Fascinating History of Your Lunch

The Fascinating History of Your Lunch is an historical look at food and the food from right around the world. Who invented cheese? Or bread or margarine? Where did lettuce and tomato plants originally come from? The plants we eat nowadays come from all over the world and the way we cook and eat them also come from many different cultures. Apples travelled with the Romans, oranges with the Muslim armies and chocolate started off as ancient Aztec coins.

The history of food is the history of the world - the Spanish conquistadors conquered the South American Aztec empire and brought home the bitter beans that would eventually become chocolate. They also brought potatoes and chillies with them. Wars, famines and revolutions bring people from one country to another and they bring their favourite food, too. The most important things to learn from history are how people once lived and thought and how that has led to the world we know today. And one of the most interesting ways of understanding history is to look at what we eat.

About The Author

Jackie French is a full-time writer who lives near Braidwood in the Araluen Valley, NSW. In 2000, Hitler’s Daughter was awarded the CBC Younger Readers’ Award. To the Moon and Back won the Eve Pownall Award in 2005. Macbeth and Son, and Josephine Wants to Dance were both shortlisted for the 2007 CBC Awards.