About this item
Once synonymous with food novelty, gelatin has re-emerged as an attention-grabbing element of creative cuisine and avant-garde drinkology. Ken Albala's most fearless food exploration yet takes readers into the sublime world of aspics past and present. Blending history with his trademark zeal for experimentation, Albala traces gelatin's ever-changing fortunes alongside one-of-a-kind recipes that inspire, delight, and terrify as only jello can do. Gelatin's wondrous arrival in the medieval era was part of a technological watershed. Today, it reflects our high-tech zeitgeist. Albala encourages readers to celebrate gelatin's return with advice on creating a base and making silicone molds while his outrageous original creations dare you to add some jiggle to breakfast (Eggs Benedict in Champagne Jello) , a nightcap (Froot Loop Negroni) , or any culinary moment in between.
About the Author
Ken Albala is Professor of History at the University of the Pacific. He is the author or editor of 25 books on food including Eating Right in the Renaissance, Food in Early Modern Europe, Cooking in Europe 1250-1650, The Banquet: Dining in the Great Courts of Late Renaissance Europe, Beans: A History (winner of the 2008 IACP Jane Grigson Award) , and Pancake. He has also co-edited The Business of Food, Human Cuisine, Food and Faith and edited A Cultural History of Food: The Renaissance and The Routledge International Handbook to Food Studies. Albala was also editor of the Food Cultures Around the World series with 30 volumes in print, the 4-volume Food Cultures of the World Encyclopedia and is now series editor of Rowman Littlefield Studies in Food and Gastronomy for which he has written a textbook entitled Three World Cuisines: Italian, Chinese, Mexican (Winner of the Gourmand Best Foreign Food Book in the World 2012) . Albala was also co-editor of the journal Food Culture and Society and edited a 3 volume encyclopedia on Food Issues for Sage. He has also co-authored cookbooks: The Lost Art of Real Cooking and The Lost Arts of Hearth and Home. His recent works are a translation of the 16th century Livre fort excellent de cuysine, A Food History Reader and Nuts: A Global History. Most recently there is At the Table: Food and Family around the World. Noodle Soup: Recipes, Techniques, Obsession is his latest book.
