Tasting History: A Recipe for Disaster

Explore humanity’s greatest catastrophes through the foods people ate to survive, celebrate, and endure with the New York Times bestselling author of Tasting History.

History is filled with disasters. Fortunately, there’s always something to eat. Creator of the massively popular YouTube series Tasting History with Max Miller, returns with a thrilling new culinary journey through humanity’s greatest catastrophes, conflicts, and calamities.

In Tasting History: A Recipe for Disaster, Max explores history’s darkest moments—from the Bronze Age Collapse and the Black Death to the sinking of the Titanic, the Great Molasses Flood, and World War II—through the foods people cooked, craved, and clung to in times of upheaval. Each chapter immerses readers in a defining historical event before guiding them into authentic, modernized recipes inspired by the people who lived through it. Dine like Roman gladiators before the collapse of the Fidenae amphitheater, prepare Viking skyr aboard a longship, indulge in Punch Romaine on the Titanic, and make wartime mock banana cream during British rationing. Along the way, Max reveals how food connects us to history in a uniquely visceral way, transforming distant events into deeply human experiences.

Packed with fascinating stories, delicious recipes, and stunning imagery throughout, A Recipe for Disaster is equal parts cookbook, history book, and a wildly entertaining adventure that brings the past to life. You'll realize that history’s greatest disasters can still make for an unforgettable meal.