All Manners of Food: Eating and Taste in England and France from the Middle Ages to the Present

By Stephen Mennell

Book Overview

So close geographically, how could France and England be so enormously far apart gastronomically? Not just in different recipes and ways of cooking, but in their underlying attitudes toward the enjoyment of eating and its place in social life. In a new afterword that draws the United States and other European countries into the food fight, Stephen Mennell also addresses the rise of Asian influence and "multicultural" cuisine.
Debunking myths along the way, All Manners of Food is a sweeping look at how social and political development has helped to shape different culinary cultures. Food and almost everything to do with food, fasting and gluttony, cookbooks, women's magazines, chefs and cooks, types of foods, the influential difference between "court" and "country" food are comprehensively explored and tastefully presented in a dish that will linger in the memory long after the plates have been cleared.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0252064909
• ISBN13: 9780252064906
• Release Date: December 1995
• Publisher: University of Illinois Press
• Length: 408 Pages
• Weight: 1.28 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 6.0" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

still a classic

This is a first class academic work. I have been assigned this book for my social history of food class for over ten years now. The students find it tough going. It is fairly "dry" but that's because it contains what many books on food to not .... an argument.

an excellent book

I'm not sure what the previous reviewer expects in a book; sure this isn't a pop survey, but it's intelligent, thorough, and interesting. It is more of a scholarly history, so if you're after something simple try another book. This is very well researched, and if you're interested in the history of cooking as I am, it's an absorbing read.