The American Gilded Age (1868 to 1900) and its extreme extravagance continue to be a source of wonder and fascination, particularly for foodies. The style and excessiveness of this era has ties to modern popular culture through books, films, and television shows, including The Alienist and the Julian Fellowes TV series The Gilded Age, on HBO. The Gilded Age Cookbook transports the reader back in time to lavish banquet tables set with snow-white linen tablecloths, delicate china, and sparkling crystal glasses. Cuisine featuring rich soups, juicy roasts, and luscious desserts come to life through historic images and artistic photography. Gilded Age details and entertaining stories of celebrities from the era—the Vanderbilts, Astors, Goelets, and Rockefellers—are melded with historic menus and recipes updated for modern kitchens.

Becky Libourel Diamond is a food writer, librarian and research historian. She has been writing about food since 2008, parlaying her passion for food and history into the publication of The Thousand Dollar Dinner and Mrs. Goodfellow: The Story of America’s First Cooking School. She has also written about food and history for Eaten Magazine,Newtown Lifestyle, Dianne Jacob’s Will Write for Food blog, BookPage, Table Matters: The Journal of Food, Drink and Manners, The Historical Cooking Project, IFIS Food and Health Information, Prose Mediaand Philadelphia’s Mütter Museum. She lives in Yardley, Pennsylvania. Visit her at www. beckyldiamond.com.