Food: The History of Taste by Paul Freedman

Food: The History of Taste Reviews

• 
  Petra time heals but a week isnt quite long enough

  This book reads like it was put together by a committee. It is as if someone thought it would be a good idea to have an overarching theme - food history - and then commission various authors to write chapters, researchers to look for appropriate art and then get an editor to provide an overall voice. There is just no cohesion and the quality of the chapters varies wildly. Some were interesting and some were too obviously by an author more used to writing academic texts (actually all the authors were I think, just some were more reader-friendly than others).
  
  I've read quite a lot of food history books, only a few of them really good, but two on my 10-star shelf,
  Near a Thousand Tables: A History of Food which I never wrote a review for but delivers what the title promises, how food developed over history and it's importance and variety, and
  Much Depends on Dinner: The Extraordinary History and Mythology, Allure and Obsessions, Perils and Taboos of an Ordinary Meal where the history is part of the book, but not its entirety.
  
  This book would make a nice gift, it's very beautiful but not one that I would recommend for reading enjoyment and knowledge. 3.5 stars, not rounded up.
• 
  Laurie

  This lavishly illustrated book on food through the ages is a fairly scholarly account. Each of the ten sections is written by a different author, a specialist in the era and area. The editor himself is a history professor, one of whose specialties is medieval cuisine. Starting with hunter-gatherers and early farming, the book takes us through Greece and Rome, Imperial Chine, medieval Islamic foods and customs, the European Middle Ages, post Renaissance and the foods from the new world, the changes that occurred in the 1800s, French cuisine and the changes it has gone through (a LOT of changes) and the rise of the celebrity chef, the development of the restaurant, and the changing face of food in the modern age.
  
  It’s a very interesting read if one is into social history. Because of the multiple authors, there is a bit of a lack of flow between chapters, but this is actually good: the authors come from a variety of countries, so we get to see the international side of things. This is not a cookbook; this is a book about food itself and how it fit into the society, with all its relations to status, religion, and wealth. I found it fascinating, although it did drag in a places. It reminds me of a really good college text book, the kind you find yourself reading ahead in while neglected one’s other classwork.
  
• 
  Maddelline

  O trecere bine documentată prin istoria alimentației și cum a evoluat gustul populației la nivel macro.
• 
  Nikos Korexenidis

  Interesting book about the history and evolution of food and taste preferences through time and nations.
• 
  Emily

  With plenty of beautiful images, each chapter by a different author paints a picture of a unique period in food history. We begin with hunter-gatherers; proceed through geographically-specific historical foodways accounts of ancient Greece, Rome, China and the Middle East, focusing more so on the cuisines of Europe from the Middle Ages through the 19th Century; and end with discussions of gastronomy, dining out, and the future of food.
  
  While I appreciated the many works of art, material culture, and consumer culture throughout the book, I think I preferred Fernandez-Armesto's
  Near a Thousand Tables : A History of Food for a thematic overview of food history. As a collection of chapters from different scholars, this work lacks the cohesion and delightfully linear quality of Fernandez-Armesto's work.
• 
  Elif

  One of those great books about food and its history!
  
  English:
  https://elifthereader.com/books/food-...
  Türkçe:
  http://kitaplikkedisi.com/kitaplar/ye...
• 
  Melissa Barbosa

  History and food are among my favorite subjects, so I really enjoyed reading this book.
• 
  Truly

  Saya nyaris lupa pernah membaca buku ini! Jika bukan karena meminjam lagi di kantor untuk membuat anotasi informatif koleksi. Seingat saya, buku ini dulu saya beli di BBW untuk Evyta. Harap maklum, saat itu BBW baru pertama diselenggarakan.
  
  Dalam 368 halaman, pembaca akan disuguhi aneka informasi seputar makanan. Mulai dari asal mula kebudayaan makan, munculmya aneka rasa, adaptasi aneka makanan, serta bagaimana kemunculan restoran untuk pertama kali.
  
  Ada anggapan bahwa kita dijajah bangasa Eropa karena mereka sangat ingin mendapatkan rempah-rempah dengan lebih murah. Namun, memasuki abad 19, rasa kertarikan tersebut menguap, berganti pada kopi dan coklat. Kenapa?
  
  Aneka gambar yang ada sangat membantu pembaca untuk memahami informasi. Selain itu, dari sisi estetika, ilustrasi membuat buku makin menarik.
• 
  Rick Jones

  Large and comprehensive. This is good and bad.
  I liked the approach of choosing 'moments' of taste changes, but the articles were not particularly accessible. They were scholarly, and that made reading through this a lot less fun than it should have been. I loved the illustrations, pictures and artwork, but they didn't really get the attention they deserved. All in all, a VERY large book, that could have delivered its content in half the space, and ina much more enjoyable way.
• 
  Jamie

  Surprisingly good! I don't have a huge interest in food so I wasn't sure what to expect, but the author balanced the cuisine of nobility with the food of the common-person well. Interesting to see how French cuisine became so highly-regarded. Some lists of courses or dishes for specific meals either require more interest than I have or skim-reading, but in general I think many people would find this interesting and learn something.
• 
  Liquidlasagna

  
  A fascinating and ambitious look at why we eat what we eat, I couldn't put it down.
  Ruth Reichl
  
  This book reminds us that taste is an essential part of civilization.
  Alice Waters
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  Cheryl

  Large book - no way am I interested enough to read every page. I did 'heavily skim' though and I do think it might be interesting to ppl who have more curiosity for something in depth than I do.
• 
  Heather Shaw

  What is taste? Is it that those who eat raw meat are commonly called barbarians? Or that British and American cuisine is considered bland by most of the rest of the world? That Hindus won’t eat meat, but Mohammed called it “the lordliest food of the people.” What makes rotten milk a delicacy in one part of the world and revolting in another? And why was chili an important condiment in Central America, but failed to impress the tribes of the north?
  
  
  “[T]he idea that a society’s soul is revealed by its cooking has, in fact, been with us since earliest times,” Paul Freedman writes in his introduction to this fascinating and beautiful volume. But this is not a book about the history of cooking—although there is plenty of that too—it’s a study of how people in different cultures have thought about food, and how they have treated it in daily life. After all, civilization’s triumvirate of glories include painting, poetry…and gastronomy.
  
  
  But life wasn’t always so rich. In prehistory, humans most likely scavenged to fill their bellies, and the concept of “rotten” is a relative one. As soon as tribes began to settle, however, a connection between social status and food arose. Fresh food was a luxury in the Middle Ages, and although wine, oil, and grain were the gods’ most cherished gifts to Greeks, cheese and salt were rare.
  
  
  In Imperial China, the choice of food was both practical and symbolic. Although not quite one of the Seven Deadly Sins, excessive eating was strongly discouraged in moral literature and practice. Moderation and balance were the rule: fan, for the rice, meaning “to fill,” and cai meaning “to flavor.” Ying signified the cooling aspect of an ingredient, and yang the heating. Classical Greece had a similar philosophy of cuisine (probably imported from China), and named four humors (blood, black bile, yellow bile, phlegm) and their essences (heat, cold, dry, moist). Medieval Europe resurrected the idea and ran with it, suggesting that the universe consisted of only four elements and that digestion was a form of cooking.
  
  
  New World exploration brought the miracle of the potato about the same time as Europeans settled on table manners (“It is boorish to plunge your hands into sauced dishes,” Erasmus said). But it was industrialization that really changed the world, as it hugely affected the way poor people ate. Prior to the 1800s, food for the majority was scarce, diluted, and poorly prepared. Industrialization brought life-saving advances in processing, preservation, and transportation. For the first time in history, people could fill themselves without emptying their pockets.
  
  
  Color plates and captions delight and illustrate the informed and absorbing essays in Food: The History of Taste, making this an excellent book for the reference shelf, for the cook, for the gift-giver. (ForeWord Magazine)
• 
  Madalin

  Un periplu interesant ce porneste de la bucataria antichitatii si sfarseste analizand efectele globalizarii asupra artei culinare.
  
  Un singur rand face referire la bucataria romaneasca: "Mouzakkas-urile din bucatariile lui (restaurantului Romano's din Londra) sunt cele mai bune pe care le-am mancat in afara Bucurestiului."
  
  O recomand oricarui gurmand. Vei descoperi cu siguranta foarte multe lucruri noi despre evolutia bucatariei.
• 
  Lynn

  Not terribly coherent as a collection, but very informative. I would not describe it as entertaining, but each chapter was interesting, well-researched, and deliciously detailed. Suitable for long reading but less useful as impromptu reference.
• 
  Jenni

  This was a birthday present, and I gotta say, I LERVE it! The essays are fantastic, and the thing itself is gorgeous. My foodie heart rejoices.
• 
  Imogen

  Only at the start of this one (we're still in prehistoric times) but already I am finding it fascinating.
• 
  Pancha

  Essays about taste from various cultures including prehistorical, Classical Greek, Belle Epoch Europe, etc.
• 
  Kerith

  A big and beautiful book of essays and photos, chronicling the history of food and taste. The essays are written by various authors so some are more interesting than others.
• 
  Ruby

  Reading this for one of my classes. Thought it would be boring but in essence it actually ties everything together about how and why we cook the way we do today. Great book.
• 
  Loraine

  Although academic, this book is written in a most accessible style. I found each essay engrossing and well-written. Great bibliography--I've read Being Dead Is No Excuse as a result of said bib!