Our ancestors, the Gauls -- The virgin of the kidney -- Barbarians at the plate -- Ode to gluttony -- Left behind : the goats of Poitou -- The sweetest king -- They came from the sea -- Feudal fare -- Of monks and men -- Fighting for plums -- The wine that got away -- The vegetarian heresy -- A papal red -- The white gold of Guérande -- Legacy of a black prince -- The vinegar of the four thieves -- The cheese of emperors and mad kings -- La dame de beauté and the mushroom mystery -- Fruits of the Renaissance -- The mother sauces -- Conquest and chocolate -- The culinary contributions of madame serpent -- A chicken in every pot -- The chestnut insurgency -- The bitter roots of sugar -- The liquor of the gods -- The crescent controversy -- War and peas -- The devil's wine -- An enlightened approach to food -- Revolution in the cafés -- Pain d'égalité -- The potato propagandist -- The pyramid provocation -- The man who abolished the seasons -- The fifth crêpe -- The king of cheeses -- A revolutionary banquet -- The end of the oyster express -- Revelation in a bottle -- The curse of the green fairy -- Siege gastronomy -- The peanut patrimony -- Gastronomads on the sun road -- A friend in difficult hours -- A mutiny and a laughing cow -- "Bread, peace, and liberty" : the socialist baguette -- Couscous : the assimilation (or not) of empire -- The forgotten vegetables -- Canon Kir joins the resistance -- France and the United States : from liberation to exasperation

"A French cheesemonger and an American academic and ex-pat join forces to serve up a sumptuous history of France and its food, in the delicious tradition of Anthony Bourdain, Peter Mayle, and Pamela Druckerman"--