The Gannet's Gastronomic Miscellany

by Killian Fox

gannet
'ganit/
noun
1. a large seabird with mainly white plumage, which catches fish by plunging into the water.
2. British informal, a greedy person.

The Gannet's Gastronomic Miscellany goes beyond the usual food fixations. Presented in a fresh, visually inventive style, it will appeal to anyone with a passing interest in food - which, in this gastronomy-obsessed age, is pretty much all of us.

In this compendious hotpot of a book you'll find a guide to creating a hit food profile on Instagram, a cross-section of a tiffin box, an explainer on craft beer, the origin story of chicken Marengo, a list of millennia-old products that are still edible today (should you be brave enough to try Irish bog butter or Ancient Egyptian honey) and many more delightful nuggets of information.

192 pages, Hardcover

First published October 5, 2017

Reviews

[Tim Pendry · Rating 3 out of 5]

This will amuse foodies and may help win a pub quiz. There may even be some good cooking tips amongst the trivia. I wish I had more to say. I enjoyed it even if, as a non-foodie, I was puzzled by some of the aspirational obsessions appreciated by cult members.

Am I supposed to be impressed by actors who nearly kill themselves in order to get the right weight for a role? Or people who will seek out and eat any animal, sometimes still living? Or the expenditure involved in ensuring kimchi could be suitable for space flight? Or by what great writers liked to eat?