Got questions about food from the past? Historians are here to help.

No matter who they were or where they lived, humans have always relied on food to survive. But what food looks like and how it’s eaten depends on the time and place; what people ate in the Paleolithic Age wasn’t the same food folks consumed in 2nd-century Rome, 15th-century Mesoamerica, or 20th-century Los Angeles. Local flora and fauna, shaped by climate, may have initially determined what people ate, but the expansion of trade routes and the development of industrial production eventually diversified cuisine and globalized food.

From the history of the restaurant in 19th-century America to the diet of peasants in medieval Europe, these frequently asked questions consider historical foodways from different perspectives. Actual historians answer these questions and give insight into how various societies in the past produced and consumed food.