A History of Food in 100 Recipes
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4.0 • 1 Rating
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- $16.99
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- $16.99
Publisher Description
A riveting narrative history of food as seen through 100 recipes, from ancient Egyptian bread to modernist cuisine.
We all love to eat, and most people have a favorite ingredient or dish. But how many of us know where our much-loved recipes come from, who invented them, and how they were originally cooked? In A History of Food in 100 Recipes, culinary expert and BBC television personality William Sitwell explores the fascinating history of cuisine from the first cookbook to the first cupcake, from the invention of the sandwich to the rise of food television.
A book you can read straight through and also use in the kitchen, A History of Food in 100 Recipes is a perfect gift for any food lover who has ever wondered about the origins of the methods and recipes we now take for granted.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In this U.S. version of British food writer Sitwell's trek through culinary space and time, dishes like fish and chips and toad in the hole are still of major import, adding quirky charm to this entertaining and well-researched compendium. From recipes based on Egyptian tomb wall paintings and the Bible up to those of Nigella Lawson and Jamie Oliver, the author's timeline covers such foodie milestones as the first written reference to pasta, the first pie, the advent of the fork, a 17th-century meditation on salad dressing, and the realization that the Earl of Sandwich was more a discoverer than an inventor. Along the way, meals and the presentation of recipes grow ever more sophisticated. There's a palatable change in specificity between a 1660s recipe for pea soup calling for "about two quarts of peas... and a little slice of bacon" and a 1900s Scotch barley broth calling for one-and-a-quarter pounds of beef and five ounces of barley. In an intriguing chapter focusing on a butter crawfish recipe written circa 1604 by a Lady Elinore Fettiplace, Sitwell points out how, in her recipe collection, she "separates the sweet from the savory, moving away from the medieval habit of laying everything on the table at once. " With such instances of cultural insight, Sitwell elevates this collection from curious cookbook to a serious study.
