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Food: A Cultural Culinary History

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Overview

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Learn how the entirety of human civilization-war, trade, politics, art, religion, and more-has been shaped by our interaction with food in this delicious course.

Syllabus

  • 01: Hunting, Gathering, and Stone Age Cooking
  • 02: What Early Agriculturalists Ate
  • 03: Egypt and the Gift of the Nile
  • 04: Ancient Judea-From Eden to Kosher Laws
  • 05: Classical Greece-Wine, Olive Oil, and Trade
  • 06: The Alexandrian Exchange and the Four Humors
  • 07: Ancient India-Sacred Cows and Ayurveda
  • 08: Yin and Yang of Classical Chinese Cuisine
  • 09: Dining in Republican and Imperial Rome
  • 10: Early Christianity-Food Rituals and Asceticism
  • 11: Europe's Dark Ages and Charlemagne
  • 12: Islam-A Thousand and One Nights of Cooking
  • 13: Carnival in the High Middle Ages
  • 14: International Gothic Cuisine
  • 15: A Renaissance in the Kitchen
  • 16: Aztecs and the Roots of Mexican Cooking
  • 17: 1492-Globalization and Fusion Cuisines
  • 18: 16th-Century Manners and Reformation Diets
  • 19: Papal Rome and the Spanish Golden Age
  • 20: The Birth of French Haute Cuisine
  • 21: Elizabethan England, Puritans, Country Food
  • 22: Dutch Treat-Coffee, Tea, Sugar, Tobacco
  • 23: African and Aboriginal Cuisines
  • 24: Edo, Japan-Samurai Dining and Zen Aesthetics
  • 25: Colonial Cookery in North America
  • 26: Eating in the Early Industrial Revolution
  • 27: Romantics, Vegetarians, Utopians
  • 28: First Restaurants, Chefs, and Gastronomy
  • 29: Big Business and the Homogenization of Food
  • 30: Food Imperialism around the World
  • 31: Immigrant Cuisines and Ethnic Restaurants
  • 32: War, Nutritionism, and the Great Depression
  • 33: World War II and the Advent of Fast Food
  • 34: Counterculture-From Hippies to Foodies
  • 35: Science of New Dishes and New Organisms
  • 36: The Past as Prologue?
  • By This Professor

Taught by

Ken Albala

Reviews

4.6 rating at The Great Courses Plus based on 165 ratings

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