Tools for Food: the Stories Behind Objects that Influence How and What We Eat

The oldest cooking utensils found by archaeologists date back almost 9,000 years and since those days, humans have produced an astonishing variety of implements. Some make cooking possible; others make it simpler; and still others inject some fun into the process.

Corrine Mynatt's exploration of the many tools that have been created for preparing and serving food ranges from Korean earthenware vessels dating from the 5th century BCE to a 19th-century English toffee hammer to 1994's Microplane grater, borrowed from the world of woodworking. 

Entries are accompanied by simple, well-presented photographs, and Mynatt's descriptions place the tools in the context of their time and culture. While some items have been in use in one form or another for millennia, others, like a pancake batter jug, in which the batter leavened naturally overnight, have largely fallen by the wayside.

Handsome, informative, and fascinating.

Hardcover. Color photographs throughout.