When Consumers Complain

The Renaissance and the age of discovery introduced Europeans to exotic cultures, mores, manners, and ideas. That kitchen revolution led to the development of new utensils and table manners. Rebora discusses the availability of resources, how people kept from starving in the winter, how they farmed, how tastes developed, what the lower classes ate, and what the aristocracy enjoyed.

Giovanni Rebora is professor of economic history and chair of the Department of Modern and Contemporary History at the University of Genoa. In 1983 he organized the First International Convention on the History of Culture and Food. In 1992 he edited Columbus at Table and has published Medieval Italian Cuisine Between East and West.

Albert Sonnenfeld is Chevalier Professor of French and Comparative Literatures at the University of Southern California and is a longtime member of the National Board of Directors of the American Institute of Wine and Food. He is the English-language editor of Food: A Culinary History and a frequent contributor on culinary topics to such publications as The Languages of Wine and Food and Ideology.