The essays in this volume approach their subject from a variety of angles: from the reality of starvation and the reliance on "fast food" of those without cooking facilities, to the consumption of an English lady's household and the career of a cook in the French royal household.

Pilgrims to table - an analysis of food consumption in Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, Elizabeth M. Berbel; The feast hall in Anglo-Saxon poetry, Margery Brown; Fast food and urban living standards in medieval England, Martha Carlin; Did the peasants really starve? Christopher Dyer; Driven by drink? Ale consumption and the agrarian economy of London region, c. 1300-1400, James Galloway; Making sense of medieval culinary records, Constance B. Hieatt; Cannibalism as an aspect of famine in two English chronicles, Julia Marvin; Feeding medieval cities - some historical approaches, Margaret Murphy; The household of Alice de Bruene, 1412-13 - there's no such thing as a free lunch, Fiona Swabey; Guillaume Tirel - a cook at the royal court of France in the fourteenth century, Alan Weber; The flavour of sin in the Ordo Representacionis Ade, Michelle R. Wright.