Maritime musician Spalding’s first book provides details of the preservation, preparation, and consumption of food at sea throughout time and as technology progressed. Subjects covered include the ancient and medieval periods, the age of exploration, navies, merchant trade, immigrant and slave ships, steam power, the effects of canned foods on sea travel, ocean liners, refrigeration, and such 'new' technologies as submarines, cruise ships, and containerization. The author covers much ground and every corner of the globe yet never ceases to be intimate, identifiable, and fascinating, nor slows his clip. Much of which is owed to the perfectly apportioned breakdown within chapters, the perfectly concise text, and most of all, by the lovely accoutrements—the menus, recipes, charts, illustrations, poems, quotes, and ration lists. Never have so many reference sources been so palatably presented. VERDICT Highly recommended for anyone with an interest in the effects of food on human history.

Library Journal, Starred Review

Spalding, a scholar and sailor who has worked and cooked at sea, posits in the introduction to this academic work on how food was prepared on ships from the Viking age to the Titanic. The slender volume manages to cover the entirety of human history at sea. Spalding’s tone is dry, but readers hungry for eccentric facts about cooking and eating in the ocean may delight in its specificities: a chart detailing rations of pork and beans and bully beef during the Civil War, the Gala Dinner Menu from aboard the S.S. United States (Foie Gras in aspic, Kangaroo Tail soup), and how canned salmon came to replace salt cod with the advent of canning. The book’s standout section, however, is the chapter devoted to immigrant and slave ships, which describes meals given to slaves in the Middle Passage, opening up a larger discussion of conditions and life on these ships. Immigrant families were forced to share a stove, each family expected 'to prepare its own food.' The book concludes with several as sample recipes throughout time B&W Photo.

Publishers Weekly

Food in the Air and Space and Food at Sea, the second and third titles in Ken Albala’s 'Food on the Go' series, trace the surprising, sometimes humorous, histories of food prepared for long-distance air, space, and ocean voyages. Foss and Spalding both bring unique perspectives to these works. Foss is a culinary historian whose areas of expertise are beverages and the history of immigrant contributions to California cuisine, while Spalding is a consultant for historic programs, a maritime historian, and a musician. Each well-researched book follows a chronological sequence that clearly shows how the food prepared and served on watercraft, aircraft, and spacecraft developed in conjunction with the vehicles themselves, as well as the advancement of nutrition studies, technology, military science, and the tourism industry. . . .Food at Sea includes a section of authentic shipboard recipes from ancient times to WW II that one could make at home. Both books contain some photos, but it would have helped the reader enormously to view photos of the actual foods discussed in the chapters. See also Jeri Quinzio's Food on the Rails. Summing Up: Recommended. General, undergraduate, and professional culinary history collections.

Choice Reviews

North Carolina-based writer and marine historian Simon Spalding, who has sailed in schooners, brigs and aboard the Polish sail-training ship Zawisza Czarny, has combined a love of the sea and food and come up with the story of food that has been served aboard everything from ancient sailing ships to present-day warships. He has used research from dives on wrecks, archaeology, and other sources to detail how meals were prepared, what was eaten at sea, and all the implements, tables and other means used to fuel the body. . . . The book is full of yummy tidbits on marine history. Sailors will find the book very palatable. Bon Appetit.

Ontario Sailor Magazine

The author's biography describes him as 'a maritime historian, . . .writer, lecturer, teacher, and performer. . .[who] created educational programs for museums' and crewed on a number of sailing vessels. He brings this experiential and public history sensibility to Food At Sea. . . . Organized roughly chronologically, this work is an accessible survey of food and feeding aboard ships from ancient times to the twenty-first century. . . . Spalding offers approximately thirty recipes and explanations for the foods he discusses. . . . This is a fun, useful, and accessible survey of seaborne food and foodways, and a welcome addition to the history of cookery overall.

Sea History

Simon Spalding charts the history of sea-board catering from the longboat to the cruise liner and the container ship. However unappetizing the fare, Food at Sea serves up a long awaited lobscouse, rich in detail, impeccably researched and intelligently presented.

John Keay, historian and author of The Spice Route: A History, Author of The Honourable Company