The Lost Supper
Searching for the Future of Food in the Flavors of the Past
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A New Scientist, Globe and Mail, and Eater Best Book of 2023
In the tradition of Michael Pollan, Anthony Bourdain, and Mark Bittman, “a surprising, flavorsome tour of ancient cuisines” (Kirkus, STARRED)—from Neolithic bread to ancient Roman fish sauce—and why reviving the foods of the past is the key to saving the future.
“A fascinating look at the people who are keeping these ancient food traditions alive against the odds, while offering a rough roadmap toward a more sustainable food ecosystem.”—Eater
Many of us are worried (or at least we should be) about the impacts of globalization, pollution, and biotechnology on our diets. Whether it's monoculture crops, hormone-fed beef, or high-fructose corn syrup, industrially-produced foods have troubling consequences for us and the planet. But as culinary diversity diminishes, many people are looking to a surprising place to safeguard the future: into the past.
The Lost Supper explores an idea that is quickly spreading among restaurateurs, food producers, scientists, and gastronomes around the world: that the key to healthy and sustainable eating lies not in looking forward, but in looking back to the foods that have sustained us through our half-million-year existence as a species.
Acclaimed author Taras Grescoe introduces readers to the surprising and forgotten flavors whose revival is captivating food-lovers around the world: ancient sourdough bread last baked by Egyptian pharaohs; raw-milk farmhouse cheese from critically endangered British dairy cattle; ham from Spanish pata negra pigs that have been foraging on acorns on a secluded island since before the United States was a nation; and olive oil from wild olive trees uniquely capable of resisting quickly evolving pests and modern pathogens.
From Ancient Roman fish sauce to Aztec caviar to the long-thought-extinct silphium, The Lost Supper is a deep dive into the latest frontier of global gastronomy—the archaeology of taste. Through vivid writing, history, and first-hand culinary experience, Grescoe sets out a provocative case: in order to save these foods, he argues, we've got to eat them.
Published in partnership with the David Suzuki Institute.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Grescoe (Shanghai Grand) sets out an illuminating analysis of "dwindling nutritional diversity," what a more sustainable, nutritionally varied future might look like, and how food systems should change to get there. Factory farming, genetic modification of foods, and a lack of agricultural biodiversity due to pollution and habitat destruction have led to a "sharp drop" in naturally occuring essential micronutrients and a spike in "civilization diseases" including hypertension, heart disease, and diabetes, according to the author. Seeking to discover "what our ancestors ate, and what our prehistoric and historic diets could tell us," Grescoe embarked on a global trek in which he washed down "wok-fried silkworm chrysalids with Queen Ant wine" at a bug-tasting event in Montreal; hunted wild, acorn-eating pigs on an island off the coast of Georgia; sampled the "oldest named cheese" in Britain; and attempted to recreate the original diet of the Indigenous Cowichan people in British Columbia. While some of the author's experiments are plausible only for the most adventurous (for example, chowing down on high-protein bugs), his advice for consumers is sensible (grow one's own food when possible; learn about the "economy and technology" of food production), and his suggestions for agricultural systems persuade (for instance, farming corporations can learn from the "traditional ecological knowledge" of the Indigenous peoples of the Americas, including the Aztec system of "chinampas, or floating gardens... which allow several harvests a year" and are currently cultivated in some parts of Mexico). This is worth a look.
