Cheese: A Global History

Description

If you ever wondered how cheese was invented - and where, and when, and even why - then Cheese is the book for you. Until now there has been no global history of cheese: here it is at last, succinct, authoritative with the fallacies removed. Packed with entertaining cheese facts, anecdotes and images, Cheese also features a selection of authentic recipes, from a two-thousand-year-old junket to an eighteenth-century Welsh rarebit.

Andrew Dalby is a linguist, translator and historian, based in France. He is the author of many books, including Bacchus: A Biography (2005), Flavours of Byzantium (2003), Food in the Ancient World from A to Z (2003) and Dangerous Tastes: The Story of Spices (2000), which was named Food Book of the Year by the Guild of Food Writers. He has also written Empire of Pleasures (2000) and Siren Feasts: A History of Food and Gastronomy in Greece (1996), which won the Runciman Award.

Andrew Dalby travels easily from the sheep's- and goat's-milk cheeses of The Odyssey to the white Wensleydale preferred by Wallace and Gromit - and that's just along the literary and fictional trails. Dalby also identifies the rightful place of cheese in different cultures ... the many images used to illustrate Cheese are wonderfully evocative ... mere shavings from a monk's head, as Dalby describes his chronicle, yet satisfying when enjoyed at room temperature. Washington Post The history of each foodstuff is set out compactly and with erudition ... Andrew Dalby takes a stab at sheep in Iranian mountains as being the first providers of smelly, spreadable cheese - some 9,000 years ago. But in each case, it's when the history moves closer to current day that revelation and delight meet. Diplomat magazine The Edible series contains some of the most delicious nuggets of food and drink history ever. Every volume is such a fascinating and succinct read that I had to devour each in just a single sitting ... food writing at its best! -- Ken Hom, chef and author