Irish food History: A Companion

Irish Food History: A Companion brings the reader on a gastronomic odyssey from prehistory, the start of the hunter-gatherer community, and the introduction of farming and livestock, to medieval beekeeping, banqueting, bog butter, and whiskey distilling, to eighteenth century feasts, famines, and on to the modernisation, industrialisation, and eventual globalisation of food. The book provides the latest thinking and research from a wide range of academic disciplines in the form of 28 essays by thirty-two different contributors, all experts in their field or period of study. It is written and designed to appeal to a general as well as an expert reader.

The challenge was to produce a beautiful, and coherent 800 page volume from this large body of complex, wide-ranging content and to engage the reader through the use of materials, scale, stock, page-turn, typography, space, and colour.

Like eating, engaging with a printed book is a multi-sensory experience. The page size 240 X 170 mm (portrait) is comfortable to hold and an efficient use of paper. Munken Lynx uncoated stock is a soft white for comfortable reading of lengthy texts. This paper keeps the overall weight of this 800 page book relatively low, so it is easier to handle and read.

Six section dividers punctuate the book visually and structurally using a key image layered within a palette of vibrant colours drawn from food and landscape. These are followed by spreads containing food-related poetry, song lyrics and recipes, book-ended with an overspill of layered colour from the section dividers to add vibrancy and dimension. Colour and typography are used to differentiate these from the main chapters.

Three editorial type families, combine to create texture and optimise readability and legibility. The body text is set in Edita, a contemporary, book typeface that softly references the pen nib. Chapter titles are given a page of white space which functions as both pause and announcement. The titles are set in Allrounder italic, echoing the calligraphic script in 18th century ledgers and manuscripts. Author biographies set in oversized Questa Slab close each chapter.

Extensive footnotes and figure captions enrich the narrative. For ease of reference, these are integrated in narrow columns beneath the main text block. The depth of the footnote column varies depending on the number of references on each page. This changing rhythm adds visual dynamism and gives the reader several entry points to the text. The baseline grid is used to bring consistency to the spaces between notes and body text. Questa Sans, Slab and Roman, are used in section dividers, chapter numbers, subheadings, picture captions, footnotes, tables, folios and running heads. The generous x-height is legible at these smaller sizes. 

The 250 images accompanying the text are drawn from a wide range of museums, archives, libraries, and private and personal collections. They comprise a mix of contemporary and historical, amateur and professional photography and illustration, along with scanned documents. Line drawings, blocks of translucent colour, and details extracted from some of these images and photographs bleed into the margins and over the text and illustrations to evoke an informality and energy inspired by the handwritten notes and amendments frequently made in cookery books, household receipt books, and manuscripts.

The cover image overturns ideas about the preparation of food as domestic and feminine. It speaks of hospitality, and the social nature of food, and evokes a sense of place. Munken Pure stock adds warmth to the black and white archive photo on the cover.

Published in early September 2024 Irish Food History sold out and was reprinted in January 2025. The design of the book has been cited in multiple reviews as intrinsic to its success. It won the Food & Drink book of the year 2024, An Post Irish book awards and was shortlisted for An Post Irish book award 'Best Irish-published book of the year'. It is also shortlisted for a Gourmand World Cookbook Award 2024 for culinary history—winners to be announced summer 2025.