Introduction

This Introduction illustrates the fundamental tenet of the research project at the basis of the volume *Food in Postcolonial and Migrant Literatures* (Peter Lang, 2011), namely that what men eat reflects the history of a people, the stages of its development, the influences it has undergone and the memories it has retained. This Introduction thus posits the notion of culture and cultural translation as the framework within which ‘food’ can be analysed, thereby emphasising the close relationship existing between the food prepared and consumed by particular communities and the culture in which those communities live.