This book is about the history of food in Europe and the part it has played in the evolution of European cultures over two millennia. Food is the prerequisite both of survival and of culture. It has been a driving force in national and imperial ambition, the manner of its production and consumption a means by which the identity and status of regions, classes and individuals have been and still are expressed. The European relationship to food has rarely been straightforward. In this wide-ranging exploration of its history the author weaves deftly between the social groups, geographical areas and nations of Europe, between the habits of late antiquity and the problems of modernity. He examines the interlinked evolutions of consumption, production and taste, to show both what these reveal of the varied cultures and peoples of Europe in the past and what they suggest about the present.