The Food Axis

Book excerpt: Beginning with the earliest, and relatively simple, houses, the author traces changes in food spaces through the years, noting a steady escalation in the number of food-related rooms. Along the way, she considers multiple circumstances that shed light on this evolution, including the role of gender in determining food-space design, the relation of food spaces to nature, and the telling ways in which people and food circulate through kitchens and dining rooms. Because Cromley is interested not only in how designed spaces look but how they are used, she cites a wealth of primary sources: autobiographies, travel journals, household diaries, letters, and inventories, in her exploration of the habits surrounding all aspects of food in the home. --Book Jacket.