Empires of Food

Oct 5, 2024 10:26 PM

Author:Andrew Rimas,Evan D. G. Fraser

Empires of Food

For thousands of years we have grown, cooked and traded food, and over that time much has changed. Where once we subsisted on gritty, bland grains, we now enjoy culinary creations and epicurean delights made with vegetables from the New World, fish trawled from the deep sea, and flavoured with spices from the Orient.

But how did we make that change from eating for survival to the innovations of modern cuisine? How has food helped to shape our culture? And what will happen when global warming and peak oil have their inevitable effect on agriculture?

Empires of Food is an authoritative exploration of the innumerable ways that food has changed the course of history. The earliest cities, after all, were founded on the creation and exchange of food surpluses, and since then trade routes of ever greater sophistication have developed. We've built complex societies by shunting corn and wheat and rice along rivers, up deforested hillsides, and into the stockpots of history.

But we cannot go on forever. As Evan D. G. Fraser and Andrew Rimas compellingly show, the abundance that we all enjoy comes at a price, and unless we think of a more sustainable way to grow, eat and enjoy food, we may find that our civilization reaches its best before date.

Reviews

[A] lively history of food

—— Metro

It is a dense and intensive read, but the pair's flair for scene-setting rhetoric and well-timed wit lifts it from the drier tones of academia

—— Book of the Week , Time Out

A richly entertaining history of our relationship with the food that we put on our plates

—— Express

This isn't just first class scholarship, it's energetic writing ... a must-read for anyone who wants to know why every night a billion people got to bed obese and another billion go to bed hungry

—— George Alagiah

It is an absorbing, fascinating and timely book. The analysis ... is compelling, and their warning is stark. Best of all, it's a rattling good read

—— Matthew Fort

Food is powerful stuff not to be trifled with. A grand read

—— Fergus Henderson

A lively, informative, panic-free guide to the end of our "food empire" and where we go from here

—— Jeremy Harding, Contributing Editor, LRB

This is a wonderfully entertaining memoir, gossipy, touching and tender, even if at times it verges on self-parody. This book is suffused with his irrepressible joie de vivre and is never less than entertaining

—— Literary Review

Haslam writes evocatively and touchingly

—— Peter Parker , Times Literary Supplement

The high priest of wit, hilarity and name-dropping...but apart from all of the names - the names! - the joy of this book comes from Nicky's undying joie de vivre

—— Matthew Bell , Independent on Sunday

Haslam is an intriguing man...[and] can write wonderfully well

—— The Spectator, Susan Hill

A baroque soufflé of names, faces, bitchy asides and put-downs, sprinkled with funny anecdotes.

—— Camilla Long , Sunday Times

Though full of as much gossip as you might expect from the inveterate socialite, this memoir is also interestingly clever

—— Daily Telegraph

The interior designer, journalist and socialite Nicky Haslam has met almost everyone who's anyone

—— Brandon Robshaw , Independent on Sunday

It is...boisterously good company and proof that if Haslam knows one thing, it's that you can only get away with a life like his if you are never, ever boring.

—— Claire Allfree , Metro

a terrifically entertaining read

—— Carla McKay , Daily Mail

extremely diverting, essentially kind-hearted and well written

—— William Leith , Evening Standard

Aaronovitch aims to do more than expose popular nonsense

—— Rafael Behr , Observer

Forensically intelligent and hugely enjoyable study of modern conspiracy theories...consistently reasonable, persuasive and humane

—— Christopher Hart , Sunday Times

Solid, well-researched and unexpectedly gripping

—— Christopher Hirst , Independent

[Aaronovitch] is, broadly speaking, an enemy of conspiracy theories. He is also articulate, well versed in the facts and a good writer

—— William Leith , Scotsman

Aaronovitch painstakingly dissects these and some of the other great conspiracy theories of the age and demonstrates with merciless clarity what utter tripe they are.

—— Mail on Sunday

A serious, entertaining and shocking investigation into the stuff that conspiracy theories are made of. Aaronovitch guides us through the half-truths and speculation and examines the distrust of officialdom which fuels conspiracists' imagination.

—— Independent on Sunday

In its many-layered discoveries, the book is truly magnetic

—— Jane Knight , The Times

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