Daily Bread (Hardback)

Feast and Famine Before the Industrial Age

Charlie Taverner

The sumptuous and surprising story of early modern food, drink and community, from a food policy expert and academic

'Fascinating' Philippa Gregory

A village gathers the harvest and celebrates with a feast. A cook adds foraged herbs to a pottage which will feed the entire household of a country estate. Lifting hands in prayer, a monk begins his fast.

Before the age of processed food, every meal held meaning. Much of what we value most in our food today - seasonality, local ingredients and sense of community - was once essential to every dish.

In Daily Bread, Charlie Taverner reconstructs the lost flavours and surprising culinary diversity of the past, from bustling markets in Tudor London and springtime carnivals in Italy to famine on the harsh coast of colonial America. This is the colourful, globe-spanning story of how food and people shaped the birth of the modern world.

Publication date: January 7, 2027

£25.00

ISBN: 9781805225546

Imprint: Profile Books

Subject: History & Classics

Daily Bread (Ebook)

Feast and Famine Before the Industrial Age

Charlie Taverner

The sumptuous and surprising story of early modern food, drink and community, from a food policy expert and academic

'Fascinating' Philippa Gregory

A village gathers the harvest and celebrates with a feast. A cook adds foraged herbs to a pottage which will feed the entire household of a country estate. Lifting hands in prayer, a monk begins his fast.

Before the age of processed food, every meal held meaning. Much of what we value most in our food today - seasonality, local ingredients and sense of community - was once essential to every dish.

In Daily Bread, Charlie Taverner reconstructs the lost flavours and surprising culinary diversity of the past, from bustling markets in Tudor London and springtime carnivals in Italy to famine on the harsh coast of colonial America. This is the colourful, globe-spanning story of how food and people shaped the birth of the modern world.

Publication date: January 7, 2027

£20.00

ISBN: 9781805225560

ISBN 10 / ASIN: B0GL5CBRKS

Imprint: Profile Books

Subject: History & Classics

Daily Bread (Audiobook)

Feast and Famine Before the Industrial Age

Charlie Taverner

Preorder from

The sumptuous and surprising story of early modern food, drink and community, from a food policy expert and academic

'Fascinating' Philippa Gregory

A village gathers the harvest and celebrates with a feast. A cook adds foraged herbs to a pottage which will feed the entire household of a country estate. Lifting hands in prayer, a monk begins his fast.

Before the age of processed food, every meal held meaning. Much of what we value most in our food today – seasonality, local ingredients and sense of community – was once essential to every dish.

In Daily Bread, Charlie Taverner reconstructs the lost flavours and surprising culinary diversity of the past, from bustling markets in Tudor London and springtime carnivals in Italy to famine on the harsh coast of colonial America. This is the colourful, globe-spanning story of how food and people shaped the birth of the modern world.

Publication date: January 7, 2027

£24.99

ISBN: 9781806492879

Imprint: Profile Books

Subject: History & Classics

Reviews for Daily Bread

'Fascinating ... A history buffet with all you can think available. Tiny details jostle with huge social changes to explain the rituals and recipes of centuries'

Philippa Gregory, author of THE OTHER BOLEYN GIRL 

'A rich banquet of food history, thought provoking, erudite and moreish'

Ned Palmer, author of A CHEESEMONGER'S HISTORY OF THE BRITISH ISLES 

'In this thoughtful, entertaining and knowledgeable account, Taverner revisits the cosmopolitan complexity of early modern culinary culture to supply myriad insights into current debates regarding, inter alia, food security, cost of living concerns, food banks, soup kitchens, intermittent fasting and shrinkflation. A very enjoyable and intellectually nutritious read'

Clare Jackson, author of THE MIRROR OF GREAT BRITAIN 

'A revelatory exploration of food culture from an underreported period. I couldn't put it down'

Mallika Basu, author of IN GOOD TASTE 

'An entertaining and comprehensive exploration of food in the early modern period, and why it should matter to us today. Read this if you want to understand where our modern food system originated - the lost rituals, seasonality, and communities of the past - and what we can learn from our ancestors about eating better in the modern age'

Dr Eleanor Barnett, author of LEFTOVERS 

'Praise for STREET FOOD: 'A tasty tour of how we used to eat... Richly researched'

Bee Wilson The Sunday Times

'An immensely vivid portrayal of a forgotten London, and a tribute to the hard lives and admirable independence and resilience of Londoners past'

Christopher Hart Daily Mail

'An entertaining, deeply researched history'

 London Review of Books

Charlie Taverner

Charlie Taverner

Charlie Taverner is a writer, historian and farming policy advisor, who has taught at Birkbeck and Trinity College, Dublin. He has worked as a business and agricultural journalist, and is the author of Street Food: Hawkers and the History of London.