Literature often draws on foods and patterns of eating, and symbolism based on them, because of their fundamental place in human life and culture. This book considers perceptions of food, in conjunction with other details of European writings on food, in articles based around specific cultures.

Literature often draws on foods and patterns of eating, and symbolism based on them, because of their fundamental place in juman life and culture. Furthermore, literature has close historical ties to the culture in which it is created and may well portray good and bad times in the farming year. English and French novels have often associated a plentiful supply of food with well-being and festivity, while shortages have represented deprivation and misery. National and regional variations are important in food's representation from the gluttonous feasts of the Roman Empire to the 'tasteless' or 'overcooked' image of English food today. These exaggerated perceptions are considered in conjunction with many other details of European writings on food in articles based around specific cultures.

Ancient Greece - "Aristophenes"
Rome - from "Ennius" to the graffiti of Pompeii
Spain - "Don Quixote"
Portugal - 15th-century cookery books
England, France - Puritanism and urbanization in "All Manners of Food"
Italy - the author Italo Calvino.