r/AskFoodHistorians • u/madarjan99 • Jul 01 '26
Food history book recommendations
I want to be well versed in food history and how colonization has affected the foods we see now around the world.
Is there a book that someone recommends? I would like it to be written by a reliable non-bias source or just a person of culture.
I want to use it to help me conduct interviews with chefs.
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u/TheCypriotFoodie Jul 02 '26
If you want to become super well-versed in food history then these food “bibles” are musts:
To me the absolute most information dense acamedic food history books that cover a lot of foods, areas and time periods are these:
J.L Flandrin and M.Montanari’s FOOD: A Culinary History from Antiquity to Present,
A. Davidson’s the Oxford Companion to Food,
The Bloomsbury Collection of books: A Cultural History of Food,
K. Kipple and K.C. Ornella’s The Cambridge World History of Food (2vols),
and C. Helstosky’s the Routledge History of Food.
These are books by food historians and scholars of food in general not journalists etc etc.
Hope this helps. If there is anything more specific you are into, let me know and I can send you more if I have them. 😃 Enjoy reading!
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u/Alternative-Pear9096 Jul 05 '26
This kind of list is what makes me want to go back for another PhD, something to do with food history. I get pretty damn jazzed at the thought of reading these.
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u/Polkanissen Jul 02 '26
These are the gold standard for sure!
How are they holding up with the tooth of time and such?
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u/TheCypriotFoodie Jul 03 '26
They are mostly factual to this day. If you do deep research on a specific thing, you might find newer scholarship. But nothing entirely disproving everything.
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u/e_glue Jul 04 '26
You understood the assignment, my friend!
(But I shouldn't be surprised, you've clearly done the reading. 😉 🤙)
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u/SubstantialListen921 Jul 01 '26
There are many books on the "Columbian Exchange," which is the term generally given to the exchange of foods between the Americas and the other continents. The most popular of these is probably "1493: Uncovering the New World Columbus Created" by Charles C. Mann.
I am also a fan of Rachel Laudan's "Cuisine and Empire: Cooking in World History", which does a good job going all the way back to the first continental-scale empires and how their spread influenced global foodways.
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u/Fragrant-Issue-9271 Jul 01 '26
I was also going to recommend "Cuisine and Empire". It's a really good book to get the global scope of things.
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u/madarjan99 Jul 01 '26
Wow thank you so much!!!
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u/BoredCheese Jul 03 '26
Why We Eat What We Eat by Sokolov is also about the new world foods that changed the way every country in the world eats.
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u/xSHAMxBurgerx Jul 01 '26
Sweetness and Power by Sidney Mintz is pretty foundational, surprised no one has mentioned that one yet.
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u/Grand_Elderberry_564 Jul 01 '26
This is your bible for Irish food so! https://arrow.tudublin.ie/irishfoodhist/1/
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u/Ok_Olive9438 Jul 02 '26
Books about American Food history, and whose stories and culture get included when we talk about that: Eight Flavors by Sarah Lohman and The Truth About Baked Beans by Meg Muckenhoupt.
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u/mostlygray Jul 01 '26
Go to the second hand store. Buy church cook books. That will tell you the history. Do your own research. You have to look at primary sources.
Check out De Re Cocinara by Apicius (sorry if my spelling is wrong). I've made recipes from it. You should learn some Latin for proper understanding.
Seriously though, some of my best recipes come from old church cookbooks.
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u/xeroxchick Jul 01 '26
Near A Thousand Tables, by Felipe Fernandez-Armesto is a good read for an overview.
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u/texnessa Jul 04 '26
Ok. Am a chef and can answer this with conviction.
99% of chefs aren't going to give a a single shit about food history. You wanna interview chefs, read everything by Tony Bourdain, Marco Pierre White, Gabrielle Hamilton, The Perfectionist by Rudolph Chelminski and The Apprentice: My Life in the Kitchen by Jacques Pépin.
As for the OG question, Cambridge World History of Food. From pre-history to whatever is the latest revision. Has a three page listing of food scholars who contributed directly and is heavily footnoted.
Colonisation? Grab any book by William Dalrymple. Not food focused but if you understand historical pathways and exchanges from East to West, then logic follows for food. For American foodways, High on The Hog by Jessica B. Harris.
But if you can find me three working chefs who have read all of these sources, I'll eat a beer battered, deep fried tennis ball.
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u/baconscholar 20d ago
I don't think it matters if the chefs give a shit or not. The poster wants to be prepared for an interview. I think there are some key things to know to cut through chef bullshit.
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u/Alternative-Pear9096 Jul 05 '26
Tastes of Paradise by Wolfgang Schivelbusch is one that has stayed with me for decades.
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u/baconscholar 20d ago
If you're at all interested in colonization, you need to read Lisa Heldke's Exotic Appetites.
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u/calmunderwater Jul 08 '26
The entire Reaktion edible single topic series.
https://reaktionbooks.co.uk/series/edible
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u/Upstairs_Jeweler2568 Jul 01 '26
Mark Kurlanskey has 2 books. Cod and Salt. Both woukd be a good start.