M. Gabeus Apicius. De re conquinaria (rendered into English by Joseph Sommers Vehling, New York: Dover Publications, 1977) first appeared in England in 1705, in a Latin version, based on the manuscripts of this work dating to the 8th and 9th centuries. Apicius was supposed to have lived from 80 BCE to 40 CE. This book has since been questioned as a hoax, although it remains a reference text.
Lucius Junius Moderatus Columella. De re rustica. (12 volumes on agriculture. Latin text with German translation by Will Richter). München: Artemis Verlag, 1981.
Roland Barthes. Empire of Signs. New York: Hill and Wang. 1982.
(Originally published in French as L'Empire des Signes, Geneva:
Editions d'Art Albert Skira, S.A.
"The dinner tray seems a picture of the most delicate order: its frame containing, against a dark background, various objects (bowls, boxes, saucers, chopsticks, tiny piles of food, a little gray ginger, a few shreds of orange vegetable, a background of brown sauce)…it might be said that these trays fulfill the definition of painting which according to Piero della Francesca is merely demonstration of surfaces and bodies becoming even smaller or larger according to their term" (p. 11).
"Entirely visual (conceived, concerted, manipulated for sight, and even for a painter's eye), food thereby says that it is not deep: the edible substance is without a precious heart, without a buried power, without a vital secret: no Japanese dish is endowed with a center (the alimentary center implied in the West by the rite which consists of arranging the meal, of surrounding or covering the article of food); here everything is the ornament of another ornament: first of all because on the table, on the tray, food is never anything but a collection of fragments, none of which appears privileged by an order of ingestion; to eat is not to respect a menu (an itinerary of dishes), but to select, with a light touch of the chopsticks, sometimes one color, sometimes another, depending on the kind of inspiration which appears in its slowness as the detached, indirect accompaniment of the conversation…." (p. 22).
The writings of the various religions (Koran, Torah, New Testament) contain strictures and ceremonial rules concerning food. For cooking and eating restrictions in various cultures, see Nourritures, Sociétés et Religions: Commensalités (introduction by Solange Thierry). Paris: L'Harmattan, 1990.
On the microwave revolution in cooking, see:
Lori Longbotham. Better by Microwave. New York: Dutton, 1990.
Maria Luisa Scott. Mastering Microwave Cooking. Mount Vernon NY:
Consumers Union, 1988.
Eric Quayle. Old Cook Books: An Illustrated History. New York:
Dutton. 1978; and Daniel S. Cutler. The Bible Cookbook. New
York: Morrow, 1985, offer a good retrospective of what people
used to eat.