Corn

Indigenous people in the New World referred to maize as ‘Our Mother’, ‘Our Life’, and ‘She Who Sustains Us’. Originating in Mesoamerica 9,000 years ago, corn or maize now grows in 160 countries. Michael Owen Jones traces the transportation of corn to the Old World by Christopher Columbus, and its rapid distribution throughout Europe, Africa, and Asia that followed. He describes many of the remarkable culinary uses of corn, from the Chilean savoury pie pastel de choclo and Japanese corn soup, to Mexican tamales and the South African cracked hominy dish umngqusho, favoured by former president Nelson Mandela. While Jones addresses controversies surrounding maize, he also writes about the many ways corn is celebrated.