Art, Culture, and Cuisine: Ancient and Medieval Gastronomy FROM THE PUBLISHER
In Art, Culture, and Cuisine, Phyllis Pray Bober examines cooking through the dual lens of archaeology and art history. Bober seeks to understand the minds and hearts of those who practiced cookery or consumed it as reflected in the visual art of the time.. "Art, Culture, and Cuisine describes prehistoric eating in ancient Turkey; traditions of the great civilizations of Egypt, Mesopotamia, Greece, and Rome: and rituals of the Middle Ages and the "Late Gothic International" period. To satisfy the adventurous reader, Bober has included old menus and recipes with contemporary adaptations.
FROM THE CRITICS
New York Times Book Review
...[A]n ambitious attempt to find culinary echoes of visual and sociological movements throughout history.
Library Journal
Using gastronomy (not "cookery"!) as its focus, lacy language as its style, and illustrations to enchant, Art, Culture, and Cuisine researches exactly those subjects from the time of the "first hominids" to the 15th century. The chapters in this academic work by a humanities professor follow a time line: prehistory, ancient Egypt, Mesopotamia, the "Hellenic Experience," ancient Rome, the early Middle Ages, and "Late Gothic International Style," which covers the Crusades to 1400. There is so much historical fact that only Bober's steady fidelity to her theme keeps this book from being too diffuse. Although we are dealing with solid scholarship (there are many pages of notes and bibliography), the writing is extremely witty, and the dinner menus with recipes are esoteric, delightful, and mostly doable--even if one must accept substitutes like sheep's stomach in the absence of an available "sow's womb." Highly recommended for large public, special, and academic libraries.--Wendy Miller, Lexington P.L., KY Copyright 1999 Cahners Business Information.
New York Times Book Review
...[A]n ambitious attempt to find culinary echoes of visual and sociological movements throughout history.
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