Near a Thousand Tables by Felipe Fernández-Armesto

Near a Thousand Tables
    A History of Food
    F ELIPE F ERNÁNDEZ -A RMESTO
    FREE PRESS
    NEW YORK • LONDON • TORONTO • SYDNEY
    P RAISE FOR
N EAR A T HOUSAND T ABLES
    â€œAn appetizingly provocative book … Who cannot appreciate [a] superb description of the proper way to eat an oyster?”
    â€”
Los Angeles Times
    â€œThis survey of gastronomic lore can’t be beat.”
    â€”
Publishers Weekly
    â€œ
Near a Thousand Tables
belongs to that excellent … genre, the ‘brief history’. … [A] short, lively rundown on the subject. Bright, run, and naughty.”
    â€”
The New Yorker
    â€œWhether you are content with bread or your taste instead runs to snails or human flesh, you will take away from this book a new appreciation of your favorite menu.”
    â€”Jared M. Diamond, author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning
Guns, Germs, and Steel
    â€œWith gusto and analytical savvy, [Fernández-Armesto] traces the long and complex evolution of food since the Middle Ages. After reading this book, you’ll never think of eating the same again. Highly recommended!”
    â€”Douglas Brinkley, director, Eisenhower Center for American Studies
    â€œAs interesting to the hungry man in the street as it is to the austere academic.”
    â€”
The Wall Street Journal
(Europe)
    â€œA sparkling ramble through history which scatters countless pointers to new research along the way. It is intellectual history, but not in the least arid: His opinions are strong, but supremely palatable.”
    â€”
Financial Times
(London)

    F REE P RESS
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    Copyright © 2002 by Felipe Fernández-Armesto
    All rights reserved, including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form.
    First Free Press trade paperback edition 2004
    F REE P RESS and colophon are registered trademarks of Simon & Schuster Inc.
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    DESIGNED BY KEVIN HANEK
    SET IN ADOBE JENSON
    Manufactured in the United States of America
    3  5  7  9  10  8  6  4
    Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
    Fernández-Armesto, Felipe
    Near a thousand tables: a history of food / Felipe Fernández-Armesto.
    p.   cm.
    Includes bibliographical references and index.
    1. Food—History. I. Title.
    TX353.F437 2002
    641.3′009—dc21   2002023318
    ISBN-13: 978-0-7432-2740-7 (Pbk)
    ISBN-10:   0-7432-2740-9 (Pbk)
    eISBN-13: 978-0-743-23415-3

Contents

    Preface
    ONE
The Invention of Cooking
The First Revolution
    TWO
The Meaning of Eating
Food as Rite and Magic
    THREE
Breeding to Eat
The Herding Revolution: From “Collecting” Food to “Producing” It
    FOUR
The Edible Earth
Managing Plant Life for Food
    FIVE
Food and Rank
Inequality and the Rise of Haute Cuisine
    SIX
The Edible Horizon
Food and the Long-Range Exchange of Culture
    SEVEN
Challenging Evolution
Food and Ecological Exchange
    EIGHT
Feeding the Giants
Food and Industrialization in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries
    Notes
    Index
    Â 
    Il faut vivre pour manger et ne pas manger pour vivre.
    â€”MOLIÈRE, LE MALADE IMAGINAIRE
    What shall I tell you, my lady, of the secrets of nature I have learned while cooking?… One can philosophize quite well while preparing supper. Ioften say, when I have these little thoughts, “Had Aristotle cooked, he would have written a great deal more.”
    â€”JUANA INÉS DE LA CRUZ, EPÍSTOLA A FILOTEA
    And oft I thought (my fancy was so strong) That I, at last, a resting-place had found;
    â€œHere will I dwell,” said I, “my whole life long, Roaming the illimitable waters round; Here will I live, of all but heaven disowned, And end my days upon