| Summary: | "An ... eclectic encyclopedia that begins with "à la mode" and ends, nearly 600 articles later, with the Italian trifle known as "Zuppa inglese." It is the story of our sweet tooth, rooted in whatever evolutionary advantage a fondness for sweets once conferred. From chemistry and biology, the book moves into culture and aesthetics, technology and trade, and tradition and ritual ... the Companion explores the ways in which our taste for sweetness has shaped, and been shaped by, history ... told by the collaborative efforts of 265 experts with backgrounds as diverse as the topics they investigate: food historians, chemists, restaurateurs, cookbook writers, neuroscientists, anthropologists, pastry chefs and art historians all contributed to this volume. Together they trace sugar's journey from a rare luxury to a ubiquitous commodity, along the way revealing the human suffering and enslavement that fueled the rise of the sugar industry ... Four special appendices celebrate the ways in which sweets have enriched our language, our music and film and, or course, our gastronomy"--Publisher's description.
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