Medieval Tastes: Food, Cooking, and the Table

Acclaimed historian Massimo Montanari traces the development of medieval tastes—both culinary and cultural—from raw materials to market and captures their reflections in today's food trends. Tying the ingredients of our diet to the growth of human civilization, he details how food transformed from a simple staple to a symbol of social and ideological standing. Montanari shows how people adopted new attitudes toward food, investing as much in its pleasure and possibilities as in its acquisition.

Italy’s best-known food historian travels back to the birth of “modern” cuisine and reveals the remarkable links between medieval tastes and our own. Massimo Montanari traces the development of medieval tastes—both culinary and cultural—and details how food transformed from a simple staple to a symbol of social and ideological standing.