Culture of the Fork: A Brief History of Everyday Food and Haute Cuisine in Europe

Giovanni Rebora

November, 2001
Cloth, 224 pages, 52 illus
ISBN: 978-0-231-12150-7
$32.50 / £19.00

"Offers countless delicious factual tidbits." — Publishers Weekly

"[Rebora's] short history of European food . . . is filled with plenty of oddities to chew on." — Playboy

"This highly personalized history of European food and cooking makes delightful reading." — Booklist

"Thought-provoking theories make this . . . more than just another collection of past culinary oddities." — The Economist

"[An] intriguing new culinary history of early modern Europe...challenges a lot of previously accepted wisdom....Rebora's highly readable, lively book is bursting with provocative arguments and fascinating new information." — Gastronomica

"A wonderfully descriptive book with a smorgasbord of information on the culinary traditions in post-medieval Europe. . . . Great reading and great reference material for any seasoned chef or inquisitive novice." — Lidia Matticchio Bastianich, author of Lidia's Italian American Kitchen and host of TV's Lidia's Italian Table

"Good food writing requires an appetite and passion as well as serious purpose, and Giovanni Rebora has brought all this to his wonderful new book, The Culture of the Fork. He writes with erudition and warmth, humility and wit, and he tells a broad story with cogency and an eye for the illuminating detail, linking seemingly small developments to much larger issues. His prose is richly Italian, with characteristic, personal asides and digressions, which make this a delightful read as well as a repository of information that adds measurably to the study of a subject once considered ancillary to human history but now considered one of its most powerful dynamics." — John Mariani, author ofThe Encyclopedia of American Food & Drink and The Dictionary of Italian Food and Drink

Related Subjects

• Food History & Culinary Studies

Series

• Arts and Traditions of the Table: Perspectives on Culinary History

About the Author

Giovanni Rebora is professor of economic history and chair of the Department of Modern and Contemporary History at the University of Genoa. In 1983 he organized the First International Convention on the History of Culture and Food. In 1992 he edited Columbus at Table and has published Medieval Italian Cuisine Between East and West. Albert Sonnenfeld is Chevalier Professor of French and Comparative Literatures at the University of Southern California and is a longtime member of the National Board of Directors of the American Institute of Wine and Food. He is the English-language editor of Food: A Culinary History and a frequent contributor on culinary topics to such publications as The Languages of Wine and Food and Ideology.

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