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

Giovanni Rebora

Published by Columbia University Press 2001

Culture of the Fork

A Brief History of Everyday Food and Haute Cuisine in Europe

Giovanni Rebora
Translated by: Albert Sonnenfeld

In the series Arts and Traditions of the Table: Perspectives on Culinary History

https://doi.org/10.7312/rebo12150

Overview
Contents

About this book

The Renaissance and the age of discovery introduced Europeans to exotic cultures, mores, manners, and ideas. That kitchen revolution led to the development of new utensils and table manners. Rebora discusses the availability of resources, how people kept from starving in the winter, how they farmed, how tastes developed, what the lower classes ate, and what the aristocracy enjoyed.

We know where he went, what he wrote, and even what he wore, but what in the world did Christopher Columbus eat? The Renaissance and the age of discovery introduced Europeans to exotic cultures, mores, manners, and ideas. Along with the cross-cultural exchange of Old and New World, East and West, came new foodstuffs, preparations, and flavors. That kitchen revolution led to the development of new utensils and table manners. Some of the impact is still felt—and tasted—today.

Giovanni Rebora has crafted an elegant and accessible history filled with fascinating information and illustrations. He discusses the availability of resources, how people kept from starving in the winter, how they farmed, how tastes developed and changed, what the lower classes ate, and what the aristocracy enjoyed.

The book is divided into brief chapters covering the history of bread, soups, stuffed pastas, the use of salt, cheese, meat, fish, fruits and vegetables, the arrival of butter, the quest for sugar, new world foods, setting the table, and beverages, including wine and tea. A special appendix, "A Meal with Columbus," includes a mini-anthology of recipes from the countries where he lived: Italy, Portugal, Spain, and England.

Entertaining and enlightening, Culture of the Fork will interest scholars of history and gastronomy—and everyone who eats.

Author / Editor information

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.

Reviews

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

[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.

Offers countless delicious factual tidbits.

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

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

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
contents Publicly Available Download PDF	v
series editor’s preface Alber Sonnenfeld Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	ix
Introduction Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	xiii
chapter one. Grain and Bread Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
chapter two. Soup with Bread, Polenta, Vegetable Stew, and Pasta Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	11
chapter three. Stuffed Pasta Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	27
chapter four. Water and Salt Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	31
chapter five. Cheese Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	35
chapter six. Meat Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	43
chapter seven. The Farmyard Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	53
chapter eight. Fish Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	59
chapter nine. Salt-cured Products and Sausages Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	71
chapter ten. Vegetables and Fruits Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	87
chapter eleven. Fat Was Good Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	97
chapter twelve. Spices Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	103
chapter thirteen. The Atlantic, the East Indies, and a Few West Indies Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	111
chapter fourteen. From the Iberian Peninsula to the Distant Americas: The Sugar Route Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	115
chapter fifteen. From Europe to America Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	129
chapter sixteen. To Eat at the Same Mensa Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	141
chapter seventeen. Eating and Drinking Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	153
chapter eighteen. Dining with Discernment Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	163
Appendix: Dining with Christopher Columbus Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	169
Bibliography Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	179
Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	185

Language: English
Publisher: Columbia University Press
Audience: Professional and scholarly;
Pages
- Main content: 224
Illustrations
- Illustrations: 52
- Other: 52 illus

eBook

Published: October 17, 2001
ISBN: 9780231518451