Breakfast: A History

The Meals Series

by Heather Arndt Anderson

Breakfast: A History tells the story of how breakfast came to be the most important meal of the day. From the humble Roman times of stale bread soaked in diluted wine, to the drive-through McMuffin boom of the 1970s, Breakfast takes the reader on a lively adventure through time, uncovering the real stories behind our favorite breakfast foods. Breakfast is not just the meal that gets us going in the morning, but a driving force in history— forever altering the lives of peasants and kings alike, inspiring great works of art, and even changing the way we build our homes.

Full of wry humor and captivating anecdotes, Breakfast is a treat for students of history, gastronomes, and anyone who's ever wondered where their waffles came from.

Genres: Food, History, Nonfiction, Food History, Microhistory, Food and Drink, Cooking

239 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2013

About the author

Heather Arndt Anderson is an Emmy-winning writer based in Portland, Oregon She writes about food, plants, and history.

Heather is the author of Berries: A Global History, Chillies: A Global History, Portland: A Food Biography, and Breakfast: A History. She writes the weekly Superabundant newsletter for Oregon Public Broadcasting.

Reviews

[Dawn's book diary · Rating 5 out of 5]

یکی از جالب‌ترین ناداستان‌هایی که خوندم.
توی این کتاب هر آنچه درباره‌ی وعده‌ی صبحانه می‌دونین یا نمی‌دونین، اومده. مثلاً فصل اول درباره‌ی مسئله‌ی صبحانه در قرن‌های گذشته‌ست که نخوردنش فضیلت به حساب می‌اومده. یکی از فصل‌ها درباره‌ی صبحانه در سرتاسر دنیاست و اینکه چه غذاهایی معمولاً توی این وعده خورده می‌شه و داستان / تاریخچه‌ی پشت بعضیاشون. تمرکز فصل‌های بعدی عمدتاً روی صبحانه و اثرش روی فرهنگ و تاریخ آمریکاست ولی هرکدوم جذابیت خودشونو دارن؛ فصل صبحانه در منزل، صبحانه بیرون از منزل و صبحانه در هنر و ادبیات که این فصل آخری به نظرم یه کم کسالت‌بار بود.
نمی‌دونم این کتاب به فارسی ترجمه شده یا نه، ولی به نظرم ارزش ترجمه شدن داره. چون خوندنیه و دید متفاوتی نسبت به خیلی از پدیده‌های دور و برتون می‌ده. کتابِ درباره‌ی صبحانه دید متفاوتی می‌ده؟ بله، بخونین تا متوجه حرفم بشین!😁

[Mara · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the kind of books that as a professional translator I love. They challenge you on every phrase, they astound you with the sheer amount of knowledge they show. They make you despair at being able to reproduce the wit and sarcasm.

As a reader I was bellyaching at the end. First because I had to stop and organize a serious breakfast midway through. I simply could not resist. (FYI: scones, British of course, barley salad with goat cheese (pecorino) and tomatoes, fresh cherries and strawberries, platter of cheese, plenty of tea, small buns with ham).
Last because I was laughing so hard at times at her witty (and often) sarcastic repartees.

I was lucky I read it during a weekend, really. Without a single recipe on its pages, Breakfast does make you want to cook.

I'm not joking either on the knowledge that was poured in to it. The author moves from the linguistic and cultural to the historical and political layers of breakfast. She quotes every culture and language of the world, from mandarin to ancient Greek, from modern day Middle East languages to Germanic ones. You can't believe so much could be said on the subject. And without a single moment of boredom.

If you are a food or a history buff you simply can't miss this book.
ARC courtesy of publisher via NetGalley

[Rebecca · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book isn't even available to the public until later this year, yet I have already managed to read the whole thing and review it. How is this possible? That's not important. The important thing is that this book is the only book about the history of breakfast you will ever need to read. Did you know eating breakfast was once considered a low-class or even immoral act? Do you know how cornflakes were invented? Do you wonder what Quentin Tarantino is doing on the pages of Breakfast: A History? If you want to know the answers to all these intriguing questions, you know where to find them.

[sarah gilbert · Rating 5 out of 5]

Like Rebecca Kelley, I was fortunate to read this book in workshop, and we would compete with each other every week to say "funny!" "fascinating!" and "I can't believe I never knew that!" in new ways. Heather is snarky and sly but does not let her sense of humor get in the way of a truly deep and intelligent analysis of the history of everything from gruel to huevos rancheros for breakfast. She plumbs the depths of classical literature and history for information on breakfasts enjoyed by great philosophers and world leaders; she examines anthropological history for information on breakfasts eaten by peasants and field laborers. She makes you hungry.

I suggest reading this book in small doses, after a full breakfast inspired by the previous day's reading. Otherwise you'll end up (like us) with strange cravings for granola or Johnnycakes or eggs Benedict at odd times.

[Mark Russell · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm not a "foodie." I barely know anything about food beyond what's good at the Whole Foods deli. And yet, I was utterly captivated by Breakfast. It's just the right combination of information, witty insight, and surprisingly hilarious quotes and anecdotes from history's never-ending quest for the perfect breakfast.

[Annie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Breakfast is something everyone has experienced . . . this author excepted.

This book is a perfectly ordinary history of breakfast, interspersed with rather bizarre, alien-like editorializing. It’s hard to explain, and it’s subtle. But it’s definitely a thing you notice after a few chapters. Take my word for it (or read the book).

What I’m saying is, Heather Arndt Anderson is a lizard person. A nice lizard person who’s good at researching. But a lizard person nonetheless.

Heather, we all know the truth. There’s no need to pretend anymore. You’re among friends here, gentle lizard.

---------COVER ART---------

I don’t typically comment on cover art, but this is truly hideous. It looks like a seventh grade Health Class textbook from McGraw Hill. You know the type:





And the thing is, they had such great subject material! Breakfast has so much visual potential. I mean, compare this to the artful cover of White Bread.

This was just such an artistic failure, guys. Do better.

---------FUN FACTS---------

Lizard people aside, this was a decent history of breakfast. Not the most interesting microhistory I’ve ever read, but nice enough. There are some fun facts and entertaining historical quotes to glean here. Like:

—If you went out for breakfast in the 1850s in the western US, and you ordered your fry-up “with cheesecake,” your omelet comes with sexual services.

—People are less likely to commit violent crimes if they eat breakfast; glucose is your friend. (Intuitive, but still a fun fact).

—The “board” in “room and board” comes from the 16th-century use of a blank across one’s lap for eating, before dining tables were commonplace in humbler homes.

—We all need to be much more grateful for toasters than we are. Toast used to be one of the hardest things to make (held over the fire; the timing was critical), and the sign of a truly well-kept household was halfway decent toast. Thank you, humble toasters, for letting us have perfect toast every morning.

—Eleanor Roosevelt, as always, is the best First Lady. When she was chatting with GIs, she came upon a crew of cooks preparing breakfast; she saw one slapping dough against his chest. “Isn’t that a funny way to make pancakes?” she observed. “That’s nothing,” the cook replied. “You ought to see how we make donuts.”

—Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose. A journalist wrote in 1895 that “by eliminating the need to get up early on Sunday, brunch would make life brighter for Saturday-night carousers. It would promote human happiness in other ways as well. Brunch is cheerful, sociable, and inciting. It is talk-compelling. It puts you in a good temper, it makes you satisfied with yourself and your fellow beings, it sweeps away the worries and cobwebs of the week.” Damn straight it does.

—An educator wrote five tips for college students in 1902: “(1) Get enough sleep; (2) exercise; (3) eat plenty of simple food, but not too much; (4) don’t worry; and (5) have fun. In a word, be a good animal.” Be a good animal indeed. I like this advice.

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very interesting, really good discussion on breakfast. I never knew the Catholic church banned breakfast. I never really thought about why the foods we eat are considered breakfast- or more importantly that they once weren't. While I wished she had done more on none western cultures, they do make an appearance and there is a lot of fascinating stuff in a fairly fast read.

[Angel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Actually, I would give this 4.5, but Goodreads does not allow fractions it seems. At any rate, this is a very good book, one I think will become the "go to" book on the topic.

You can read my full review of the book on my blog, The Itinerant Librarian, at the link.

Link: http://itinerantlibrarian.blogspot.co...

[Art Edwards · Rating 5 out of 5]

Engaging and urbane and fun, this book oozes like a broken egg yoke with Arndt Anderson's wealth of culinary knowledge, witty asides, and delicious quotes from days of breakfast yore. If you don't like this book, I'll eat beef tongue for breakfast for a month.

[Pancha · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book has lots of interesting tidbits about breakfast the meal and breakfast food items, but some of the information really overlaps to the point that it sometimes feels like the early chapters were written as separate essays and rather than parts of a larger whole.

[Reine Gentozala · Rating 4 out of 5]

Just started and on the second page she mentions the mythical yellow emperor as Qin Shi Huangdi. Qin Shi Huangdi is the first emperor of China and Huangdi is the mythical yellow emperor. Let's see if this book will disappoint more. I guess get your China facts straight.

[Kara · Rating 5 out of 5]

An awesome little micro history. A surprising amount of serious, dramatic history behind what many consider a sedate, quiet meal.

[Mark]

http://itinerantlibrarian.blogspot.co...

[Preetam Chatterjee · Rating 5 out of 5]

#Binge Reviewing my previous Reads #Food History

If The Botany of Desire made me suspicious of apples, Heather Arndt Anderson’s Breakfast: A History made me suspicious of my toast. This is the kind of book that proves your first meal of the day isn’t just about fuel—it’s a cultural performance, a ritual, and sometimes a battleground of identity.

Anderson takes us on a sunrise-to-sunset tour of how people have broken their fasts across time and space. Ancient Romans, famously, didn’t do breakfast—it was considered lazy, even a little immoral, to eat early. Mediaeval Europeans, meanwhile, treated morning food as something only the weak (children, the elderly, and labourers) indulged in.

The whole “most important meal of the day” idea? That’s a 20th-century invention, built on advertising, nutrition science, and the marketing genius of cereal companies. (Yes, John Harvey Kellogg shows up again, lurking like the godfather of granola guilt.)

The book doesn’t just linger in the West—it spreads the table wide. You get Chinese congee steaming in clay pots, Japanese rice and miso soup, Mexican chilaquiles, Turkish spreads of olives and cheese, and the full English breakfast in all its artery-clogging glory. Anderson’s prose makes you hungry and thoughtful at the same time, which is the best combo for food history.

What fascinated me most was how breakfast reflects power, class, and even colonial history. Coffee and tea fueled empires and industrial workers alike. Sugar-loaded pastries and jams were once elite indulgences but trickled down as mass production cheapened them. And the American diner breakfast—pancakes, eggs, bacon, orange juice—became a cultural shorthand for wholesomeness, even though it’s as constructed as any political campaign.

Reading this book felt like flipping through a global menu with footnotes. Suddenly, my morning coffee didn’t just wake me up; it plugged me into centuries of trade, slavery, migration, and marketing. Even the humble egg, sunny-side up, started to look like a history lesson disguised as comfort food.

If Jane Ziegelman’s 97 Orchard shows us how immigrant kitchens shaped American cuisine, Anderson’s Breakfast reminds us that the rituals we take for granted each morning are anything but natural—they’re invented, marketed, and globalised.

[David · Rating 3 out of 5]

(Unsurprisingly) reads like a dissertation — albeit a fascinating one — and is Anglican-American and European centric.

personal Highlights: The author traces the root of words that have come to mean morning meal in Western European languages: breakfast from the Latin disieunare or “unfast,” almuerzo from the Latin admordere or “to bite”, petit déjeuner (small lunch / un-fast), and colazione from Latin word for supper “collationem.”

And there are some fascinating tidbits in the breakfast around the world section: “schi da kasha — pischa nasha” (Russian proverb~ «cabbage soup & porridge are our sustenance»), fava-based فُول in Egypt, chickpea-based لَبلَابِي in Tunisia, rice cold with pickled vegetables or prescroissantserved plums in summer in Japan (see asagayu-inspired poem below), dried cornmeal mixed with water in the stomach for on-the-move Iroquois, Greek meals being bread and “opson” (“everything else”), fried dough with congee in much of China, and croissants coming to France from the Austrian “kipferl in the 1830s.

asagayu no
za kara mi ni iku
yanagi kana

(my morning porridge
and then I’ll go see
the willow blossom)

[Cassandra · Rating 3 out of 5]

Arndt takes us on a tour of the bedrooms of history but the topic under discussion is only as salacious as a little wine or beer for breakfast. Arndt explores the history of breakfast - exploring how recent our trends and morning morals are. Drinking, she says, was relatively common at the time. Early Romans ate hard bread dipped in watered down wine. Brits, too, drank beer or lager. It was until later that our three favorite stimulants were discovered and proliferated - chocolate (originally a hot drink), tea and coffee. She takes us until the 21st century, showing us that the breakfast mores of the modern era are just that - modern - and that stuffy old men have been telling us what to eat for hundreds of years - often totally changing their mind. Arndt gives us a decent history - it isn't riveting but it held my attention for a time - and at the end of the day - liberated any sense I ever had that I wasn't eating breakfast, or the proper breakfast. History has changed its mind about this early morning - including the fact that it wasn't always eaten in early morning - meal multiple times. So if you want to eat ice cream for breakfast, go ahead.

[John William · Rating 4 out of 5]

Breakfast: A History by Heather Arndt Anderson is a fascinating and richly detailed exploration of the most important meal of the day. Blending culinary history with cultural insights, Anderson traces the evolution of breakfast from ancient civilizations to the modern era, highlighting how social norms, economic shifts, and technological innovations have shaped our morning routines. The book is both informative and entertaining, filled with surprising facts—like the role of religion and industrialization in shaping breakfast customs—and engaging anecdotes that bring the history to life. Anderson’s writing is clear and accessible, making complex historical developments feel relevant and engaging. Whether discussing medieval porridge, the rise of breakfast cereals, or the global variations in morning meals—including the modern phenomenon of fast food breakfasts and trends like chick fila breakfast time she presents a compelling case for how breakfast reflects larger societal trends. Overall, Breakfast: A History is a delightful read for food lovers, history buffs, and anyone curious about the stories behind what we eat.

[Melissa · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm down for any food history, and breakfast is one of those meals that nearly everyone loves (well, actually, except me, but anyways). This one had some interesting facts, but ultimately felt a bit disjointed and repetitive in nature.

The author gives us origin, explanation of various "common" breakfast foods (separated into categories like grains, vegetables, drinks, etc.), breakfast in pop culture, and a few other tidbits. It had a lot of descriptive information and the section on the foods itself was the largest. Smallest was the pop culture, which actually surprised me a bit (as did the order, there's a reference to something in the movie part, and then immediately in the book part it came out with the whole backhistory, would have made more sense to switch). Ultimately it wasn't a huge issue, but just something noticeable during reading.

If you love breakfast and/or food history, this is still going to want to be put on your to-read list. Just be aware that you may bounce around a bit.

Review by M. Reynard 2022

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fantastic! I don’t know the last time I enjoyed a nonfiction book so much. The history and inclusion of stories and tidbits of knowledge were fascinating and well-composed. The author is skilled, both hilarious and genius— sharp wit, excellent command of language and use of words.

Some parts of the book were laugh out loud funny; others were fascinating and I couldn’t read through some parts fast enough. I personally felt the last chapter (I believe it was called Breakfast in Arts or in the Media?) was unnecessary and the ending left some to be desired. Other than the last chapter though, a fantastic read. I recommend to any breakfast lover or simply to anyone curious or looking for a solid nonfiction book pick.

4.5 stars

[Olatomiwa Bifarin · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great resource on the history of breakfast. I didn't read the entire book; I only focused on the first chapter: History and Social Context. The author works the reader through breakfast from prehistory to the Kelloggs' days (of corn flakes) and beyond. Whether breakfast was had, what they ate, and why it was eaten.

[Theresa · Rating 3 out of 5]

The beginning of the book was the most interesting, breakfast through history. Something I take for granted breakfast, what it means, the type of food eaten, has really changed throughout time. It was interesting and informative.
The end of the book was less interesting breakfast in movies and art.

[hl]

i enjoyed this book (very bill bryson-esque) and learnt a lot; it's a pretty easy read. even though there is a little of global history sprinkled in, the author largely concentrates on breakfast history in w. europe + n. america.

[Eli Claire · Rating 3 out of 5]

A fascinating (if somewhat repetitive) general overview of the history of breakfast. I ended up researching quite a few things I read, and was grateful for the bibliography! I was looking for a ‘non-depressing nonfiction book,’ and this one fit the bill. Now … I’m going to make some toast.

[Alison · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well researched but repetitive in parts. Could have used a better editor. The factoids and anecdotes are so interesting though! Just go in knowing you will read some of the same quips or facts three times.

[Ruth · Rating 3 out of 5]

More than you'll ever need to know about the history of this meal! Tons of facts :)

[Catherine · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hated the last chapter, skip that on a re-read, but lots of fun facts and generally engaging.

[Taco Vink · Rating 4 out of 5]

lekker.

[Alison · Rating 3 out of 5]

Enjoyed reading the weird history of breakfast. Some odd commentary thrown in and a few repetitive sections, but overall learned a few facts!

[Audrey Approved]

very, very academic

[Robert Peate · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ms. Anderson presents a history of "the most important meal of the day" from antiquity to the present, highlighting the interesting stories behind what we do and what we no longer do. Did you know the ancient Greeks ate donuts? Do you know what they dipped them in? It wasn't coffee or tea. Ms. Anderson seasons her history with the perfect mixture of facts, quotations, and witticisms designed to keep the reader both educated and entertained. Her research alone is astounding, but her writing organization and wit are the icings on the cake.

I cannot imagine a better book on the topic. Foodies will rejoice to devour this delectable discovery!