Podcast Summary

Episode Overview

Podcast: New Books Network
Host: Dr. Miranda Melcher
Guest: Jenny Linford
Episode: Repast: The Story of Food (Thames & Hudson, 2025)
Date: November 26, 2025

In this engaging episode, Dr. Miranda Melcher interviews Jenny Linford about her book Repast: The Story of Food, published by Thames & Hudson in partnership with the British Museum. The book is a sweeping exploration of humanity’s relationship with food, using artifacts from the rich and wide-ranging collection of the British Museum. The conversation covers the book's creation, organization, and thematic structure, as well as many storytelling highlights drawn from the objects themselves.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

The Universal and Particular Nature of Food

• Why Food?
  Jenny Linford emphasizes food's universal connection:

  “Food is universal, yet particular. You know, we all eat, we have to eat…Everyone can relate to food in some way.” (03:00)
  Food allows for an exploration of the diversity and commonality in human culture across time and place.

• Origin of the Project:
  The project was proposed in collaboration between Thames & Hudson and the British Museum. Linford was approached as a London-based food writer who loves the museum and accepted enthusiastically, not fully anticipating the complex challenges ahead. (03:27)

Research and Collaboration with Curators

• Accessing the Collection:
  Working with British Museum curators was described as “drawn out,” each curator being deeply specialized in their area (Roman Britain, for instance), leading to rich but specific expertise.

  “They specialize…so if you talk to somebody, they're specialist in Roman Britain, and that's what they'll know about in huge depth…But then they wouldn't be able to tell you about something else.” (04:50)

• Storytelling vs. Nuance:
  Linford saw her role as synthesizing nuanced academic knowledge into accessible, compelling stories for a general audience:

  “As a food writer, I’m trying to tell stories…There are stories in food.” (05:35)

Organizing the Book: Themes and Structure

• Thematic Approach:
  The book is organized thematically, not geographically, to allow objects from different times and cultures to be juxtaposed and compared:

  “I wanted the global human nature of food to be expressed. I thought these human themes would be the best way to do it.” (08:31)

• Key Themes:
  Broad themes include:

  • How food is acquired (hunting, gathering, fishing)
  • The advent of agriculture
  • Cultural aspects: religion, alcohol, preservation, eating in and out

• Sub-Themes & Visual Structure:
  Each page has a clear sub-theme (e.g., mushroom foraging, kimchi jars), supported by curated objects. Linford relied heavily on the museum’s online database and curatorial suggestions. She describes the thrill of “finding a Botticelli drawing of autumn” while searching for harvest-related artifacts.

  “[It] was a real thrill, Miranda, to be able to think…‘I will have that in my book, that’s pretty exciting.’” (12:59)

Curation Challenges

• Selection Process:
  Twice as many objects as could be included were considered (at least 600, with around 300 making the final cut).
  Deciding what to include was described as “a massive process…a massive sifting.” (14:10)

• Treating Book Like an Exhibition:
  The selection team physically mocked up pages with Blu Tack in a large room:

  “We spent about three or four days…sticking them up in spreads on the wall and thinking, okay, we do that. And then standing back and thinking…” (16:10)

Standout Artifacts & Stories

1. Food Acquisition Tools

• Wide variety and specificity of tools: Different baskets for honey, rainforest vegetation; spear thrower carved from reindeer antler shaped like a mammoth (Ice Age).

“You think a gathering basket will be the same? No, they're all different…It's actually fascinating.” (19:08)

2. Food, Luck, and the Sacred

• Many cultures have objects designed to secure good luck or the favor of gods for successful harvests—like a yam-shaped stone from the Pacific, Indonesian spirit figures, boat figures for luck at sea, Egyptian tomb food models and murals, and intricately detailed Chinese food offerings.

“The spiritual dimension to food is something I really wanted to put in the book because it felt so important.” (24:30)

3. The Movement of Food / Travel & Trade

• The “Columbian exchange,” the spread of chilies, potatoes, chocolate—showing how ingredients travel and transform cultures.
• Examples: Chinese mustard pot made for Germans, Pacific navigation charts, silver nutmeg chest.
• Chocolate’s journey: From elite Mesoamerican and European drink to everyday treat, illustrated with Mixtec codex images and 18th-century gold chocolate cups.

“So many things we take for granted now have come from other places.” (25:48)

4. Tableware and Food Storage—Timeless and Strange

• Some objects could be contemporary (Japanese omelette pan, Roman pepper pot); others (Benin salt cellar, ivory tableware) are strikingly foreign.
• Roman shopping list from Vindolanda:

  “…it says…buy a hundred apples if they're good, buy a hundred or 200 eggs if the price is fair…That’s literally what I would be…when I do my shop.” (34:50)

5. The Longevity of “Modern” Eating Habits

• Street food, takeout, “food to go,” and cafes existed in Roman times (Pompeii's snack bars, “thermopolium”), medieval street vendors, Japanese and Day of the Dead representations, and even ancient metal drinking straws.

“Food to go has been around…and we know that the Romans had snack bars.” (37:35)

• Metal straw from Ur (thousands of years old):

  “I have a metal drinking straw in my drawer and suddenly they're on sale again…And yet there's this object from thousands of years ago…” (39:55)

Memorable Quotes

• On the skill of the selection process:

  "I must have had at least twice as many...possible candidates for inclusion. It was a massive process, Miranda, that's all I can say...I'm now very emotionally attached to what's in the book." (14:10)

• On food and emotion:

  "Food is emotional for us, isn't it? So we have—We attach value and meaning to it..." (46:10)

• On human ingenuity:

  "The skill…human…we are a clever species. I mean, we're stupid species as well in many ways. And yet we…But, you know, boy, the complexity of what we created with food, the ingenuity, the resourcefulness, the imagination—it just kept hitting me over and over again as I worked on this book." (49:33)

Special Focus: Cheese!

• Linford is a confessed cheese lover—as is Melcher!—and discusses the evidence for ancient cheese making, such as Roman cheese molds and historical cheese production still in use today in the Alps.

“Among the earliest objects we have…are either cheese strainers or cheese molds. And I have a Roman cheese mold which would have shaped the curd.” (42:00)

The Playful and Artistic Side

• The British Museum's prints and drawings collection allowed Linford to thread humor and satire through the story of food (Heath Robinson’s comical dining contraptions, Beatrix Potter, Thomas Bewick, satirical cartoons lampooning British vs. French food).

“Food is…cultural, isn’t it? And there’s…satire where the French are teasing the British and making fun of our British ways…” (46:10)

Timestamps of Key Segments

• 03:09 Jenny Linford: Why write about food? Why it’s a great historical lens
• 04:50 Accessing the museum collection, working with curators
• 08:31 How the book is organized; choosing universal themes
• 14:10 The curation process, making difficult cuts
• 19:08 Food tools: baskets, spear thrower, board game about hunting
• 21:23 Food, luck and spirituality—harvest festivals, funerary offerings
• 25:48 The movement of food around the world—travel, trade, chocolate
• 30:55 Tableware and storage: what's modern, what's not
• 34:50 Ancient shopping list from Vindolanda
• 37:35 Fast food, food to go—ancient and modern
• 39:55 Metal drinking straw from Ur
• 42:00 Cheesy discussions—ancient and modern cheese making
• 44:44 Artistic, playful, and satirical food images
• 47:55 What’s next for Linford? Cheese! And reflecting on the book’s impact

Conclusion

Repast: The Story of Food is a celebration of food as an elemental and endlessly diverse human experience. The episode underscores the extraordinary breadth of food’s cultural resonances, the ingenuity of our ancestors, and the emotional weight we attach to what—and how—we eat. Jenny Linford’s integration of art, artifacts, and stories makes this both a visual feast and an accessible, truly “readable” coffee table book.

For more insights, images, and the full story, listeners are encouraged to explore the book itself or browse the British Museum’s online collection.