As Long As We Both Shall Eat: A History of Wedding Food and Feasts, Claire Stewart

As Long As We Both Shall Eat: A History of Wedding Food and Feasts (Rowman & Littlefield Studies in Food and Gastronomy) by Claire Stewart

Print Length: 242 Pages
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers
Publication Date: April 1, 2017
Language: English
ASIN: B06X14J49C
ISBN-10: 144225713X
ISBN-13: 978-1442257139
File Format: PDF

As Long as we Both Shall Eat is a culinary history of wedding feasts. Examining the various food customs associated with weddings in America and around the world, Claire Stewart not only provides a rich account of the foods most loved and frequently served at wedding celebrations, she also offers a glimpse into the customs and celebrations themselves, as they are experienced in the West and in various other cultures. She sheds light on the historical and contemporary significance of wedding food, and explores patterns of the varieties of conspicuous consumption linked to American wedding feasts in particular. There are stories of celebrity excess, and the book is peppered with accounts of lavish strange-but-true wedding tales. The antics of wealthy socialites and celebrities is a topic rich for exploration, and the telling of their exploits can be used to track the fads and changes in conventional and contemporary wedding feasts and celebrations. From cocktail hours to wedding cakes, showers to brunches, the food we enjoy to celebrate the joining of life partners helps bring us together, no matter our differences. Readers are treated to a tasty trip down the aisle in this entertaining and lively account of nuptial noshing.

Reviews

Of all the feasts that people eat, one of the most important, socially, is the wedding banquet. It’s a time for unabashed celebration of the happy couple, as family and friends gather to honor and cherish the duo’s commencement of their new life. Having herself cooked for hundreds of weddings, Stewart has witnessed all sorts of nuptial revelries. Many wedding feasts are shaped by religious and secular folkways and customs. American weddings have evolved over the past 200 years from simple postceremony breakfasts to today’s elaborate culinary productions. Stewart notes that during wartime, brides had to cut back and heed rationing strictures. She inventories myriad religious customs worldwide, ranging from Jewish dietary laws to Mormon, Sikh, and Buddhist customs. A chapter on African American practices moves across time from slavery through the present. Full of history and sociology, Stewart’s book will intrigue even those not tying the knot.