Since Eve Ate Apples Much Depends on Dinner: The Extraordinary History and Mythology, Allure and Obsessions, Perils and Taboos of an Ordinary Mea

Margaret Visser

Jun 2010 · Open Road + Grove/Atlantic

About this ebook

A “funny and fascinating” cultural history about one of our favorite pastimes: eating (The Village Voice).
 
This is a delightful and intelligent look at the food we eat, with a cornucopia of incredible details about the ways we do it.
 
Presented like a meal, each chapter of Since Eve Ate Apples Much Depends on Dinner represents a different course or garnish, which Margaret Visser handpicks from the most ordinary American dinner: among them corn on the cob with butter and salt, roast chicken with rice, salad dressed in lemon juice and olive oil, and ice cream. Visser tells the story behind each of these foods and in the course of her inquiries reveals some unexpected treats: the history of Corn Flakes; the secret behind the more dissatisfactory California olives (they’re picked green, chemically blackened, and sterilized); and the fact that, in Africa, citrus fruits are eaten whole, rind and all.
 
For food lovers of all kinds, unexpectedly entertaining book is a treasure of information from the author of the New York Times Notable Book The Rituals of Dinner.
 
“Rich in surprising facts, unexpected connections, and a well-documented outrage at what modern technology and agribusiness have done to purity and quality . . . A remarkable amount of information [presented] seamlessly and entertainingly.” —Library Journal

About the author

Margaret Visser writes on the history, anthropology, and mythology of everyday life. Her most recent book is The Gift of Thanks. Her previous works, Much Depends on Dinner, The Rituals of Dinner, The Way We Are, and The Geometry of Love, have all been bestsellers and have won major international awards, including the 1989 Glenfiddich Award for Food Book of the Year in Britain and the International Association of Culinary Professionals’ Literary Food Writing Award and Jane Grigson Award. In 2002, Visser gave the Massey Lectures on CBC Radio, subsequently published as the bestselling book Beyond Fate.
 
Visser’s works have been translated into French, German, Dutch, Chinese, Italian, and Portuguese. She appears frequently on radio and television and has lectured extensively in Canada, the United States, Europe, and Australia. She divides her time between Toronto, Paris, and southwest France.