“Chillies, a new book from the “Edible” series, packs significant information into a tiny volume. Renowned food writer Anderson provides an authoritative, thorough, well-researched, readable history of chili peppers, their discovery by Europeans, their use in the Americas, and their utilization in European, Asian, African, and Latin American food cultures and medicinal traditions. The author speaks to the great diversity of chili peppers, the Scoville scale to measure heat, and the reasons chili peppers, though painful for some, have become so pleasurable to millions around the world. On a graver note, the book also speaks to the broader picture of globalization and world trade, making ambitious parallels between the exchange of New World foodstuffs for colonization, slavery, and European cultural domination. Plentiful illustrations from historical documents, herbals, travel documents, and cookbooks complement the volume, along with a section of recipes and a list of organizations that promote the use of chili peppers. Recommended.”
— Choice