"Swedish television personality and food historian Edward Blom is a cook with a big personality and a big passion. This to his culinary kingdom! Blom's expertise lies in the cultural history of food, and in Life Is a Banquet he throws open the archives and invites all to indulgence in the excesses of yesteryear's best recipes. These are Blom's favorites, each enlivened with his own personal slant. Here is everything from the Bavarian Oktoberfest to the oysters of Grand Central Station, the tables of the nineteenth century elite to the precursor of the Smörgåsborg: the brännvinsbord. All made with the motto: elegant and in excess"--Jacket.