Product Description

Examines cooking through the dual lens of archaeology and art history. This book shows that cuisine - the higher, skilled and creative manifestation of cooking - is an art that should be elevated to the level of those more generally termed "fine". Phyllis Pray Bober describes prehistoric eating in ancient Turkey; traditions of the great civilizations of Egypt, Mesopotamia, Greece and Rome; and rituals of the Middle Ages and the "Late Gothic International" period. To satisfy the adventurous reader, Bober has included old menus with contemporary adaptations.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #270284 in Books
• Published on: 2001-07-02
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 462 pages

Customer Reviews

A superb book on culinary history
Phyllis Bober has long been a pioneer in the history of cooking/foodways. Her thesis is that we can learn as much about a culture by examining it through the lens of its cuisine as by studying its art, literature, etc. This book is at once highly learned and well written--erudite and witty, like Fisher. An important work for anyone interested in the history of food and eating, the book covers "the prehistory of cuisine," the food culture of Egypt, Mesopotamia, Greece, Rome, and Europe in the Middle Ages. Good illustrations. Can't wait to read the second volume covering the Renaissance through modernism that Bober is now writing.