Stan­ford lin­guist Dan Juraf­sky opens a panoram­ic win­dow onto every­thing from the mod­ern descen­dants of ancient recipes to the covert per­sua­sion on restau­rant menus.

Com­bin­ing his­to­ry with lin­guis­tic analy­sis, Juraf­sky uncov­ers a glob­al atlas of culi­nary influ­ences: how Martha Wash­ing­ton helped import the French mac­aron that became the Jew­ish coconut mac­aron, how Jews expelled by the Inqui­si­tion brought the fried fish to Eng­land that became fish and chips, how ketchup, Amer­i­ca’s nation­al condi­ment, began as a fer­ment­ed fish sauce from Chi­na’s Fujian province, how the Ital­ian word ver­mi­cel­li became Yid­dish chrem­sel, how the vow­els in ice cream names illu­mi­nate details of ear­ly human evolution.

Engag­ing and eclec­tic, Juraf­sky’s unique study uncov­ers the hid­den mean­ings in restau­rant reviews, menus, and food adver­tis­ing as he reveals the roots of our mod­ern food and cul­ture in the great his­tor­i­cal meet­ings of the Chris­t­ian, Mus­lim, and Jew­ish worlds.