The Food Book: The Stories, Science, and History of What We Eat, New Edition

by D.K. Publishing

Discover the origins, traditions, and use of the everyday foods served up on our plates, from salt to sushi and rice to ravioli.A true celebration of food in all its forms, The Food Book follows the human quest for sustenance through the stories of individual ingredients and examines our millenia-long relationship with nearly 200 foods—from nuts and seeds to noodles and meat—with the help of sumptuous illustrations and tales from all over the world.Food is the cornerstone of daily life, culture, and even religion. Staples like bread, beans, and cereal crops are part of our culinary history, and used in many ways around the world. This fascinating reference covers all food groups, including nuts and grains, fruit and vegetables, meat and fish, and herbs and spices, providing information on every aspect of their history, and their place in world cuisine.Packed with glorious images to create a feast for the eyes, and stories that surprise and enthrall, this is the ultimate feast for foodies, a global smorgasbord packed with unforgettable tales and eye-opening facts.

Genres: Food, History, Nonfiction, Cookbooks, Science

392 pages, Hardcover

Published September 10, 2024

About the author

Dorling Kindersley (DK) is a British multinational publishing company specializing in illustrated reference books for adults and children in 62 languages. It is part of Penguin Random House, a consumer publishing company jointly owned by Bertelsmann SE & Co. KGaA and Pearson PLC. Bertelsmann owns 53% of the company and Pearson owns 47%.

Established in 1974, DK publishes a range of titles in genres including travel (including Eyewitness Travel Guides), arts and crafts, business, history, cooking, gaming, gardening, health and fitness, natural history, parenting, science and reference. They also publish books for children, toddlers and babies, covering such topics as history, the human body, animals and activities, as well as licensed properties such as LEGO, Disney and DeLiSo, licensor of the toy Sophie la Girafe. DK has offices in New York, London, Munich, New Delhi, Toronto and Melbourne.

Source: Wikipedia.

Reviews

[Callen · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was okay. I didn’t find the various anecdotes to be as compelling as I expected. Love the layouts and format.

[Sylvia · Rating 5 out of 5]

Written for the culinary/food interested rather than a fanatic, this book gives an interesting, quick overview of a good number of common foodstuffs. Curiously, I found a few common foods such as romaine lettuce, broccoli, and cauliflower, to name just a few, missing, however, I guess an intro book like this can't possibly mention everything. I enjoyed the pictures and brief histories offered. I would have liked a page or two of photos for the "additional foods" section since most of these were obscure and not readily identifiable.

[Taylor Buser · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is lovingly made, if a bit formulaic, but has some serious factual issues.

Seaweed and mushroom are in vegetables, but mushrooms are not vegetables, they are fungi, which is its own kingdom.
Seaweed is also not a plant, as they claim in the book, it is a colony of single celled organisms, hence the name “unidaria”

Also, the vegetable section is full of inaccuracies and half of it is actually fruit or legumes.

Fun read but will confuse people.

[Patricia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Overall, this book was really interesting and I learned a lot. Sometimes the choices of what foods to spotlight were a little odd. You could tell someone high up in the editorial process was from the UK because it definitely skewed that way. Also, SO many fish???? Obviously fish are important, but it was really exhaustive in only that category.

[Augusto Bernardi · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book was very boring. Just going through each possible ingredient, one by one and giving a real vague and frankly often inaccurate overview, does not make it book. Certainly not a good one. It feels like something A.I wrote. A.I probably did write it so it can go to fucking hell. I changed my mind and am giving this a 1 star instead. Couldn't possibly have less character in the writing.

[Randolph · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is both entertaining and educational! I listen to the audiobook version, so I didn’t see the illustrations. However, the author was able to explain the history and importance of the different categories of food.