Not enough food for thought.

~ Cathy

Food: A Cultural Culinary History
by Ken Albala

“In 36 fascinating lectures, award-winning Professor Albala puts this extraordinary subject on the table, taking you on an enthralling journey into the human relationship to food. With this innovative course, you’ll travel the world discovering fascinating food lore and culture of all regions and eras – as an eye-opening lesson in history as well as a unique window on what we eat today.”

He went off script a lot into historical deep dives that were unrelate to food. A lot of it sounded like conjecture. I am not sure how much of this is really based on historical fact. The amount of time he actually spends on talking about food is comparatively small. And instead of listening to old recipes, I would have liked to get more details on the culinary impacts of various historical events and vice versa. That did happen, but not enough. 

By the time we hit the European Dark Ages, I started thinking about ending this Great Course. By the time I reached Luis XIV, I was sure that I could not listen through another 8 hours of this. Too superficial, vague and flippant.

Maybe it‘s also a problem of the format. This is not a planned and edited book, but a recording of a lecture series. I think this would probably work better as a podcast. The last Great Courses book I listened to (different topic) I also abandoned about halfway through.

DNF at 55%, after 10 hours.

Published by Cathy

5 thoughts on “Not enough food for thought.”

  2. It does seem to me that the Great Courses series are heavily dependent on the lecturer as to whether or not I will enjoy them. And some seem to have a very big visual element, which (as an audiobook listener) I’ve missed out on. Pity this one didn’t work better. It sounds like an interesting topic.

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    1. Yes, it’s a very interesting topic. I read an excellent book about it several years ago, but I don’t know the title anymore.

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