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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. <
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
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
See all Editorial Reviews
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. <
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
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
See all Editorial Reviews
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Inside This Book
(learn more)
First Sentence:
The Emperor Charlemagne had an asbestos tablecloth. Read the first page Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
banquetting stuffe, competitive feasts, coronation banquet, medieval feasts Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Middle Ages, Robert Burns, Twelfth Night, Middle East, Acclimatisation Society, Alexis Soyer, Días de Muertos, Grimod de La Reynière, Mardi Gras, Robert May, Second World War, King James, Queen Elizabeth, Edward Topsell, George Lang, Sir John Chardin, Son of Heaven, Archbishop Neville, Burns Night, Christmas Eve, Dong Zhi, First World War, Guild of Food Writers, Ile de Réunion, Illustrated London News New!
Books on Related Topics | Concordance | Text Stats Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Front Flap | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Back Flap | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
The Emperor Charlemagne had an asbestos tablecloth. Read the first page Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
banquetting stuffe, competitive feasts, coronation banquet, medieval feasts Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Middle Ages, Robert Burns, Twelfth Night, Middle East, Acclimatisation Society, Alexis Soyer, Días de Muertos, Grimod de La Reynière, Mardi Gras, Robert May, Second World War, King James, Queen Elizabeth, Edward Topsell, George Lang, Sir John Chardin, Son of Heaven, Archbishop Neville, Burns Night, Christmas Eve, Dong Zhi, First World War, Guild of Food Writers, Ile de Réunion, Illustrated London News New!
Books on Related Topics | Concordance | Text Stats Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Front Flap | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Back Flap | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
Citations (learn more)
This book cites 100
books:
See all 100 books this book cites
- The Accomplisht Cook (1665-85) by Marcus Bell on 7 pages
- Mrs Beeton's Book of Household Management (Oxford World's Classics) by Isabella Beeton on 5 pages
- The Cuisine of Hungary by George Lang on 5 pages
- The Culture of Food (Making of Europe) by Massimo Montanari in Back Matter (1), Back Matter (2), and Back Matter (3)
- Etymological Dictionary of the Scottish Language by John Jamieson on page 232, Back Matter (1), and Back Matter (2)
See all 100 books this book cites
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