Tastes and Traditions: A Journey Through Menu History
Shipping calculated at checkout
Menus often go unnoticed, but they quietly document how we eat, what we value, and how we relate to one another around the table. Whether printed for a lavish banquet or a child’s first restaurant outing, they offer clues to changing ideas of health, luxury, and social order.
In Tastes and Traditions, Nathalie Cooke examines more than two centuries of menus from Europe and North America, drawing from sources as varied as ocean liners, fine restaurants, World's Fairs, and mid-century cafés. There are menus that entertained with riddles, menus that codified the sequence of a formal meal, and menus that captured the aspirations of new culinary movements.
Illustrated with vivid historical examples, the book is both thoughtful and inviting. Cooke. an English professor at McGill University, makes the case that these documents, often dismissed as ephemera, hold enduring value for anyone interested in the culture of dining.
Hardcover. Color photographs throughout.
Published on June 2, 2025
