"Dangerous Tastes offers a fresh perspective on these exotic substances and the roles they have played over the centuries. The author shows how each region became part of a worldwide network of trade - with local consequences ranging from disaster to triumph."--BOOK JACKET.

“Essential reading for anyone who has ever loved a Manhattan.” —Wine & Spirits Vermouth is hitting its stride—again. The cocktail resurgence has put a spotlight on an often-overlooked ingredient in some of the most iconic cocktails of our time: vermouth. It appeared in America in the 1860s, reigned supreme in drinks like the Manhattan and the Martini, then fell out of favor during the counterculture days of the 1960s. But with artisanal cocktails now the rage, interest in vermouth is at a peak. After all, without it, your martini is merely a chilled vodka or gin. More and more cocktail lovers are requesting more than a whisper of vermouth in their drinks. In fact, it’s touted as a low-alcohol alternative to sip on its own, or, if the ratio is tweaked, as tasty way to lighten up more traditionally strong drinks. Vermouth has a rich history, deeply intertwined with that of America, and, here, expert Adam Ford offers the first-ever detailed look into the background of this aromatized, fortified wine, as well as its rise, fall, and comeback in America. With bold and delicious cocktail recipes?there are twists on the classic Boulevardier, a once-forgotten Brooklyn Cocktail, and a refreshing White Negroni?and color photographs throughout, Vermouth is a must-have book for anyone interested in drinking, or learning about, great cocktails.

"John Varriano's book is not only a delightful read but draws fascinating parallels between two hitherto disparate fields: art history and the history of food in the Renaissance. Outstanding scholarship that opens whole new venues of inquiry."--Ken Albala, author of Eating Right in the Renaissance and Beans: A History "Art history and food history have traditionally been separate disciplines, parallel universes. In this book John Varriano makes a cosmic leap and lures the two into a stimulating, provocative, and always entertaining study--a tasting menu of gastronomic and visual delights."--Gillian Riley, author of The Oxford Companion to Italian Food "With wit and erudition, John Varriano shows us how broad cultural relationships can be drawn between the developments of Italian Renaissance art and the period's growing and changing interest in food. Enlightening and fascinating details greatly enhance our understanding of the roles that taste and temptation played in creating the early modern world."--David G. Wilkins, co-editor of History of Italian Renaissance Art "Appetites for palate and palette are both whetted in Varriano's urbane and thoroughly magisterial study. What could be more satisfying than to feast on food and art together at the same historic table?"--Patrick Hunt, author of Renaissance Visions

The people of ancient India turned to their physicians (vaidyas) and wise seers to make their bodies, minds, and spirits happy with a system of diet, healing, and health maintenance called Ayurveda (knowledge of life), which is based on nature and its healing power. Food was analyzed based on taste, digestion, and “gastric fire” (agni), or the ability to digest and assimilate food. This time-tested system of healing is based on what, when, and how we eat and is documented in the Vedas (books of ancient knowledge). A Happy Body Is a Healthy Body reveals that most diseases can be traced to an improper diet. Fortunately, nature’s gift to us is food, herbs, and spices to promote healing – as long as we know how to use them. Drawing on three decades of research, Mahendri Arundale provides more than a plant-based cookbook of recipes and instructions, which would be valuable in itself. She also reveals priceless Vedic knowledge that has endured for thousands of years. The book also includes a self-assessment to help you discover your body’s energy type, so you take full advantage of rejuvenating recipes and find simple ways to relax when stressed.

During the 17th century, England saw foreign foods made increasingly available to consumers and featured in recipe books, medical manuals, treatises, travel narratives, and even in plays. Yet the public's fascination with these foods went beyond just eating them. Through exotic presentations in popular culture, they were able to mentally partake of products for which they may not have had access. This book examines the "body and mind" consumerism of the early British Empire.

Olives, bread, meat and wine: it is deceptively easy to evoke ancient Greece and Rome through a few items of food and drink. But how were their tastes different from ours? How did they understand the sense of taste itself, in relation to their own bodies and to other modes of sensory experience? This volume, the first of its kind to explore the ancient sense of taste, draws on the literature, philosophy, history and archaeology of Greco-Roman antiquity to provide answers to these central questions. By surveying and probing the literary and material remains from the Archaic period to late antiquity, contributors investigate the cultural and intellectual development towards attitudes and theories about taste. These specially commissioned chapters also open a window onto ancient thinking about perception and the body. Importantly, these authors go beyond exploring the functional significance of taste to uncover its value and meaning in the actions, thoughts and words of the Greeks and Romans. Taste and the Ancient Senses presents a full range of interpretative approaches to the gustatory sense, and provides an indispensable resource for students and scholars of classical antiquity and sensory studies.

Spices are rare things, at once familiar and exotic, comforting us in favourite dishes while evoking far-flung countries, Arabian souks, trade winds, colonial conquests and vast fortunes. From anise to zedoary, The Book of Spice introduces us to their properties, both medical and magical, and the fascinating stories that lie behind both kitchen staples and esoteric luxuries. John O'Connell's bite-size chapters combine insights on history and art, religion and medicine, culture and science, richly seasoned with anecdotes and recipes. Discover why Cleopatra bathed in saffron and mare's milk, why wormwood-laced absinthe caused eighteenth-century drinkers to hallucinate and how cloves harvested in remote Indonesian islands found their way into a kitchen in ancient Syria. Almost every kitchen contains a tin of cloves or a stick of cinnamon, almost every dish a pinch of something, whether chilli or cumin. Combining an extraordinary amount of research with a lifelong passion, this is culinary history at its most appetising. The Book of Spice is an invaluable reference and an entertaining read.

While much has been written about the concept of terroir as it relates to wine, this book expands the concept into cuisine and culture more broadly. Bringing together stories of people farming, cooking and eating, the author focuses on a series of examples ranging from shagbark hicory nuts in Wisconsin to wines from northern California

This book explores the origins and significance of the French concept of terroir, demonstrating that the way the French eat their food and drink their wine today derives from a cultural mythology that developed between the Renaissance and the Revolution. Through close readings and an examination of little-known texts from diverse disciplines, Thomas Parker traces terroirÕs evolution, providing insight into how gastronomic mores were linked to aesthetics in language, horticulture, and painting and how the French used the power of place to define the natural world, explain comportment, and frame France as a nation.

Since the founding of the United States, culinary texts and practices have played a crucial role in the making of cultural identities and social hierarchies. A Taste of Power examines culinary writing and practices as forces for the production of social order and, at the same time, points of cultural resistance. Culinary writing has helped shape dominant ideas of nationalism, gender, and sexuality, suggesting that eating right is a gateway to becoming an American, a good citizen, an ideal man, or a perfect wife and mother. In this brilliant interdisciplinary work, Katharina Vester examines how cookbooks became a way for women to participate in nation-building before they had access to the vote or public office, for Americans to distinguish themselves from Europeans, for middle-class authors to assert their class privileges, for men to claim superiority over women in the kitchen, and for lesbian authors to insert themselves into the heteronormative economy of culinary culture. A Taste of Power engages in close reading of a wide variety of sources and genres to uncover the intersections of food, politics, and privilege in American culture.