1A century ago, most people ate only foods that grew nearby, and family meals changed very little from one generation to the next.
2Today, a shopper in London or Tokyo can buy tropical fruit, Italian cheese, and Mexican chillies in a single ordinary supermarket.
3This dramatic change began with faster ships and trains, but it accelerated enormously with the invention of refrigerated transport.
4As ingredients travelled, so did ideas, and cooks everywhere started mixing techniques and flavours from different culinary traditions.
5The result is what many people now call fusion cuisine, a style that deliberately ignores the old borders between national kitchens.
6Critics sometimes complain that globalisation makes every city taste the same, with identical restaurant chains on every major street.
7Supporters answer that ordinary people today enjoy a variety of food that even kings could not imagine two centuries ago.
8The truth probably lies somewhere between these two views, as is often the case with such complicated questions.
9What is certain is that our plates have become a map of human history, migration, trade, and cultural exchange.
10Every meal we eat connects us, whether we realise it or not, to farmers and cooks on the far side of the world.