The Cambridge World History of Food (two volumes) – Kenneth F. Kiple and Kreimhild Conee Ornelas (editors)

Despite its weight, roughly the same as two legs of lamb, this isn't an encyclopaedia. Nor is it the kind of textbook that gathers dust on a reference library shelf. It is a collection of essays that supply a context as well as a background to the foods we buy, cook or eat. Whatever branch of the industry a chef is working in, he will find information here to supplement his knowledge and carry out his work with a greater understanding.

A dictionary of more than 1,000 edible plants allied to detailed entries on all the world's major foods - from staples such as rice, wheat or amaranth (the seeds and leaf are popular in Mexico) to chickens, ducks, dogs and yak - give a comprehensive overview of every item a cook is likely to handle, regardless of where in the world he or she is working.

Detailed summaries of great and lesser-known cuisines explain the tastes and taboos underlying them. For at least 5,000 years the Chinese have had an aversion to uncooked food. The Japanese taste for raw produce is exemplified by a proverb: "Eat it raw first of all, then grill and boil it as a last resort." The declining influence of French cuisine is due partly to increasing competition from other cultures and the changing lifestyles of the world's elite consumers.

Sections on nutrition, food politics, technology or archaeology may have less direct relevance to chefs, although the information is objective enough to point out the unseen forces that shape everyone's diet: the agendas of the food lobbies; the social or philosophical arguments of vegetarians; the medical imperatives behind campaigns for healthy eating - not to mention the inconsistencies in all these positions.

Cooking is the visible tip of an iceberg. The Cambridge World History of Food provides an essential link to everything going on beneath it.

by Michael Raffael, food writer

The Cambridge World History of Food (two volumes) - Edited by Kenneth F. Kiple and Kreimhild Conee Ornelas. Cambridge University Press, £95.
ISBN 0-521-40215-8