Rating: 
Summary: A Truly Awesome Resource
Review: These two hefty volumes comprise on the most useful generally-accessible material history resources I have ever seen. It contains dozens of articles on just about every aspect of food in cultural history. The entries range from essays on what early human begins ate to essays on specific foods (Oats, Chili Peppers, Soybeans, Ducks, etc.) along with some entries on foods that are somewhat surprising (Algae, Dogs, etc.). There are entries on vitamins, on beverages, on food deficiently diseases and eating disorders. On top of that, there are articles on the foods of different regions around the world. There are entries on nutrition, on fads and on the political implications of foods. There really just aren't any angles these volumes have overlooked.The articles are written by different contributors, so there is not much consistency from piece to piece, but overall they are well written, engaging, informative, and generally lots of fun. I can't recommend this book strongly enough.
Rating:
Summary: A Truly Awesome Resource
Review: These two hefty volumes comprise on the most useful generally-accessible material history resources I have ever seen. It contains dozens of articles on just about every aspect of food in cultural history. The entries range from essays on what early human begins ate to essays on specific foods (Oats, Chili Peppers, Soybeans, Ducks, etc.) along with some entries on foods that are somewhat surprising (Algae, Dogs, etc.). There are entries on vitamins, on beverages, on food deficiently diseases and eating disorders. On top of that, there are articles on the foods of different regions around the world. There are entries on nutrition, on fads and on the political implications of foods. There really just aren't any angles these volumes have overlooked. The articles are written by different contributors, so there is not much consistency from piece to piece, but overall they are well written, engaging, informative, and generally lots of fun. I can't recommend this book strongly enough.
Rating: 
Summary: A warning note
Review: This is a bumper book, stuffed with good articles by leading authorities in the field. As other reviewers have pointed out, this is a relatively dry volume that concentrates overmuch on archaeology and evolution (well documented elsewhere) and not enough on food history, on which there is a huge amount of misleading literature. Sadly these volumes require a warning notice for their dictionary of plant foods (a hefty part of the book: pages 1711-1889). Evidently a last-minute attempt to widen the appeal of the book, this is woefully and grossly inaccurate. For example, pink peppercorns are wrongly identified as Piper nigrum, rather than Schinus terebinthifolius (and their mild toxicity is not noted either). Almost every entry in the directory is wrong or questionable. There is further evidence of underinvestment in editing elsewhere in the book; for example, botanical names are not consistent between chapters. Most readers would fare much better with Alan Davidson's amusingly written, comprehensive and (above all) accurate "Oxford Companion to Food". This Cambridge volume belongs on library shelves - where it will occasionally be very useful.
Rating: 
Summary: Not a good enough reference to be worth the money
Review: This is a tremendously expensive reference that one should expect to be trustworthy. But it isn't. Nor is it as definitive as should be expected, though it does have some fascinating entries, such as the role of dogs in the history of food. For the price, there should be line drawings for some of the more unusual fruits and veg, because as it is, the verbal descriptions would lead a reader to think that something looked quite different than it does. So I use these two volumes with caution, referencing further anything said here before I take it as a given. Although some other reviewers here have criticized the dryness of style, that is what I want in this sort of thing, so I have no complaints there. Of far more importance is the slant that many of the articles have, which clearly have a political agenda that the information is wrapped around. So, while the bibliographies for same are useful, they also are selectively chosen. Given the guides to food now, and the many histories, I would think that a few books judiciously chosen are better value than this one reference, though if you are monied, this is an interesting addition to your library, to be read with a grain of salt in every 'Oh, my! I didn't know that.'
| 
