Amusing, acclaimed, and erudite Cupboard Love: A Dictionary of Culinary Curiosities
It is back in print for the first time in two decades
Shadowpaw Press in Regina, Saskatchewan, is thrilled to announce the release on May 27 of the acclaimed nonfiction book Cupboard Love: A Dictionary of Culinary Curiosities, now back in print for the first time in two decades in a revised third edition.
When the first edition came out in 1996, Margaret Vasser, author of the bestselling Much Depends on Dinner, called it “Erudite and imaginative.” The Globe and Mail called it “Erudite and entertaining—a delectable feast for all verbivores,” and named it to its list of “required reading” notable books for 1997. Choice Reviews said it was “Thoroughly researched, well presented, fascinating.” Cupboard Love was one of three books nominated for a 1996 Julia Child Cookbook Award in the Food Reference/Technical Category (Calphalon Award).
“It’s been almost thirty years since the original publication of Cupboard Love: A Dictionary of Culinary Curiosities,” says Morton. “It was a book that changed my life: spending six months, fourteen hours a day, researching and writing about the origins and histories of more than a thousand words about food and cooking nearly drove me mad. My nightly dreams were—seriously—often haunted by rival verbs breaking out in fist fights, foreign nouns crumbling into letters as I tried to grasp them in my hands, and diabolical ordeals like being forced by Gordon Ramsay to eat cream of mushroom soup with chopsticks. But apart from almost making me bonkers, Cupboard Love gave me confidence that I could write something other than a stupid PhD dissertation. In fact, it was the success of the first edition of Cupboard Love that inspired me to write three more books of nonfiction and then—eventually—a young adult novel. (The Headmasters, published by Shadowpaw Press in 2024.) I’d become what I always wanted to be—a writer!
“And so, seeing Cupboard Love brought to the table again (kind of like eating pizza the morning after you bought it) is extremely gratifying and fulfilling, almost as if I’ve come full circle. Best of all, this third edition of Cupboard Love means that a new generation of readers can learn about the fascinating histories of everyday food words like cucumber, menu, lobster, and coconut; of unusual food words like frangipani, chimichanga, doed-koek, and catillation; and of ridiculous (but real) food words like funistrada, blobsterdis, flummery, and (yes, really) open-arse. English has borrowed so many food words from other cultures that it’s a veritable banquet—or smorgasbord—or gallimaufry—or farrago— of etymological morsels!”
“I couldn’t be happier to bring Cupboard Love to a new generation of readers,” says Edward Willett, editor and publisher of Shadowpaw Press. “It was a delight to read it, entry by entry, and I’m sure readers will share that delight, whether re-reading it again after more than twenty years or discovering it—and its intellectually delectable contents—for the first time.”
More about Cupboard Love
“A whimsical, side-splitting, erudite, andsometimes cheeky book.” – The Globe and Mail
From everyday foods to exotic dishes, from the herbs and spices of medieval England to the cooking implements of the modern kitchen, Cupboard Love is a sumptuous feast that explores the fascinating stories behind familiar and not-so-familiar gastronomic terms.
Who knew that the word “pomegranate” is related to the word “grenade”? That “baguette” is a cousin of “bacteria”? That “soufflé” comes from the same root as “flatulence”? Who knew that “vermicelli” is Italian for “little worms,” that “avocado” comes from an Aztec word meaning “testicle,” or that “catillation” denotes the unseemly licking of plates?
Addictively readable, it takes us on a journey across cultures and history to arrive at the explanations behind some of our favourite culinary words and phrases, answering along the way those questions we’ve always had about food but were afraid to ask the cook.
About Mark
Mark Morton is the author of The End: Closing Words for a Millennium (winner of the Alexander Isbister Award for nonfiction);
The Lover’s Tongue: A Merry Romp Through the Language of Love and Sex (republished in the UK as Dirty Words), and Cooking with Shakespeare. He’s also the author of more than fifty columns for
Gastronomica: The Journal of Food and Culture (University of California Press) and has written and broadcast more than a hundred columns about language and culture for CBC Radio. His young adult science fiction novel The Headmasters came out from Shadowpaw Press in early 2024.
Mark has a PhD in sixteenth-century literature from the University of Toronto and has taught at several universities in France and Canada. He and his wife, Melanie Cameron (also an author), have four children, three dogs, one rabbit, and no time.
About Shadowpaw Press
Shadowpaw Press, located in Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada, was founded in 2018 by award-winning author Edward Willett. Shadowpaw Press is a member of Literary Press Group (Canada) and the Association of Canadian Publishers and publishes an eclectic selection of books by both new and established authors, including adult fiction, young adult fiction, children’s books, nonfiction, and anthologies.
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