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Title details for Dinner in Rome by Andreas Viestad - Available

Dinner in Rome

A History of the World in One Meal

by Andreas Viestad
ebook
3 of 3 copies available
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3 of 3 copies available
With a celebrated food writer as host, a delectable history of Roman cuisine and the world—served one dish at a time. Now in paperback.

"There is more history in a bowl of pasta than in the Colosseum," writes Andreas Viestad in Dinner in Rome. From the table of a classic Roman restaurant, Viestad takes us on a fascinating culinary exploration of the Eternal City and global civilization. Food, he argues, is history's secret driving force. Viestad finds deeper meanings in his meal: He uses the bread that begins his dinner to trace the origins of wheat and its role in Rome's rise as well as its downfall. With his fried artichoke antipasto, he explains olive oil's part in the religious conflict of sixteenth-century Europe. And, from his sorbet dessert, he recounts how lemons featured in the history of the Mafia in the nineteenth century and how the hunger for sugar fueled the slave trade. Viestad's dinner may be local, but his story is universal. His "culinary archaeology" is an entertaining, flavorful journey across the dinner table and time. Readers will never look at spaghetti carbonara the same way again.

  • Creators

  • Publisher

  • Release date

    August 25, 2023

  • Formats

    • Kindle Book

    • OverDrive Read

      • ISBN: 9781789146769

    • EPUB ebook

      • ISBN: 9781789146769
      • File size: 420 KB

  • Languages

    • English

  • Reviews

    • Booklist

      Starred review from September 15, 2022
      Combining history, gastronomic know-how, and 50,000-plus restaurant meals, Norwegian food writer Viestad begins this armchair-traveling foodie history with a June dinner at his favorite Roman restaurant, La Carbonara in Campo de Fiori, going on to dissect elements of his meal in food-titled chapters. ""Bread,"" for instance, covers the confusing local customs of ordering, an investigation of communion wafers (think matzo or unleavened bread), and one prime cause of the city's demise after 500 years (no access to Egyptian grain). ""Pasta"" refutes the Marco Polo myth, explaining that it wasn't an export from China after all, and that both Romans and Greeks enjoyed variants of lasagna. ""Lemon Sorbet"" brings with it a dissertation on the different kinds of lemons, Sicily's prime export, and the ever-increasing amounts of sugar consumed. Almost every page reveals a new factoid, all interwoven with the fabric of world cuisines. With a series of tributes from culinary superstars like Alice Waters, Daniel Boulud, Lidia Bastianich, and Eric Ripert to boot, Dinner in Rome a must-read, even for those not so fascinated by the foodie-verse.

      COPYRIGHT(2022) Booklist, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

Formats

  • Kindle Book
  • OverDrive Read
  • EPUB ebook

subjects

Languages

  • English

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