What We Eat: A Global History of Food

by Pierre Singaravélou (Editor), Sylvain Venayre (editor), Stephen W. Sawyer (translator)

Ketchup seems iconically American, but the word comes from a Southeast Asian anchovy sauce, and today it is made largely from Chinese tomato paste. Japan’s beloved ramen arose from the meeting of Chinese noodles and American wheat flour before attaining worldwide popularity in both gourmet and convenience-food forms. The baguette is mythologized as a product of the French Revolution, but in fact it emerged during late-nineteenth-century urbanization. Colonialism brought baguettes to Vietnam, where street vendors devised a new banh mi, which refugees took with them around the world.

Telling these tales and many others, What We Eat explores world history through the lens of the global journeys of nearly ninety food products. Leading historians trace the origins and popularization of items commonly found in supermarkets, showing how each food illuminates wider histories. They consider the tension between the role of cuisine in shaping particular cultural identities and the standardization associated with globalization, and they demonstrate how foods have transformed as different societies have borrowed them. Chapters reveal the surprising sagas of coffee, cornflakes, gin, guacamole, hot dogs, hummus, naan, pet food, pizza, sparkling water, sushi, and many more. At once an intimate and a global history, What We Eat shows readers the everyday items on grocery store shelves in a new light.

Genres: Food, History, Nonfiction

360 pages, Paperback

Published August 12, 2025

Reviews

[Rebecca · Rating 1 out of 5]

Thanks so much to NetGalley for the free Kindle book. My review is voluntarily given, and my opinions are my own.

Really thought I was going to enjoy this, as I love learning about history. There is, in fact, tons of great historical information in here.

HOWEVER. Putting a slur in quotation marks doesn't change the fact that it is a slur! Multiple (many, many, many) times using the slur for the Romani people. The author obviously knew using it was a slur, otherwise he wouldn't have put it in quotation marks every single time. I am also very disappointed with Columbia University Press.

[OutlawPoet · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is interesting, but not quite as fun as I'd hoped.

This is a series of essays about all sorts of food. Some items are common like Coca Cola or Chili con Carne. Others, like Indomie, are things I'd never heard of. Because the essays are written by different people, they all have different styles. I found many of them to be very factual and dry. A few others seemed to have more humor about them, but those were fewer than I'd have liked.

As I stated, the book is interesting, but maybe best taken in small chunks - maybe paging through to see which foods you'd like to learn more about. This history bits are enlightening.

I did find myself wishing that this had been written in a bit more of an entertaining style.

[Darius Ostrowski · Rating 2 out of 5]

I have mixed feelings about “What We Eat: A Global History of Food”, edited by Pierre Singaravélou and Sylvain Venayre, translated by Stephen W. Sawyer. On the positive side, it provides interesting glimpses of both everyday foods (ketchup, salt, hamburgers) and more exotic/foreign cuisine (hedgehog stew, dogmeat, Turkish Delight), I did learn a lot of interesting histories and facts about a wide range of foods. On the negative side, there were two main issues (for me): first of all, it was definitely written by academics, with the usual weird combination of assuming you knew a lot of background on the topic while also providing a random selection of background and history with very little coherent narrative. And secondly, it was definitely written by and for the French, as most of the food as well as the facts and figures all dealt with foodstuffs that one would find in France. This should not be an issue for the French, but for a U.S. reader some of the information was not really applicable, and some of the sections were on food that’s not even readily available in the states.

This book is a collection of short (2-3 page) informative essays on approximately 90 different foods, arranged alphabetically, written by several different academics. Each essay delves into some of the history and cultural significance of the item in question, focusing on how different cultures and global events/patterns have influenced much of the food we eat.

The common food entries were interesting, proving some international perspective on foods that we tend to associate with a certain culture or ethnicity (hamburgers, ketchup, pizza). Some of the less common foods to Americans (Roquefort, Naan, Yak Butter) have interesting histories and show us how globalization is changing our diets. And then there were the foods that were completely foreign to me and that I had to look up (Acheke, Dafina, Feijoada, Lato) which I may have learned something, but still unsure what!

Somewhat interesting, but not for everyone.

I requested and received a free advanced electronic copy from Columbia University Press via NetGalley. Thank you!

[GONZA · Rating 3 out of 5]

Paraphrasing Harry Potter, we could subtitle this book “Fantastic Foods and Where to Find Them, How They Were Created, Discovered, Used.” I don't think I could write a better review than this, but I suggest reading it in pieces or perhaps scouting out the strangest (or even not) foods we happened to taste.

Parafrasando Harry Potter potremmo sottotitolare questo libro "Cibi fantastici e dove trovarli, come sono stati creati, scoperti, utilizzati". Non credo di poter scrivere una recensione migliore di questa, ma suggerisco di leggerlo a pezzi o magari di scovarci i cibi piú strane (o anche no) che ci é capitato di assaggiare.

I received from the Publisher a complimentary digital advanced review copy of the book in exchange for a honest review.

[Shari · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a book bursting with interesting and sometimes surprising information about food. It's structured like an encyclopedia, with short essays about specific foods and beverages presented in alphabetical order. The essays are written by various people and each ends with suggestions for further reading, where more detail can be found. The essays provide a history of each food/drink as well as the cultural context in which they originated and, if appropriate, the ways in which the food/drink spread to different parts of the world and changed to fit in with new cultures and tastes. The book is extremely well done. It would be excellent to have sitting in a convenient spot, ready to be picked up, opened at random, and enjoyed for a few minutes or longer, depending on how much time you have. I think reading the book in chunks might be the best way to consume it, rather than reading from start to finish, but of course that would be a matter of personal taste. Everyone will have their own preferences for the contents as well and some essays will be of more interest than others. I chose not to read the essay on dog meat, for example. The book is translated from French.
It's a fascinating collection of essays which provides excellent summaries of the history and culture of many different kinds of food and drink and also points readers in the direction of more detailed information should they wish to know more. For those interested in food, I wholeheartedly recommend it.

I thank NetGalley and Columbia University Press for a DRC.

[Beebriy · Rating 3 out of 5]

**I received an ARC of this.**

This is a collection of short essays (3-4 pages, including bibliographies) covering the history of different foods. While I did find it interesting, it wasn't quite what I was expecting.

It was really neat reading these brief histories of foods and how they came to be, and several of them made me want to look further into the foods. I appreciated the wide variety of types of foods, as well as the different cultural and regional backgrounds of them. I certainly didn't expect to read about the history of pet food here!

For me, the formatting could have been better. The foods being ordered alphabetically was jarring at times. I wonder if it wouldn't be better to have them grouped by type instead. Some words, especially if they were titles of articles or books, weren't translated (this seemed to be on a case by case basis, and in some entries they were translated, while in others they weren't).

I didn't realize these short essays would be written by several different academics. Some of the writing styles of these academics worked better than others. I felt like some of them tried a little too hard to create interesting "hook" first paragraphs (looking at you, Gin) that just didn't work for me. There were also terms used that I had no familiarity with, and someone who hasn't read a lot of academic work about food.

[Melissa · Rating 3 out of 5]

*This book was received as an Advanced Reviewer's Copy from Netgalley.

What We Eat is a compilation of short history snippets on various food items that are popular around the world. Giving a summary in just a few pages (with some associated references), everything from Pizza to Feijoada is covered.

While I enjoyed learning about various foods, there were a few that struck me as odd (pet food?). I also would have much preferred the food to be organized into type instead of alphabetical order as it seemed disjointed to go from gin to pizza to whiskey instead of putting drinks, snacks, etc. together. I did like that I got introduced to foods I may not have thought of along the way though (like yak butter).

This isn't a book for someone who wants to learn a lot about a particular thing, but if you're looking for short snippets of informative information on food, this would fit that criteria.

Review by M. Reynard 2025

[Book Club of One · Rating 4 out of 5]

What We Eat: A Global History of Food, is 88 brief but wide ranging articles detailed the development, cultural histories and contemporary food ways from Acheke to Yogurt. Food is very much the main subject, but also the entry point for discussing cultural commonalities, economics, global distribution systems or societal homogenization.

Those 88 entries are written by a variety of food writers, historians or others, and are all short and encyclopedic. They offer wide ranging histories, in some cases giving credit to the originators, but always bringing things to the modern era and offering links to other related articles in the book or five or fewer sources for further reading. There are what are now considered common foods to Americans like curry, bagels or ketchup. But there are also entries of the less familiar to the mainstream Acheke, Dogmeat, or endangered traditional foods like Hedgehog stew.

A fascinating book about the ways food shapes us and we shape food, and will benefit from browsing.

Recommended to readers of food, Gastro Obscura or cultural practices.

I received a free digital version of this book via NetGalley thanks to the publisher.

[bookworm · Rating 3 out of 5]

What do wine and yogurt have in common?
How did the bagel come to the USA?
And what does ketchup have to do with NASA?

What We Eat is an incredibly interesting and entertaining book about the global history of food. It's very insightful, and while some of the facts mentioned are certainly familiar, there was, at least for me, a wealth of new information in this book.
I think it's great that the chapters are relatively short; this keeps the individual topics from getting boring. You can simply browse through the book and choose the topic that interests you—it doesn't have to be read in order.

I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in the history behind the foods we know today.

[Deanna · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a perfect read for the foodies out there. I love learning about food and their origins so this was perfect for me. It’s very informative and you can learn a lot about something you love or learn about a whole new food in general. I liked that each food has its own designated part instead of just paragraphs on different topics all bunched together. I’d definitely say this is something that you just pick up and read throughout a period of time because it can be a bit slow at points but I really enjoyed my time with it and would recommend it to anyone who is interested in their food and how it came to be.

*Thank you NetGalley for this arc*

[Molly · Rating 4 out of 5]

Perfect for the amateur food anthropologist (or any other foodie), What We Eat is a fascinating read giving the history and uses of various food items. In fact, there is so much information given, I felt the book should get a high rating. Unfortunately, the items the editors picked to write about seem random at times. Perhaps this is due to a cultural difference between myself and the editors but I still found it a bit distracting to my enjoyment. Also the actually formatting of the book is very textbook like making the information-dense entries a bit more of a struggle to read. Overall though, I would recommend this book to anyone who appreciates learning about foods.

[Helen Frost · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fantastic delve into the world of food, enough to whet anyone’s appetite for information. The topics are served up in short and snappy chapters on a wide variety of foodstuffs, from the well known to the more obscure. An easy book to dip in and out of either as a quick snack or a longer feast. The information presented includes the history of the food, some fascinating facts about it and the country of origin and how it came to be. I thoroughly enjoyed this and found it entertaining as much as informative. Definitely lots to think about aka food for thought. A definite recommend from me.

[Anna · Rating 1 out of 5]

Netgalley ARC- Not as much fun a read as I had hoped. It might have been lost in translation, or it might have been that it's a collection of tidbits written by different people. The editor however fell asleep, as most essays were rife with run-on sentences and other
oddities that made it difficult to get excited about it. The concept would be great, maybe digested (pun intended) as smaller portions. I did like that it wasn't just food that Americans would recognize but included foods beloved by all cultures. Feels like it's not complete and could use some more time in the oven.

[Christine Zandt · Rating 5 out of 5]

I like how there's such a wide range of international foods included. I checked the book out from my library and like it enough to consider buying it. I was reseaching specific items but found myself reading many of the other chapters. This book provides a more global perpective in its content.

[Callie · Rating 2 out of 5]

Boring and did not finish

[Nicolina Barone · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thank you NetGalley for the e-arc!

Very informative! As someone whose culture revolves around food, I loved getting the chance to really learn the history of some of my favorite dishes. This is a book perfect for expanding your knowledge of food and the history behind it. It was a perfect book to pick up at any time when I wanted to expand my mind. I even found myself reaching for the book after eating some of my favorite foods. For instance, the chapter on ceviche was very interesting, learning about how different cultures may add their own ingredients and concoctions. As an Italian, the Noodles and Macaroni chapter was also interesting for me!