Eat: The Story of Food

Christopher Columbus. Julia Child. Clarence Birdseye. These are some of the revolutionary men and women who have changed what and how we eat, remaking not just food history but human history. Some of these food revolutionaries are well known, others obscure. But one thing they have in common is that they have fundamentally shaped how we live today.

The story of meat is the story of mankind. Man’s insatiable appetite may have eaten its way through prehistoric beasts, effectively modifying the food chain and the landscape. Iconic moments in time with culture, technology, innovation and pure inspiration change and define his relationship with meat. From roasting woolly mammoth steaks over a bonfire to stalking Chateaubriand on Wall Street, the story of meat is the story of mankind.

Throughout history, mankind has been on a mad-dash to satisfy our sweet tooth and consume vital energy. Along the way, sugar helped build empires and even fueled the Industrial Revolution. From the time sugarcane was first refined in India thousands of years ago, to our newest high tech candy factories, we’ve been developing newer and better delivery systems for the taste we can’t live without.

High protein, omega rich seafood saved our species from its first threat of extinction, drove the Viking hordes, funded the American Revolution, gave hope to the Allies during two World Wars, and increasingly fuels our brains and muscle today. Unsustainable practices are forcing us to redefine our commercial goals in the ocean. Increasingly, we look “off the eaten path” investigating new ways to catch, eat and prepare seafood.

It's the stuff we love to hate: processed food. It has changed what we eat so much that today our ancestors would hardly recognize it as food. Today we spend less of our time on food than ever before. Guilty Pleasures explores modern food's uneasy relationship between convenience and quality.

They are the staffs of life – Bread, Beer and, occasionally, Pasta and Pizza. We take them for granted – but grains are their foundation – and – the foundations that built our Modern World. Today grains in their purest form have risen again with a renewed embrace of the natural and artisanal.

No matter the nationality, the one common language humanity has in common is food.