Lunch Isn't That Old

Lunch venue with a deli counter, silver gelatin print, 1942. NYPL, Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Photographs and Prints Division

Lunch is as much a fact of life as, say, sandwiches. Or is it? A new exhibit at the New York Public Library looks at lunch hour through the ages. Edible Geography published an interview with the exhibiton's co-curators, Laura Shapiro and Rebecca Federman, that is a fascinating look into the history of a meal that we take for granted now -- who hasn't watched the clock tick down to noon, stomach grumbling away in a meeting -- but that only became commonplace in the 1850s.

Take a look at the interview -- from the real origins of sliced bread (and the expression "the smartest thing since sliced bread"!) to the original use of peanut butter for "ladies who lunch," to the now-extinct Automat, don't miss the interview -- or if you live in New York, the exhibit.

Lunch: An Urban Invention from Edible Geography