What We Eat, Stephen W. Sawyer
What We Eat, Stephen W. Sawyer
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What We Eat
A Global History of Food

Author: Stephen W. Sawyer, Pierre Singaravélou, Sylvain Venayre

Narrator: Tanya Eby

Unabridged: 13 hr 11 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Tantor Media

Published: 03/31/2026

Synopsis

Ketchup seems iconically American, but the word comes from a Southeast Asian anchovy sauce, and today it is made largely from Chinese tomato paste. Japan's beloved ramen arose from the meeting of Chinese noodles and American wheat flour before attaining worldwide popularity in both gourmet and convenience-food forms. The baguette is mythologized as a product of the French Revolution, but in fact it emerged during late-nineteenth-century urbanization. Colonialism brought baguettes to Vietnam, where street vendors devised a new dish: banh mi, which refugees took with them around the world.What We Eat explores world history through the lens of the global journeys of nearly ninety food products. Leading historians trace the origins and popularization of items commonly found in supermarkets, showing how each food illuminates wider histories. They consider the tension between the role of cuisine in shaping particular cultural identities and the standardization associated with globalization, and they demonstrate how foods have transformed as different societies have borrowed them. Chapters reveal the surprising sagas of coffee, cornflakes, gin, guacamole, hot dogs, hummus, naan, pet food, pizza, sparkling water, sushi, and more. At once an intimate and a global history, What We Eat shows listeners the everyday items on grocery store shelves in a new light.

Reviews

Goodreads review by OutlawPoet on April 07, 2025

This is interesting, but not quite as fun as I'd hoped. This is a series of essays about all sorts of food. Some items are common like Coca Cola or Chili con Carne. Others, like Indomie, are things I'd never heard of. Because the essays are written by different people, they all have different styles......more

Goodreads review by Darius on March 26, 2025

I have mixed feelings about “What We Eat: A Global History of Food”, edited by Pierre Singaravélou and Sylvain Venayre, translated by Stephen W. Sawyer. On the positive side, it provides interesting glimpses of both everyday foods (ketchup, salt, hamburgers) and more exotic/foreign cuisine (hedgehog......more

Goodreads review by Shari on March 28, 2025

This is a book bursting with interesting and sometimes surprising information about food. It's structured like an encyclopedia, with short essays about specific foods and beverages presented in alphabetical order. The essays are written by various people and each ends with suggestions for further re......more

Goodreads review by Melissa on April 08, 2025

*This book was received as an Advanced Reviewer's Copy from Netgalley. What We Eat is a compilation of short history snippets on various food items that are popular around the world. Giving a summary in just a few pages (with some associated references), everything from Pizza to Feijoada is covered.......more

Goodreads review by bookworm on April 27, 2025

What do wine and yogurt have in common? How did the bagel come to the USA? And what does ketchup have to do with NASA? What We Eat is an incredibly interesting and entertaining book about the global history of food. It's very insightful, and while some of the facts mentioned are certainly familiar, th......more

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