Answers culinary conundrums and explains those hard-to-find ingredients in your overseas cookbooks. The book also contains every measurement and conversion table that you will ever need, alternatives for allergy sufferers and rescue remedies for kitchen disasters.

"From the extraordinary distance our food can travel to reach our tables to the remarkable benefits of eating avocados, John Farndon shows the amazing, often shocking, truth behind the food we eat. Covering everything from the big businesses that control food production around the world to the dangers of food dyes, this book reveals the complex facts behind the simplest of meals. Find out just what GM food is and how scientists are altering what you eat, how food gets its flavour, why some foods are not as nutritious as they should be, why bringing exotic foods to your table may literally cost the Earth, and much more. This is an essential guide to the facts behind food, the one vital thing in your life besides air and water ? and the world?s biggest business"--Book jacket.

Did you know... -the term "hot dog" is believed to have been coined during a baseball game between the Yankees and the Giants in 1901? -calzones get their name from their less-than-glamorous looks: "calzone" means "trouser leg" or "drooping sack" in Italian? -the word "salary" comes from Roman soldiers being paid their wages in salt? -shrimp cocktail became popular in the 1920s as a safe way of "having a cocktail" during Prohibition? -the Cobb salad was invented by Robert H. Cobb-founder of the Brown Derby restaurant chains-who threw the salad together for Sidney Grauman-owner of the Chinese Theatre in Hollywood-as a midnight snack based on ingredients in his refrigerator? In "What Caesar Did For My Salad," historian Albert Jack offers a fascinating look at the unexpected stories, creators, and bizarre origins behind the world's most beloved dishes. Who was Margherita, for instance, and why was the world's most famous pizza named after her? Why do we call our favorite kinds of coffee espresso or cappuccino? Did medieval Turkish soldiers really invent the kebab by threading bits of meat on to their swords and balancing them on top of their campfires? What exactly does horseradish sauce have to do with our equine friends?