Stanford University linguist and MacArthur Fellow Dan Jurafsky dives into the hidden background of food.

Why do we eat toast for breakfast, and then toast to good health at supper? What does the turkey we eat on Thanksgiving want to do with the united states within the eastern Mediterranean? Can you work out how much your dinner will definitely cost by keeping track of the words over the menu?

In The Language of Food, Stanford University professor and MacArthur Fellow Dan Jurafsky peels aside the mysteries from your foods we about The Vocabulary Food: A Linguist Reads the Menu think we realize. Thirteen chapters evoke the pleasure and breakthrough of reading a menu dotted with the sharp-eyed annotations of a linguist.

Jurafsky highlights the delicate meanings hidden in filler phrases like ‘wealthy’ and ‘crispy,’ zeroes in over the metaphors and storytelling tropes we rely on in cafe reviews, and graphs a microuniverse of marketing language on the back of a bag of poker chips.

The fascinating journey through The Language of Food uncovers a worldwide atlas of culinary influences. With Jurafsky’s understanding, words like ketchup, macaron, and even salad become living fossils that contain the patterns of early global exploration that predate our modern fusion-filled world.

From ancient formulas preserved in Sumerian track lyrics to colonial delivery routes that first connected East and West, Jurafsky paints a vibrant portrait of how our foods developed. A surprising background of culinary exchange-a sharing of ideas and culture just as much as ingredients and flavors-lies just beneath the top of our day to day snack foods, soups, and suppers.

Engaging and informed, Jurafsky’s unique study illuminates a fantastic network of vocabulary, history, and food. The menu is normally yours to take pleasure from.