The Gastronomical Arts in Spain: Food and Etiquette

"This is an excellent collection of essays that helps us to put together a story about the nature and function of Spanish gastronomy from the medieval period to present-day Spain. The focus is broad yet the chapters are of great interest."

Lara Anderson, University of Melbourne, Bulletin of Spanish Studies

"For the hungry reader, this book is a veritable feast for the mind, with an engaging introduction on the history of gastronomy and food studies followed by ten well-researched and often brilliant essays on diverse aspects of food in history and literary and cultural studies of the Iberian Peninsula. From the medieval to the contemporary, in analyses of poetry, theatre, treatises, and other genres, these studies feed the reader a diverse and fascinating diet of topics and approaches."

Steven Wagschal, Professor of Spanish, Indiana University Bloomington

"Spanish gastronomy is a complex amalgam of Muslim, Christian, and Jewish traditions and of European and New World influences. The Gastronomical Arts in Spain captures this rich diversity through a series of insightful and fascinating essays that span from the Middle Ages to the twentieth century. In the process, it reveals the many surprising ways in which food, recipes, and table etiquette intersect with history, politics, culture, literature, and identity. The result is a true feast for Hispanists and food lovers alike."

Elizabeth Amann, Professor of Literary Studies, Ghent University

"What a welcome smorgasbord of essays on food that de Armas and Mandrell have assembled for us, a veritable ‘textual banquet of sense’ as they put it in their introduction. Spanning from medieval to contemporary periods, its overview of the art of gastronomy in Spain offers a well-curated tasting of the many ways the subject of food has formed a key element in Spanish culture. Food metaphors aside, the essays here cover a wide diversity of disciplines offering an excellent collection of studies that further our understanding of a very complex and important subject."

Lou Charnon-Deutsch, Professor Emeritus of Hispanic Languages and Literature, Stony Brook University