Food: A Cultural Culinary History is rated 4.6 out of 5 by 120 .

Rated 5 out of 5 by KkLynn from Fantastic history!! While I love professor Albala in “Cooking through the Ages” which I watched first and LOVED, in this series he proves himself as an amazing historian! I have been a student of history all my life and found history through this “food” lens to be truly informative and fun. Highly recommended!!

Rated 4 out of 5 by Robert22066 from A history course, not a science course. Notably lacking discussion of sanitation, food safety, foodborne illness or nutritional status in the cultures mentioned. No knowledge of nutrition or food chemistry is required. The lecturer uses words like "taste" and "tasteless" without defining them or showing how they were measured. The lecturer provides an impressive amount of historical analysis, although a bit weak on economics. Eventually, the lecturer rails against imperialism, big business and corrupt politicians. So far so good. But when discussing man-made famine and US food aid during World War 1, the lecturer avoids the deaths from starvation by the British food blockade in 1919, the US invasion of Russia 1918-20, food policy in Soviet Russia and the Holodomor, continuing through food as a weapon in World War 2. I am left wondering if I should have been a bit more skeptical of earlier lectures. Recommended as a good overview.

Rated 5 out of 5 by Hermie35 from The title was perfect. This course taught a great deal about the evolution of food through the ages. Ken Albala was interesting, informative and enjoyable to hear.

Rated 5 out of 5 by mtorres55 from More than History, More than Food! This is one of the most interesting and useful of all the many Great Courses we have purchased and watched. Prof. Albala's expertise goes far beyond food, far beyond history, and has a delightful presentation manner. His grasp of the subtleties of history, his understanding of how it's written and by whom, was delightful. We watched this series about 6 months ago. We plan to watch it again with a group of friends - masked and socially distanced, of course. Thank you Ken Albala, and thank you, Great Courses!

Rated 5 out of 5 by Velvet528 from Very informative My wife is in the food industry. Totally solid in his knowledge of the workings of what’s going on. Particular to her industry it is out dated, my only complaint. But I love Ken.

Rated 5 out of 5 by DHooch from Good overview of food history. Professor Albala gives a good overview of food history, but not a lot of food preparation detail, compared to the vast types of food in the world. This is not really a criticism. There are so many foods that humans eat and food cultures out there that it would be impossible to discuss them all in these lectures. Professor Albala is a very good lecturer. He can be funny, adding to, at times, dry information. This course has more history of cultures than I expected. It adds to the food aspect, by giving some context to the food that many cultures embrace, such as Kosher and Halal. He goes into detail about the history of serving food, such as the feasts in the Middle Ages and the Enlightened Period. He discusses how spices have entered into the food culture and how these spices aided in discovering the new world and expanded trading routes. I would recommend this course to anyone interested in food and food history. It is not a cooking show, it's a history lesson.

Rated 5 out of 5 by sus2 from Creative fun and learning! If you are interested in culinary history and you love cooking yourself, do not miss this. The creative, playful style really encourage one to delve into the culinary styes and recipes.