Book Thread: June 7th, 2026 (MP4)

Good morning, ‘rons and ‘ronettes. It’s time once again for the monthly MP4-hosted Sunday Book Thread. As it’s June, it’s time for Royal Ascot!

So ask the barman at the Enclosure for a 1995 Louis Roederer, covfefe or tea and let’s get started!

If you’ve ever had the misfortune of meeting me, you can tell from my waistline that I love to eat. I won’t give you my exact measurements, but I will note that Edward VII had a waistline of 48 inches, which in his day was considered grossly obese. His Majesty and I could share closets.

I love to eat. I like to cook, but unlike CBD, I’m not very good at it. But I love to read about food. Not just recipe books, which, although entertaining on their own, can be somewhat dull, but books about the history and sociology of food. For instance, I have several books dedicated to food, its preparation and the status of cooks in both high and low society during the Middle Ages, each of which is the sort of read that both informs you and leaves you hungry. Here are three:The Medieval Cook, and Fast and Feast: Food in Medieval Society, both by Bridget Ann Henisch and Fabulous Feasts: Medieval Cookery and Ceremony, by Madeline Pelner Cosman.

I also love books about dining outside the house, in restaurants, cafés and roadside venues; two of my faves are Repast: Dining Out at the Dawn of the New American Century, 1900-1910, by Michael Lesy & Lisa Stoffer and Appetite City: A Culinary History of New York, by William Grimes. And that’s not even touching other tomes like Duncan Hines’ various editions of Adventures in Good Eating, histories of the Harvey Girls and drive-ins, or bios of the founders of the great fast-food chains such as Colonel Sanders, the McDonald brothers or Billy Ingram, the man behind White Castle.

What about you? Are cookbooks just instruction manuals to you or treats to dip into during a particularly puckish mood? Have you ever, like me, come across a Delmonico’s menu from 1895 and wonder if you could make your way through a Gay Nineties lobster palace night?

posted by Open Blogger at 09:00 AM

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