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This book uses food to explore the uneven and multifaceted encounters between European imperial societies and their colonies, examining the cultural, social, political and economic forces behind European empire.
List of contents
1. Introduction 2. Exoticism in Italian cuisine: travel and science in the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries 3. When the tropics came North: How exotic fruits conquered Finnish plates in the time of empires 4. A multicultural history of Hungarian confectionery in 19th-century Habsburg central Europe 5. The twofold path of the last European empire: How Italy reacted to globalization and new alcohol-related trends 6. Grimod de La Reynière's empire of taste: Gastronomic judgement and taste under the First French Empire (1804-1815) 7. Russian character of the Siberian pelmeni: Imaginary remapping of empire in Russian and Soviet cuisine 8. In the shadow of the Eastern Empire? Soviet-Czech relationships in gastronomy from 1945 to 1970 9. Catering to Empire's Taste: An historical analysis of the colonial hybrid cuisine in Malaysia 10. The adaptable, hardworking and creative US women and the lazy, hypocrites and dirty cooks: Cuba between the Spanish and the US empires (1880s-1910s) 11. Congolese culinary traces in Belgium between 1885 and 1940 12. For a plate of couscous: Food narratives, in-between spaces and ethnic identities in the Italian colony of Libya 13. Eating the empire: The gloom of colonialism, racism and sexism in food advertising in Italy, 1930s to 1970s 14. Menus in political banquets: French gastronomy and Brazilian food (1889-1930) 15. Art and Anthropophagy: Postcolonial Reinterpretations of Cannibalism in Modern and Contemporary Brazilian Art
About the author
Ilaria Berti is a historian at the Pablo de Olavide University, Seville. Her research focuses on the political use of food in imperial and colonial spaces. Together with Yun Casalilla and Svriz Wucherer she coedited
. Trans-cultural Consumption in Latin America (2022).
Stefano Magagnoli is a Full Professor of Economic History at the University of Parma, Italy. His research has focused on the history of public institutions, and he is currently involved in several projects related to food history. His most recent book is
Vinaigre balsamique de Modène. Un goût italien à la conquête du monde (2023).
Peter Scholliers is Emeritus Professor of History at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel. His current interest is in the history of food safety in Europe since the late 18th century. A recent publication includes
A History of Bread. Consumers, Bakers and Public Authorities Since the 18th Century (2024). More information: https://researchportal.vub.be/en/persons/peter-scholliers.
Peter J. Atkins is Emeritus Professor of Geography at the University of Durham, UK. His principal interest over several decades has been food history, with particular reference to perishable foodstuffs. Recently he co-edited
Eating on the Move from the Eighteenth Century to the Present (2023). See: https://pjatkins.webspace.durham.ac.uk/.
