Food & Drink

The Politics of Pancakes

In England, Shrove Tuesday has not just symbolised feasting, fasting and family, but riot and rebellion, too. 

The Culinary Enlightenment

The belief that you are what you eat emerged in 19th-century France, where the pleasures of the table were sautéed with philosophy and medicine. 

Policing the Ploughs

As Britain faced the prospect of food shortages in 1917, panic mounted. One solution was to redeploy policemen to plough the land.

The History of the Picnic

The first picnics were a favourite pastime of the aristocracy, and purely indoor affairs. In the 19th century, the emergent middle classes moved lunch outdoors.

Goulash

Though long established as the national dish of Hungary, its origins lie with the rootless, itinerant stockmen who roamed the plains of medieval Mitteleuropa