The Restaurant: A 2,000-Year History of Dining Out - The American Edition

by William Sitwell

Overview

Award-winning food critic and writer William Sitwell chronicles the fascinating global history of dining out, from the Roman wine taverns of ancient Pompeii to today’s high-tech molecular gastronomy.

Have you ever wondered where the first coffee shop sprung up, or when the sushi conveyor belt was invented? Unbelievably, the global history of the dining establishment has never been told—until now. Journeying 2,000 years into the past, acclaimed food critic and writer William Sitwell artfully traces the earliest origins of the widespread cultural practice of eating out, from its most basic to most sophisticated forms. Whether he’s traversing the inns and taverns of Pompeii before its destruction in A.D. 79, witnessing the tumultuous emergence of fine dining during the French Revolution, or recounting the mid-twentieth-century invention of the taco machine in New York City, Sitwell’s engaging prose gives readers a front-row seat to the restaurant experience across cultures and millennia. He follows the fashions that shape the way we dine, meeting the restaurateurs of today and yesterday whose establishments shaped society for good or ill. And after offering a wry history of the world through the prism of the eatery, he ponders its exciting future. Chefs, critics, restaurateurs, and foodies alike will delight in all the sweet and savory details offered up in this lively and highly absorbing romp through social and culinary history, packed with color photographs and illustrations.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781635766998
Publisher:	Diversion Books
Publication date:	04/21/2020
Pages:	272
Sales rank:	714,337
Product dimensions:	9.50(w) x 6.70(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

William Sitwell is an award-winning editor, broadcaster, writer, and food critic for The Telegraph. He has appeared at literary and food festivals across the globe, and as the long-standing editor of Waitrose Food magazine, he was named Editor of the Year on numerous occasions. A frequent guest and presenter on TV and radio—he’s best known as a critic on the BBC show MasterChef—Sitwell also contributes regularly on the subject of food for the Daily Mail, The Times, and The Guardian. He entertains diners with William Sitwell's Supper Club, and his weekly radio show, Biting Talk, featured the biggest names and new talent from the world of food and drink. Sitwell lives in Northamptonshire, England.

Table of Contents

Introduction 6

1 The Romans 10

2 The Ottoman Empire 22

3 The Legacy of Ibn Battuta 34

4 Medieval England 46

5 The Coffee House Revolution 58

6 The French Revolution 72

7 The British Industrial Revolution 84

8 Carême and the New Paris Guide 98

9 The Victorian Era 110

10 Britannia & Co. Opens in Bombay 124

11 The Invention of the Taco Machine 134

12 Postwar Britain 146

13 The Invention of the Sushi Conveyor Belt 162

14 Le Gavroche Opens in London 176

15 Chez Panisse Opens in the US 192

16 Bibendum Opens in London 206

17 The Death of Bernard Loiseau 220

18 The Future of Eating Out 234

Acknowledgments 249

About the Author 250

Select Bibliography 251

Picture Credits 257

Index 258

Editorial Reviews

Praise for The Restaurant





“William Sitwell has the palate of a great chef, the honesty of a high court judge and he holds the pen of PG Wodehouse.” — Marco Pierre White, retired three-Michelin-star chef





“A riveting tour de force from William, a superb contribution to our knowledge of gastronomy and hospitality through the ages. A fun, essential read for anyone obsessed with food or history, hands off my copy!” — Michel Roux, retired three-Michelin-star chef





“Sitwell seasons the narrative with some intriguingly offbeat fare . . . a refreshing change from the overseriousness of some restaurant critics.” ―Kirkus Reviews





Praise for William Sitwell's A History of Food in 100 Recipes:





"A generous tasting menu that evokes the people, places, influences, intrigues, and inventions that have guided the story of food through the millennia." ― Elle Magazine





“What food lovers will be reading at the beach; the format delivers culture in fascinating, digestible chunks.” ― The Washington Post





“An enjoyably meandering and thought-provoking journey through the role of cooking in everyday life . . . this title ought to interest foodies, especially Anglophiles.” — Library Journal





“Sitwell elevates this collection from curious cookbook to a serious study.” — Publishers Weekly





“Sitwell deftly inserts interesting tidbits ranging from the changes wrought by such appliances as refrigerators and gas stoves to the impact of online technology. . . . Good fun.” — Kirkus Reviews





“Almost every sentence of his scrupulously researched and breezily confident book oozes with a passion for eating . . . what it has over all its predecessors is structural as well as stylish: a pick-up-and-smile quality.” ― The Times





“William Sitwell has pulled off something clever: a thoroughly researched and witty history that is both compelling and teeming with scholarly facts . . . you don't even need to be a raging foodie to enjoy this.” ― The Observer





"Quirky, entertaining, educational and downright gastronomic good fun . . . Sitwell's flawless presentation makes this a delightful treat full of interesting if little remembered facts. Anyone with an interest in food or history will enjoy this colorful, thoroughly researched tour through time, fads and groceries." ― Sandy Amazeen, Monsters and Critics







“What a splendid book: it manages to be a recipe collection, a history of cooking and, in passing, a history of the world all at once.” ―Tom Standage, author of A History of the World in 6 Glasses and An Edible History of Humanity





“Sitwell is without doubt one of the great food writers of our day. Every serious cook should read this book at least once.” ― Marco Pierre White

From the Publisher

2020-02-07
A chatty, episodic history of eating out from British food writer Sitwell.

Ranging from the Roman Empire to “The Future of Eating Out,” the author, food critic for the Telegraph, favors an anecdotal approach that should please readers of A History of Food in 100 Recipes. Sitwell’s preference for good stories over coherent narrative is evident in early chapters on the Ottoman Empire and legendary Moroccan globe-trotter Ibn Battuta, which don’t describe anything modern diners would think of as restaurants. An interesting chapter about medieval England, where food stalls in busy markets moved indoors to become cook shops and eventually sit-down restaurants, is followed by “The Coffee House Revolution,” more focused on socializing and talking politics than eating. Sitwell gets back to restaurants with “The French Revolution,” which reveals that Paris became a hotbed of fine dining because private chefs for the aristocracy opened restaurants there after their masters lost their heads during the Reign of Terror. From “the first modern-day celebrity chef” (Marie-Antoine Carême) on, the author trots through material familiar to historically minded foodies: the impact of the gas stove, the ghastliness of postwar British dining; the 1967 arrival in London of authentic French cuisine at Le Gavroche, which fueled a subsequent explosion in great British cooking by chefs trained there; the fresh, locally sourced revolution led by Alice Waters at Chez Panisse in San Francisco; the outsize influence of restaurant guides; and the controversial rise of molecular gastronomy. Sitwell seasons the narrative with some intriguingly offbeat fare: the transition of Britannia & Co. in Bombay from dishing out comfort food to British imperialists to serving Parsi delicacies to Indians; the question of “the cultural appropriation of food” as embodied in a taco-frying machine patented by a Mexican immigrant and carried to global domination by Taco Bell; the conveyer belt in a crowded Japanese restaurant that ultimately moved sushi around the world and spawned the ecological catastrophe of industrial fishing.

The strenuously chipper tone grates, but it makes a refreshing change from the overseriousness of some restaurant critics.

Kirkus Reviews