num_pages: 232
description: What do eggs flour and milk have in common? They form the basis of waffles of course but these staples of breakfast bounty also share an evolutionary eggs seeds (from which we derive flour by grinding) and milk have each evolved to nourish offspring. Indeed ponder the genesis of your breakfast lunch or dinner and youll soon realize that everything we eat and drink has an evolutionary history. In Dinner with Darwin  join Jonathan Silvertown for a multicourse meal of evolutionary gastronomy a tantalizing tour of human taste that helps us to understand the origins of our diets and the foods that have been central to them for millenniafrom spices to spirits.A delectable concoction of coevolution and cookery gut microbiomes and microherbs and both the chicken and its egg Dinner with Darwin reveals that our shopping lists recipe cards and restaurant menus dont just contain the ingredients for culinary delight. They also tell a fascinating story about natural selection and its influence on our platesand palates. Digging deeper Silvertowns repast includes entres into GMOs and hybrids and looks at the science of our sensory interactions with foods and cookingthe sights aromas and tastes we experience in our kitchens and dining rooms. As is the wont of any true chef Silvertown packs his menu with eclectic components dishing on everything from Charles Darwins intestinal maladies to taste bud anatomy and turducken.Our evolutionary relationship with food and drink stretches from the days of cooking cave dwellers to contemporary crperies and beyond and Dinner with Darwin serves up scintillating insight into the entire awesome span. This feast of soup science and human society is one to savor. With a wit as dry as a fine pinot noir and a cache of evolutionary knowledge as vast as the most discerning connoisseurs wine cellar Silvertown whets our appetitesand leaves us hungry for more.
language: English
title: Dinner with Darwin: Food, Drink, and Evolution
publisher: University of Chicago Press