After 1100 English cooking reached a high degree of gastronomy, which it shared internationally with the courts of Europe. Medieval food was stylish and tasteful, it was food designed to please and satisfy very sophisticated palates and right up to the mid 19th century it had epochs and phases of greatness. So how did we throw all that away? And not only throw it all away but forget all about it? This book attempts to trace the changes and influences of food in Britain through the Black Death, the Enclosures, the Reformation, the rise of Capitalism and the sado-masochism of the Victorian non-conformists to the present day. It should remind us all of our rich past and the gastronomic importance of the cuisine of these islands.