The preparation, serving and eating of food are common features of all human societies, and have been the focus of study for numerous anthropologists - from Sir James Frazer onwards - from a variety of theoretical and empirical perspectives. It is in the context of this previous anthropological work that Jack Goody sets his own observations on cooking in West Africa. He criticises those approaches which overlook the comparative historical dimension of culinary, and other, cultural differences that emerge in class societies, both of which elements he particularly emphasises in this book. The central question that Professor Goody addresses here is why a differentiated 'haute cuisine' has not emerged in Africa, as it has in other parts of the world. His account of cooking in West Africa is followed by a survey of the culinary practices of the major Eurasian societies throughout history - ranging from Ancient Egypt, Imperial Rome and medieval China to early modern Europe - in which he relates the differences in food preparation and consumption emerging in these societies to differences in their socio-economic structures, specifically in modes of production and communication. He concludes with an examination of the world-wide rise of 'industrial food' and its impact on Third World societies, showing that the ability of the latter to resist cultural domination in food, as in other things, is related to the nature of their pre-existing socio-economic structures. The arguments presented here will interest all social scientists and historians concerned with cultural history and social theory.

傑剋•古迪（Jack Goody），英國社會人類學傢、曆史學傢，劍橋大學社會人類學係榮譽教授，聖約翰學院成員，因其對人類學的貢獻被英國女王封為爵士。1976年入選英國社會科學院，1980年當選美國藝術與科學院外籍榮譽成員，2004年當選美國國傢科學院院士。半個多世紀以來，傑剋•古迪在人類學、曆史學、社會學和文化研究等多個領域裏筆耕不輟，這也讓他的著作成為當今最廣為閱讀、最具爭議的學術專著。他的著作有《死亡、財産與祖先》、《野蠻心智的馴服》、《烹飪、菜肴與階級》、《歐洲傢庭與婚姻的發展》、《東方世界、古代世界與原始世界》、《花之文化》、《西方中的東方》、《飲食與愛情》和《偷竊曆史》等。