This is an extensive study of geographical, historical, political, economic and cultural factors that in different eras influenced the choice of dishes of our ancestors. What and how did they eat in Byzantium? What recipes from medieval Venetian cookbooks will make Italian food famous? How did the townspeople eat in Russia at the beginning of the 20th century? How did street lighting affect the daily routine? What was the first fast food restaurant? The author created a scheme for the evolution of gastronomic traditions, superimposing it on the history of the world, economics and sociology.