What did people eat in the time of Jesus or the hippies at Woodstock? Answer in The Hunger of History
"Tell me what you eat, and I'll tell you who you are". Author Aïtor Alfonso, aka "Sauce gribiche", and cartoonist Jul adapt this saying to the scale of humanity in the comic strip "La Faim de l'Histoire".
"Gastronomy is a metonymy of the times". Aïtor Alfonso, alias "Sauce gribiche" on social networks, culinary critic and literature teacher, took this observation as a starting point for writing La Faim de l'histoire ( The Hunger ofHistory ) alongside cartoonist Jul. Volume 1, currently in bookshops, is a collection of well-documented short stories.
"I did a lot of scientific research, and all my sources are cited at theend. I produced this book with an academic approach, but to bring a little lightness to it, I called on Jul,who extends my comments with humor and lightness. He adds a fresh, tangy touch. In the same vein, he had doneother historical comics such as Silex and the City and 50 Shades of Greek. He was the ideal person," says Aïtor Alfonso.
What did the great figures of history eat?
In La Faim de l'histoire , the authors retrace 40,000 years of history through the prism of gastronomy, by looking at what key figures ate: hippies in Woodstock, Jesus in the first century and philosophers in the Age of Enlightenment. Readers are invited to the table of great men, or more accurately, of humanity, and through what they find on their plates, thethread of history unfolds before their eyes: cultures, customs, societies, conflicts and wealth. Gault&Millau is even quoted.
The more erudite will also make discoveries, such as those concerning the British naturalist Charles Darwin: " He ate everything. As a student at Cambridge University, he founded the Glutton Club. With seven of his friends, they hunted and devoured everything they could find in the surrounding countryside, from owls to foxes. During his round-the-world voyage aboard the Beagle, he established his theory of evolution by observing and classifying species, which he also tasted. But one day in South America, he reached his limit when the Gauchos served him a puma foetus. As Aïtor Alfonso likes to point out, " this book tells the story with an H, but above all, it's a big hash ".
▶ La Faim de l'histoire by Aïtor Alfonso and Jul, 112 pages, 22 euros, published by Dargaud.
