SC - cookbook - anyone familiar with it?

[Serian]

Just got this in an announcement from Amazon:

"The Cambridge World History of Food"
edited by Kenneth F. Kiple and
Kriemhild Conee Ornelas

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0521402166/ref=ad_b_ck_2
Have the French always enjoyed their
renowned cuisine? When
did Russians begin to eat pirogi?
What was the first
Indonesian spice to be cultivated
elsewhere in the world?
Questions such as these make for good
"Jeopardy" material,
but they're far from trivial--just
ask anyone with a passion
for good food and a curiosity for
where that food comes
from. That person will know
instinctively that the best way
to approach a culture--and, indeed,
the human animal--is
through the stomach. For this person,
"The Cambridge World
History of Food" will become
something of a bible, and the
best of gifts.

A massive scholarly tome in two
volumes and more than 2,000
pages, the "CWHF" encompasses a
wealth of learning touching
on nearly every aspect of human life.
(It also reveals the
answers to the three earlier
questions: No, French cuisine
as we know it today is a 19th-century
development; in the
16th century, following the conquest
of the Volga Tatar;
ginger, in colonial Mexico.)
Thoroughly researched and
highly accessible despite its
formidable layout, the set
addresses a groaning board of topics
past and present, 
from the diet of prehistoric humans
to the role of iron in
combating disease, from the
domestication of animals to the
spread of once-isolated ethnic
cuisines in a
fast-globalizing world. Of greatest
interest to general
readers is its concluding section, a
dictionary of the
world's food plants, which gives
brief accounts of items
both common and exotic, from abalong
to Zuttano avocado.

The product of seven years of
research, writing, and editing
on the part of more than 200 authors,
"The Cambridge World
History of Food" promises to become a
standard reference for
social scientists, economists,
nutritionists, and other
scholars--and for cooks and diners
seeking to deepen their
knowledge of the materials they use
and consume. --Gregory
McNamee