The Table Comes First is at once a celebration of the rituals of eating – the scene of families, friends, lovers coming together, or breaking apart, the core of our memories – and an exploration of the extraordinary transformations that our notion of what makes food "good" has undergone.Taking the reader from the birth of the restaurant in 18th century France to the molecular Meccas of Barcelona, The Table Comes First is the delightful beginning of a new conversation about the way we eat now.