Cuisine and empire

1 online resource (xiv, 464 pages), 464 pages

English language

Published 2013 by University of California Press.

Rachel Laudan tells the remarkable story of the rise and fall of the world's great cuisines-from the mastery of grain cooking some twenty thousand years ago, to the present-in this superbly researched book. Probing beneath the apparent confusion of dozens of cuisines to reveal the underlying simplicity of the culinary family tree, she shows how periodic seismic shifts in "culinary philosophy"-beliefs about health, the economy, politics, society and the gods-prompted the construction of new cuisines, a handful of which, chosen as the cuisines of empires, came to dominate the globe. Cuisine and Empire shows how merchants, missionaries, and the military took cuisines over mountains, oceans, deserts, and across political frontiers. Laudan's innovative narrative treats cuisine, like language, clothing, or architecture, as something constructed by humans. By emphasizing how cooking turns farm products into food and by taking the globe rather than the nation as the stage, she challenges the agrarian, …

Rachel Laudan tells the remarkable story of the rise and fall of the world's great cuisines-from the mastery of grain cooking some twenty thousand years ago, to the present-in this superbly researched book. Probing beneath the apparent confusion of dozens of cuisines to reveal the underlying simplicity of the culinary family tree, she shows how periodic seismic shifts in "culinary philosophy"-beliefs about health, the economy, politics, society and the gods-prompted the construction of new cuisines, a handful of which, chosen as the cuisines of empires, came to dominate the globe. Cuisine and Empire shows how merchants, missionaries, and the military took cuisines over mountains, oceans, deserts, and across political frontiers. Laudan's innovative narrative treats cuisine, like language, clothing, or architecture, as something constructed by humans. By emphasizing how cooking turns farm products into food and by taking the globe rather than the nation as the stage, she challenges the agrarian, romantic, and nationalistic myths that underlie the contemporary food movement.

3 editions

Ben Waber reviewed Cuisine and Empire by Rachel Laudan

A Fascinating Chronology with a Bit of Analysis

5 stars

This is a fantastic chronology of cuisine development and evolution through history, starting with the advent of food preparation and continuing to the present day. There is a bit of analysis here as well, contrasting trends across time periods and regions, but most of this is an exhaustive play by play of how food preparation techniques and ingredients combined, changed, and diffused over the centuries. It also includes, hands down, my favorite map of all time - showing the spread of stuffed dumplings driven by the Mongol empire. Laudan also does a good job setting the stage for different classes of cuisine - high, middling, and low - and what makes our current culinary moment so unique. Highly recommend

Ben Waber

rated it

10 hours ago

Subjects

Cooking History.
Food habits History.
Food Social aspects.
agrarian.
amateur chef.
anthropology.
complicated cuisines.
contemporary food movement.
culinary family tree.
culinary philosophy.
dominant cuisine.
economy.
farm to table.
food and drink.
food history.
gastronomy.
gods.
grain cooking.
health.
history.
nationalistic myth.
romantic.
society.
sociology.
world cuisine.

Subjects

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