About the Author

Felipe Fernández-Armesto is a Professorial Fellow of Queen Mary, University of London, and a member of the Modern History Faculty at Oxford University. He is the author of thirteen books, including Millenium: A History of the Last Thousand Years and Civilizations: Culture, Ambition, and the Transformation of Nature.

Reviews

The New York Times Highly provocative and entertaining...an erudite and surprising book with many eye-opening pleasures.

Betty Fussell The New York Times Book Review Fernández-Armesto brings a humanity, civility, and excitement to serious food writing that may not have been seen since Brillat-Savarin.

Rob Morse San Francisco Chronicle Fernández-Armesto picks apart the myths of food history with the delectation of a connoisseur picking apart a lobster.

For sheer volume of fascinating facts, this survey of gastronomic lore can't be beat. Fernyndez-Armesto (Millennium), a Professional Fellow at the University of London and member of the modern history faculty at Oxford, debunks popular myths, such as the idea that spices were needed in medieval times to disguise tainted meat and fish (in fact, fresh foods in the middle ages were fresher than today and healthier as well). He shows why the cultivation of rye, barley and wheat is one of the most spectacular achievements of humankind and informs readers that the whole grain cracker invented by Sylvester Graham was intended to impede sexual desire and promote abstinence. But the book is more then a litany of quirky tidbits; Fernyndez-Armesto charts how the evolution of human culture is directly connected to the way food is obtained. The logistics of agriculture and hunting have shaped notions of gender and community; food is often integral to concepts of the sacred in a society; and the loneliness of the fast food eater aided by such inventions as the microwave has become emblematic of contemporary society's fragmentation. Fernyndez-Armesto writes lucidly and conveys his enormous enthusiasm for his subject. While he draws upon the work of many historians and theorists including Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin, Claude LEvi-Strauss and Ferdinand Braudel his erudite analysis always engaging and accessible. (June) Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information.

The New York Times Highly provocative and entertaining...an erudite and surprising book with many eye-opening pleasures.
Betty Fussell The New York Times Book Review Fernandez-Armesto brings a humanity, civility, and excitement to serious food writing that may not have been seen since Brillat-Savarin.
Rob Morse San Francisco Chronicle Fernandez-Armesto picks apart the myths of food history with the delectation of a connoisseur picking apart a lobster.