Suggestions for books about history of cooking in various countries

[teonzo]

I would like to expand my knowledge about the history of cooking in various countries in the world outside Europe, mainly Japan, China, India, the Persian area, but I'm open for everywhere. So I'm looking for books that deal about how a cooking style developed in relation with the area; I'm not interested in recipes, but in historical and sociological issues. Just for example, I'd like to read a book that tells the story of Kaiseki style, how it was born and developed, how the Japanese culture influenced it (Shintoism, temple cooking and so on). I'm more interested on the high end cooking styles, like Kaiseki and Imperial Chinese.

But I'm quite ignorant and don't have any references on these matters.

Can anyone help? Thanks in advance.

Teo

[DanM]

A Drizzle of Honey is one to look at. It documents the lives and food of Jews in Spain during The Inquisition. It interests me as a read, but necessarily as a cookbook.

A Drizzle of Honey

[SylviaLovegren]

I highly recommend Curry: A Tale of Cooks and Conquerors by Lizzie Cunningham. Here's a link

It has a few representative recipes but it is mostly straight history of the foods of the Indian subcontinent. Fascinating and well written.

[Jenni]

K. T. Achaya was probably the best Indian food historian. You can see the wikipedia page on him here which lists the books he wrote. I have 'Indian food, A Historical Companion' and also 'The Story of our Food'.

For more regionally specific details it's worth looking into authors from that area. Penguin India has a great series on "Essential" regional cuisines, and at the front of each of these there is some historical and cultural information that is very informative and interesting. I have 'Essential Goa', 'Essential Maharashtrian' and 'Essential Kerala' so far. These are not books specifically about history but they certainly do have some information in them and they are worth getting as cookbooks anyway.

Then there's Chitrita Banerji for Bengali cuisine. She writes much about the traditional culture of Bengal in terms of food and this does include historical information. I have 'Bengali Cooking: Seasons and Festivals' and 'Hour of the Goddess: Memories of Women, Food, and Ritual in Bengal'. These are very good. I also have 'Eating India' but this is less good as she is not so fluent with other Indian cuisines and gets a bit distracted by anything Bengali!

Another regional author is Ammini Ramachandran. Her book 'Grains, greens and grated coconuts' is not only a fascinating and delicious work on a particular style of vegetarian cookery in Kerala, but it also gives some excellent historical and cultural details that are perhaps little known outside of the specific community she writes about. Her website, which I linked to with her name, also has several articles on it.

There is of course much more, but these may be an interesting start for you.

Edited August 26, 2011 by Jenni (log)

[teonzo]

Thanks a lot for these suggestions, they all seem spot on for what I'm searching, so I ordered what I've found on Amazon.

Hope someone can help about China and Japan.

Teo

[andiesenji]

I have Eileen Yin-Fei Lo's The Chinese Kitchen, which includes a lot of historical references and the cultural history of some of the foods.

From Publishers Weekly

In her newest Chinese cookbook, Canton native Yin-Fei Lo (The Chinese Banquet Cookbook) meticulously explains the history of the Chinese table from 5000 B.C. to the 20th century, documenting the influence of various imperial dynasties on China's cuisine. Seventeen chapters explore the Chinese larder, teas, wines, cooking equipment and techniques, classic Chinese dishes, rice and noodles, food-as-medicine, meats and vegetables, dim sum and the evolution of Chinese-American restaurant dishes.

As some of the reviewers say, this is not a cookbook for a novice in the kitchen. However, if you want to understand the WHY of certain dishes and ingredients, this is the book to have.

[weinoo]

Pomp and Sustenance, by Mary Taylor Simeti, is about the history of Sicilian Food over 25 centuries.

[Panaderia Canadiense]

For Tibet and to a lesser extent Nepal and Bhutan, the best book out there is Tibetan Cooking, which gives you the cultural and religious history of the dishes along with recipes and methods of preparation.