Book Presentation: The foods in our larder The meals and cuisines of yesterday and today

Speakers will include:
Salvador Giner, sociologist
Gemma Lienas, writer
Javier Lopez Facal, author of the book

Did you think the take-away meal was something that was invented yesterday? Did they ever tell you (and you believed them) that pasta came to Europe from China? How long have human beings been eating popcorn? The interest we now take in different foods, the meals we make from them and everything relating to gastronomy and dietary matters has all helped to create a new model of world citizen who shares the same menus, sources and condiments. For thousands of years, the different foods in our diet have been increasing in quantity and variety, and the distance between the places they are made or harvested and the people who finally eat them has been gradually increasing, to the extent that nowadays we can find foods from all five continents in any local supermarket or small town. Specialist shops, courses in wine-tasting and cooking, gastronomic extravaganzas, radio and TV programs and websites are just some of the features of a new, flourishing form of culture. In this book, Javier López Facal examines the history of many of the foods we eat regularly, and he goes on to explain not only how they are accumulated and diversified, but also the ways in which they are processed and altered, physically, culturally and for religious purposes. This is a work that is stuffed full of anecdotes and curiosities that reveal just how much tradition and innovation we have on the shelves of our larders. Javier López Facal, a retired CSIC research professor, is the author of An anthology of peaceful deaths, The decline of the Vatican Empire and a Brief cultural history of European nationalisms, all published by Los Libros de la Catarata.

A book that will enliven your meal-time conversations

Cycle: Book Presentation: The foods in our larder The meals and cuisines of yesterday and today

Organized by: Residence for Researchers CSIC-Generalitat of Catalonia and Los Libros de la Catarata