Perfect for the amateur food anthropologist (or any other foodie), What We Eat is a fascinating read giving the history and uses of various food items. In fact, there is so much information given, I felt the book should get a high rating. Unfortunately, the items the editors picked to write about seem random at times. Perhaps this is due to a cultural difference between myself and the editors but I still found it a bit distracting to my enjoyment. Also the actually formatting of the book is very textbook like making the information-dense entries a bit more of a struggle to read. Overall though, I would recommend this book to anyone who appreciates learning about foods.

What We Eat is an incredibly well-researched history of the everyday foods we eat from catsup to ice cubes to naan. I really wanted to like this book, but it's such dry reading that I found myself getting bored. As someone who reads food books like novels. Also note, the writers are French, so there is a very French bias in the book. Man, those guys hate hamburgers!

I received an advance reader copy of this book and am voluntarily leaving this review.

This book will interest those who are very interested in the foods that they eat, be that for personal or more professional reasons. It is very easy to dip in and out of this title which features foods from all the letters of the alphabet, starting with Acheke and ending with Yougurt (right after Yak butter).

Many but not all of these foods were familiar to me. All of the entries were interesting. Take Christmas Pudding for example. Who knew that in 1927 a giant one was made and presented to the Lord Mayor of London? What are all of the ingredients and from whence do they come? Any idea when the term pudding came into regular use in Britain? Ever wonder how it was made in various parts of what was once the British Empire years ago? Curious about Charles Dickens' contribution? Find the answers in that entry. Readers will want to keep going and learn more. Plus, if you want to know even more, there are suggested resources.

This is a terrific and fun encyclopedia of food. It would make a great gift.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Columbia University Press for this title. All thoughts are my own.

Love this sorts of books- they're like prepping for a trivial pursuit game, but in a really fun way. I loved getting to read through how food drives culture and vice versa; especially the national designations of various foods. Was interesting to debunk some myths as well on where actual food comes from. Good for any culinary or surprisingly travel focused readers.

A fantastic delve into the world of food, enough to whet anyone’s appetite for information. The topics are served up in short and snappy chapters on a wide variety of foodstuffs, from the well known to the more obscure. An easy book to dip in and out of either as a quick snack or a longer feast. The information presented includes the history of the food, some fascinating facts about it and the country of origin and how it came to be. I thoroughly enjoyed this and found it entertaining as much as informative. Definitely lots to think about aka food for thought. A definite recommend from me.

This is a perfect read for the foodies out there. I love learning about food and their origins so this was perfect for me. It’s very informative and you can learn a lot about something you love or learn about a whole new food in general. I liked that each food has its own designated part instead of just paragraphs on different topics all bunched together. I’d definitely say this is something that you just pick up and read throughout a period of time because it can be a bit slow at points but I really enjoyed my time with it and would recommend it to anyone who is interested in their food and how it came to be.

This is a fun book that gives a little bit of insight into a lot of different foods from around the world. Some entries feel a little short, but all in all it's definitely an nice book to pick up and flip through stop on the entries that catch your interest, though I'd say more of an interesting coffee table/reference sort of book than a book to sit down and read through from cover to cover.

How did each food come to be? This is what this book is all about. From every international cuisine, this covers the famous foods that have ruled the world over the years. An informative and fun read

This is a great reference, and way more balanced than similar entries in the same genre. I was surprised to learn it was a translation— it’s extremely competent in English too. The tone remains consistent even with multiple authors, which is impressive.

What We Eat is a fascinating and eye-opening exploration of the surprising histories behind the foods we consume every day. While items like ketchup, ramen, and baguettes may seem tied to specific countries or cultures, this book reveals that their stories are far more global and complex. Who would guess that ketchup has roots in a Southeast Asian anchovy sauce, or that Japan’s beloved ramen was born from Chinese noodles and American wheat?
In this engaging collection, nearly ninety food items are examined as historical artifacts, each carrying tales of migration, colonialism, adaptation, and globalization.
The book invites readers to rethink the cultural and political narratives behind familiar foods—coffee, pizza, hummus, guacamole, sparkling water, and even pet food—showing how global encounters and shifting identities have shaped what we find on our plates.
What I liked about this book is its accessibility. Written by a diverse group of authors, each bringing their own voice and expertise, the chapters are concise, self-contained, and engaging—making the book ideal for browsing at your own pace.
Whether you’re reading about ceviche, naan, or gin, each story connects broader historical movements to something deeply personal and universal: food.
It’s a book that encourages you to pause before your next meal and wonder about the journey that dish has taken to reach your table. For readers who love food, culture, or quirky historical tidbits, this is a delightful, enlightening read. You’ll come away seeing the grocery aisle—and your dinner—in an entirely new light.

What We Eat is an informative book about different foods and their history. These chapters were varied and all of them informative, yet the book is quite dry to read and therefore quite slow to read.

Eating is such a natural act that we rarely stop to think about the stories behind what’s on our plates. What We Eat is the kind of book that makes you do just that; it turns everyday meals into a journey through history, culture, and globalization. It’s not a cookbook, nor a dense academic tome. Instead, it’s a vibrant and surprising collection of stories that take you from your fork to the far corners of the world.

Each food item (ramen, ketchup, baguettes, guacamole) is treated like a character with its own adventure, cultural journey, and unexpected origins. It's eye-opening to learn, for example, that ketchup didn’t originate in the U.S., but has roots in Southeast Asia, or that the baguette,so iconic to France,is the product of urban shifts and historical transformation, not timeless tradition.

What makes this book so enjoyable is how approachable it is. The chapters are short but rich, written in a way that’s both intellectually sharp and warmly conversational. It feels like listening to a passionate friend tell you fascinating stories about how food travels, adapts, and evolves with people across time and borders.

Beyond the curious facts, the book subtly encourages reflection on colonialism, migration, industrialization, and power. It reminds us that what we eat is not just about flavor or nutrition, but about history, identity, and sometimes even resistance.

Very informative! As someone whose culture revolves around food, I loved getting the chance to really learn the history of some of my favorite dishes. This is a book perfect for expanding your knowledge of food and the history behind it. It was a perfect book to pick up at any time when I wanted to expand my mind. I even found myself reaching for the book after eating some of my favorite foods. For instance, the chapter on ceviche was very interesting, learning about how different cultures may add their own ingredients and concoctions. As an Italian, the Noodles and Macaroni chapter was also interesting for me!

I so enjoy books about food! This one has beat chapters about everything and its history and was interesting, well researched and at the same time felt light-hearted and compelling. Completely recommend.

This was a great pop-history book of micro-chapters about foods we encounter all the time, but don't necessarily know that much about. The writing is engaging, and the short chapters keep this book fun to dip in and out of. Definitely worth checking out if you need something light and informative to entertain you!

What We Eat is a fun, bite-sized collection of food histories from around the world, covering everything from pizza to yak butter to—surprisingly—pet food. Each entry is concise and easy to digest, making it perfect for curious readers who enjoy browsing through random facts rather than delving deeply into a single topic. While the alphabetical format sometimes felt disjointed (jumping from gin to pizza to whiskey), the sheer variety kept things interesting. I especially appreciated learning about lesser-known foods and unexpected connections, like what ketchup has to do with NASA. It’s not a comprehensive deep dive, but for light, informative reading, it hits the spot.

What do wine and yogurt have in common?
How did the bagel come to the USA?
And what does ketchup have to do with NASA?

What We Eat is an incredibly interesting and entertaining book about the global history of food. It's very insightful, and while some of the facts mentioned are certainly familiar, there was, at least for me, a wealth of new information in this book.
I think it's great that the chapters are relatively short; this keeps the individual topics from getting boring. You can simply browse through the book and choose the topic that interests you—it doesn't have to be read in order.

I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in the history behind the foods we know today.

This was a book full of great information. It was very easy to read and I would highly recommend it.

**I received an ARC of this.**

This is a collection of short essays (3-4 pages, including bibliographies) covering the history of different foods. While I did find it interesting, it wasn't quite what I was expecting.

It was really neat reading these brief histories of foods and how they came to be, and several of them made me want to look further into the foods. I appreciated the wide variety of types of foods, as well as the different cultural and regional backgrounds of them. I certainly didn't expect to read about the history of pet food here!

For me, the formatting could have been better. The foods being ordered alphabetically was jarring at times. I wonder if it wouldn't be better to have them grouped by type instead. Some words, especially if they were titles of articles or books, weren't translated (this seemed to be on a case by case basis, and in some entries they were translated, while in others they weren't).

I didn't realize these short essays would be written by several different academics. Some of the writing styles of these academics worked better than others. I felt like some of them tried a little too hard to create interesting "hook" first paragraphs (looking at you, Gin) that just didn't work for me. There were also terms used that I had no familiarity with, and someone who hasn't read a lot of academic work about food.

*This book was received as an Advanced Reviewer's Copy from Netgalley.

What We Eat is a compilation of short history snippets on various food items that are popular around the world. Giving a summary in just a few pages (with some associated references), everything from Pizza to Feijoada is covered.

While I enjoyed learning about various foods, there were a few that struck me as odd (pet food?). I also would have much preferred the food to be organized into type instead of alphabetical order as it seemed disjointed to go from gin to pizza to whiskey instead of putting drinks, snacks, etc. together. I did like that I got introduced to foods I may not have thought of along the way though (like yak butter).

This isn't a book for someone who wants to learn a lot about a particular thing, but if you're looking for short snippets of informative information on food, this would fit that criteria.

Review by M. Reynard 2025