

The early chapters of the book are straight forward reporting, but by time we get to the History of Wine (chapter 9) hints of humor appear "The last up Socrates drank, of course, was of hemlock, and thereafter he certainly never risked intoxication again." Editorializing soon follows. The History of Fish discusses ecological issues, The History of Poultry includes a large buying guide "The feet should be slender, shiny, covered with thin scales, and have supple nails that do not look badly worn". To an American reader, the editorializing and humor are sometimes hard to distinguish.

The book is not perfect. The advice and sometimes the history is sometimes askew of what I've read elsewhere. However, I can pick a page at random and find something that is edifying and interesting.

*Spice at Any Price as a chapter title must also be the work of the translator, right? I have no idea what the French translation of that would be, but I bet it doesn't rhyme.

This fat volume about food and cooking, packed with anecdotes and trivia and stories, is amusing but completely unreliable.

As a source of information about the history of food, it is useless. Many of the assertions of fact here are questionable, and none of them are footnoted so you can check them out. The author seems to have taken snippets from here and there (mostly, apparently, from French sources), sorted them thematically, and uncritically assembled them into a continuous text. No doubt a large proportion of the assertions here are true, but there is no way of telling the difference between the true ones and the others!

What's more, the translation is poor. Not only are some gallicisms rendered word-for-word (and so only intelligible if you translate them back into French), but there are no translator's notes for topical references.

I cannot recommend this book for anyone seriously interested in the history of food.

(This is a copy of my review of another edition of this book.)

I have the 1st edition of this book and have had it for many years. It is possibly the most fascinating book in my library, which numbers somewhere near 2500 volumes (I truly love books.) I keep it on the shelf next to my bed, and I constantly find myself pulling it down and opening it to a random page and reading whatever the subject is. Like a fine wine or an artisanal cheese, this book should be savored, not devoured in a single session, or from start to finish.

It's a big, sumptuous book, and every time I read it I actually get hungry! The descriptions of food, how it used to be prepared, how it's prepared today, the significance of food to different cultures are absorbing and draw me in so completely that I want to try tasting everything.

I really love this book, and I can't recommend it highly enough.

Thanks for letting me share.

A lavish, well-produced book rife with unsupported assertions, happy speculation, and joyously rendered errors. If the lapses were only occasional, one might blame the translation, which is weirdly odd at times, but the volume is built upon piles and piles of little statements with nothing to suggest a foundation in scholarship. Indeed, one can understand the lack of references: there are none to be found! Such a shame. Fortunately, this nice edition has wide margins in which to register outraged comments.

Simply an amazing book. It is massive and full of interesting facts and details. I am not a foodie - but the history of food is something that is familiar to everyone.