British Food: An Extraordinary Thousand Years of History

by Colin Spencer (Author)

• Used

  Hardcover
  2002

  $3.42

  After 1100 English cooking reached a high degree of gastronomy, which it shared internationally with the courts of Europe. Medieval food was stylish and tasteful, it was food designed to please and satisfy very sophisticated palates and right up to the mid 19th century it had epochs and phases of greatness. So how did we throw all that away? And not only throw it all away but forget all about it? This book attempts to trace the changes and influences of food in Britain through the Black Death, the Enclosures, the Reformation, the rise of Capitalism and the sado-masochism of the Victorian non-conformists to the present day. It should remind us all of our rich past and the gastronomic importance of the cuisine of these islands.

• Used

  Paperback
  2004

  $4.70

  This important award-winning book is a breath-taking attempt to trace the changes to and influences on food in Britain from the Black Death, through the Enclosures, the Reformation, the Industrial Revolution, the rise of Capitalism to the present day. There has been a recent wave of interest in food culture and history and Colin Spencer's masterful, readable account of our culinary history is a celebrated contribution to the genre. There has never been such an exciting, broad-scoped history of the food of these islands. It should remind us all of our rich past and the gastronomic importance of British cuisine.