Cină la Roma

A dinner at Rome’s La Carbonara frames this history of food. Andreas Viestad traces how food shaped life through this meal. He moves from the ancient world to the Middle Ages. He then brings the story into modern times. This nonfiction book is for readers who like food and history.

Viestad is a food expert from Scandinavia. He also works as a restaurant critic. He looks beyond wars, rulers and accounts of hunger. He argues that food helped decide where people made their homes. It shaped how they lived and formed social groups. It also shaped how they saw themselves. Daily meals hold traces of the past, much like Rome’s ruins.

The account starts when Angelo, a waiter, brings bread. It comes from Forno Campo de’ Fiori, a nearby bakery. The bakery uses old methods as factory-made bread spreads. Its loaf prompts a study of grain’s role in Rome’s growth. Viestad extends that link to the wider Roman Empire.

Later chapters cover antipasto, oil, salt, pasta and pepper. Wine, meat and lemons also guide the story. Viestad links olive oil to Europe’s bloody religious strife in the 1500s. He explores how lemons helped the Mafia emerge and grow in the 1800s. He links the slave trade to demand for sugar among Europe’s elites. Through these foods, he uses a meal to study the past. It holds clues to forces that changed the world.