These non-fiction books delve into food and history
‘Salt: A World History’ by Mark KurlanskyAn Instagram Reel by user Wyatt Derman garnered more than eight million views and catapulted this 2002 book into virality in 2026. Derman spoke about how Kurlansky’s book made him look at the world and this humble ingredient in new light. As a result, the book became popular again and sold out in bookshops and libraries.Kurlansky is an American journalist and author who examines the relationship between food and history. His 1997 book, Cod: A Biography of the Fish That Changed the World andThe Big Oyster (2006) are along similar lines. In Salt, he takes us to ancient Greece, rural Sichuan and even British India where Gandhi led the Dandi March. The book is an exploration into how integral salt is to world history.‘Stirring the Pot: A History of African Cuisine’ by James C. McCannPublished in 2009, this book published by Ohio University Press, looks at the width and breadth of African cuisine in its remarkable diversity. The region is often looked at through the lens of famine and food scarcity, but the author traces the chronology of the continent’s cuisine, all the way from the sixteenth century to its globalisation. McCann travels from markets in Accra in Ghana and restaurants in Addis Ababa, to roadside bars in Zimbabwe. As the preface of the book says, “Cuisines in Africa, McCann shows, can be politicized as effectively as soul food or Nouvelle cuisine in Europe or the United States.”‘Cuisine and Empire: Cooking in World History’ by Rachel LaudanFood historian and author Rachel Laudan penned this book in 2012 and subsequently won the IACP Cookbook Award for Best Book in Culinary History. . The book is about how grain, cattle and food has been the driving force behind empires and colonialism. It traverses the French revolution, the British empire, the Spanish expansion, and Columbian exchange between the New World (the Americas) and the Old World (Afro-Eurasia) . She also looks at how trends, nutrition, religion and politics create new cuisines.‘On the Noodle Road: From Beijing to Rome, with Love and Pasta’ by Jen Lin-liuA journey along the Silk Route forms the basis of author Jen Lin-Liu book about pasta and noodles. It all began when she wondered about the age-old question: who invented the noodle? That quest takes us along China, Central Asia, Iran, Turkey, and the Mediterranean, and how each of these regions have their own unique noodles and dumplings. Through the book she also touches on her experience as a Chinese-American woman.
