Tastes and Traditions

Menus are invaluable snapshots of the food consumed in specific moments in time and place. Tastes and Traditions: A Journey through Menu History provides glimpses into the meals enjoyed by royalty and rogues, and by those celebrating special occasions, or sampling new culinary sensations, throughout history. It describes food prepared for the gods, meals served during sieges, and tablescapes immortalised in art. It explores how menus entertain adults, link food with play for children, reflect changing notions of health, and highlight the enduring human need to make meals meaningful.

Lavishly illustrated, this book offers an engaging exploration of why menus matter and the stories they tell, appealing to food lovers and general readers, as well as professionals in the food industry.

This illustrated history of the menu explores how they shed light on culinary trends and reflect evolving notions of what's healthy. Publishers Weekly (Spring 2025 Fiction & Nonfiction Preview: Cooking & Food)

Every page in this book is a work of art, stimulating the imagination as well as the appetite. Jeffrey M. Pilcher, University of Toronto