The Fine Art of Food

First published in 1968, this illustrated survey of eating follows what people cooked and why, from ancient Egypt and Greece through medieval and early modern kitchens to later global trade. Tannahill compares like solutions reached in distant places, such as flat breads, and traces how spices, sugar, and New World crops entered European diets. She treats markets, table manners, and the movement of ingredients more than recipes as such. Paintings and objects supply a visual record beside the argument. The book is a social history of food, not a cookbook and not a catalogue of pictures alone.

Quarter bound in green cloth with white, pink and pale green patterned paper boards. Some copies were issued in brown mottled boards. Glassine dust-jacket. No slipcase. The Presentation Volume for 1969.