Delectable menus - John Lane
Much of my life seems to be about menus at the moment. Mostly this is because I’m at that stage in researching the Conflux banquet, but it’s also because my friends and I all have various dietary restrictions and getting together for a meal requires just a little menu consideration if we’re all to enjoy ourselves.
Given that menus are on my mind, I have decided it’s time to inflict them on yours. Besides, there are so many books I want you to meet, and so little time!
Today’s book is John Lane’s A Taste of the Past. Its subtitle is Menus from Lavish luncheons, royal weddings, indulgent dinners and history’s greatest banquets. It’s a coffee table book rather than a history and is fun to browse through. It has just enough history to illuminate key aspects of the menus (including an opening segment on the history of menus). The pictures are fabulous and every menu is show in its original glory (with an English translation alongside).
It’s ordered thematically, which is great if you want to read about royal weddings, but not so good if you’re looking for menus from the early twentieth century.
It only goes back to the nineteenth century. It’s not a history of menus, per se, but a selection of menus from important historical occasions (with information on those occasions – including the sinking of the Titanic) where individual menus were distributed. That last bit is why it only goes to the nineteenth century – diners didn’t receive individual menus till then.
If your love of food lingers in the Renaissance or Ancient Rome, if you want to know what vegetables people ate, or what ordinary folks ate on everyday occasions, or if you want to go deeply into different food styles, this book is not for you.
If, on the other hand, you want to dream of sumptuous occasions, or put together a very special dinner, or have a leisurely and delectable read, then this book is perfect. It is a coffee table book, but of a most excellent kind.
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