Val Kerin
Author of Eats: The Shocking Secret History of Food and Eating
Eats is available on Amazon in paperback, e-book and hardcover.
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Eats is a fun, funny, sometimes scandalous romp through the history and myths of food and eating. It’s a witty, irreverent, informative read for anyone with a mouth and an interest in history, food, or just knowing peculiar things.
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Nearly all the food we eat today has radically transformed from its historic beginnings. Ancient and Medieval food animals were significantly smaller than they are today; carrots weren’t orange, apples weren’t sweet, raw cukes were thorny and could kill you, eggplants triggered madness, and potatoes could cause ugly babies. Food history and lore is truly, disturbingly, profoundly weird. And that is before we even consider mythical, magical foods, poisonous foods, and fabulous half-vegetable, half-animal hybrids with supernatural powers and ill intentions.
Chew on This!
Ancient foods were so profoundly different that the shape and size of the human jaw and palate changed dramatically to accommodate new foods and food prep. Here is a small taste of juicy facts:
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Henry VIII and his courtiers ate approximately 5,000 calories daily!
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A rock and some resolute whacks were needed to crack open each individual rock-hard ancient corn kernel, and it was hardly worth the work. The cob was barely thumb-sized, with only a dozen kernels.
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Cannibals don’t typically eat people for nutrition and calories, and cannibalism still happens today.
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Security measures for US watermelon caused more deaths in the 1850s than any other farming.
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Spontaneously combusting tempura flakes are responsible for at least 7 US restaurant fires.
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Leonardo da Vinci, Hitler, Rasputin, and Armin Meiwes (the Rotenburg Cannibal now serving a life sentence in prison) all became vegetarians.
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An 1875 distillery fire forced 30-foot blue flames and a river of burning whiskey through Dublin streets. As it was burning alcohol, the fire brigade couldn’t use water. It finally was extinguished with horse manure. Thirteen people died, not from the fire, but from slurping blazing whiskey.
I guarantee you will learn something a fun tidbit to tickle your dinner guests’ neurons. Please join me on this twisty, festive ramble through food history. I saved you the best seat at the feast!
Eats is lavishly illustrated in color, with historic images on nearly every page.
Who would love this book: researchers and period writers, fans of history, food history, gastronomic trivia, cooks, people who like cooks, living history fans and history reenactors, adventurous travelers, readers, eaters and you!
Val is passionate about dusty, underappreciated corners of history and can entertain nearly anyone at a dinner party with fascinating facts about something on their plate that they would rather not know. She is too well read and well traveled for her own good and enjoys popping bubble wrap and extreme office sports involving the paper shredder.
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Through her writing, research, and public speaking engagements, Val works to uncover the hidden forces that shape our diets and our health. She is available for speaking engagements, workshops, and other events related to food and history.
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For more fun history, connect on Ancient Echoes, her entertaining history YouTube and Pinterest accounts.
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History, only Fun!
Contact Val Kerin
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