The Secret History of Food: Strange but True Stories About the Origins of Everything We Eat

Today’s post is on The Secret History of Food: Strange but True Stories About the Origins of Everything We Eat by Matt Siegel. It is 288 pages long and is published by Ecco. The cover is a picture of the title with different foods in places of the letters. The intended reader is someone who is interested in the history of food. There is no foul language, no sex, and no violence in this book. There Be Spoilers Ahead.

From the dust jacket- An entertaining look at the little-known history surrounding the foods we know and loveIs Italian olive oil really  Italian, or are we dipping our bread in lamp oil? Why are we masochistically drawn to foods that can hurt us, like hot peppers? Far from being a classic American dish, is apple pie actually . . . English?

“As a species, we’re hardwired to obsess over food,” Matt Siegel explains as he sets out “to uncover the hidden side of everything we put in our mouths.” Siegel also probes subjects ranging from the myths—and realities—of food as aphrodisiac, to how one of the rarest and most exotic spices in all the world (vanilla) became a synonym for uninspired sexual proclivities, to the role of food in fairy- and morality tales.

Review- A fascinating historical overview of food and how we make it. Siegel has both great knowledge of his subject and a great sense of humor about it too. He had me laughing many times over the course of the book with his witty asides. Siegel gives an excellent insight into how food is made, stories about how some of the most famous foods were created, and how food has changed in the millenniums that we have been eating. I listened to this as an audiobook and the reader was Roger Wayne and he did a great job. I enjoyed this book very much and I would recommend it.  

I give this book a Five out of Five stars. I get nothing for my review and I borrowed this book from my local library.