Chocolate: history, culture and heritage
Chocolate: history, culture and heritage
L E Grivetti and H-Y Shapiro (eds)
Chichester, UK: John Wiley 2009 | 975pp | ?66.95 (HB)
ISBN 9780470121658
Reviewed by Mary Daniels
This book is a collection of 57 essays written by more than 100 members of the Chocolate history group formed in 1998 by the University of California, Davis, US, and the Mars confectionary company. These contributors draw from their backgrounds in such diverse fields as anthropology, archaeology, biochemistry, culinary arts, gender studies, engineering, history, linguistics, nutrition, and paleography. The result is an scholarly examination of chocolate, beginning with ancient pre-Columbian civilizations and ending with 21st century reports.
The fascinating topics explored include: chocolate and the Boston smallpox epidemic of 1764; chocolate pots - reflections of cultures, values, and times; adulteration - the dark world of ’dirty’ chocolate; chocolate in France - evolution of a luxury product; dark chocolate - chocolate and crime in North America and elsewhere.
This book provides detailed information and interpretations of chocolate history and a wealth of unusual and interesting facts and folklore about one of the world’s favorite
foods.
Further Reading
S T Beckett, Science of chocolate (2008)(ISBN 9780854049707)
P Martin, Sex, drugs and chocolate: the science of pleasure (2009). Fourth Estate. ISBN 9780007127085
S T Beckett, Industrial chocolate manufacture and use. (2008, 4th edition). WileyBlackwell. ISBN 9781405139496
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