Paul Freedman is a professor of history at Yale and is the editor of this book which is a collection of essays and writing on food. In his introduction to the book Freedman writes that "Taste is not simply the preserve of a tiny aristocracy, of the court culture of the European, Abbasid or Chinese past or the 'foodie' cutting-edge of the present. . . . Gastronomy expresses an outlook, an aesthetic. . . . Other perceptions change dramatically: wines sweetened with sugar and spices were greatly esteemed in Greece and medieval Europe, but now, with few exceptions, are regarded as dubious Christmas novelties at best." The writing start with a piece on hunter gatherers and the first farmers and continues to the development of the restaurant and the concept of eating out and then the new landscape for gastronomy. Paperback. 368 pages