--- title: The Birth of Britain's Global Palate description: A review of "The Taste of Empire" by Lizzie Collingham canonical: https://time.com/4960621/the-taste-of-empire-lizzie-collingham/ author: Sarah Begley article:opinion: true article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-09-28T10:30:51.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-23T17:38:00.758Z article:section: Ideas og:title: The Birth of Britain's Global Palate og:description: A review of "The Taste of Empire" by Lizzie Collingham og:url: https://time.com/4960621/the-taste-of-empire-lizzie-collingham/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltdcea00740d7c0528/6988dfb5bc6cfc16893e348a/birth-of-britains-global-palate.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2405 og:image:height: 1353 og:image:alt: birth-of-britains-global-palate og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: The Birth of Britain's Global Palate twitter:description: A review of "The Taste of Empire" by Lizzie Collingham twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltdcea00740d7c0528/6988dfb5bc6cfc16893e348a/birth-of-britains-global-palate.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # The Birth of Britain's Global Palate > Sponsored content. 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It explains how TIME's journalism is made, from the first pitch through the editorial decisions behind a finished story or cover. #### How can I read about how TIME chooses its covers? Inside TIME is the newsletter where TIME's Editor-in-Chief explains cover selection and the editorial reasoning behind major stories. It is free at time.com/newsletters. #### Who is the editor of TIME? Sam Jacobs is TIME's Editor-in-Chief. He writes Inside TIME, a twice-weekly newsletter about the newsroom's reporting and editorial decisions. #### Is Inside TIME free? Yes. Inside TIME is a free newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. A paid TIME subscription is separate and available at time.com/subscribe-agent. by [Sarah Begley](https://time.com/author/sarah-begley/) ## Sarah Begley Sep 28, 2017 10:30 AM UTC  by [Sarah Begley](https://time.com/author/sarah-begley/) ## Sarah Begley Sep 28, 2017 10:30 AM UTC There are many factors that drove Britain’s centuries-long quest for world domination. But one of the biggest, argues historian Lizzie Collingham in her new book [_The Taste of Empire_](https://www.amazon.com/dp/0465056660/?tag=timecom-20), was a taste for better, more exotic food, from India’s pepper and tea to Barbados’ sugar. Over time, the pursuit of these far-flung delicacies led to large-scale oppression — evident not least in the slave trade — whose effects still linger in the ex-colonies today. But that’s not all the British left behind. As their trade routes grew bigger and more complex, they changed the culinary landscapes of the countries they touched — introducing African rice to South Carolina, for example, and curry to Guyana with the shipping of Indian labor. In the process, they upended their domestic diet as well. “By the 1930s, the wheat to make the working man’s loaf was supplied by Canada,” Collingham writes, “and his Sunday leg of lamb had been fattened on New Zealand’s grasslands.” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"OpinionNewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4960621/the-taste-of-empire-lizzie-collingham/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4960621/the-taste-of-empire-lizzie-collingham/"},"headline":"The Birth of Britain's Global Palate","datePublished":"2017-09-28T10:30:51.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-23T17:38:00.758Z","description":"A review of The Taste of Empire by Lizzie Collingham","url":"https://time.com/4960621/the-taste-of-empire-lizzie-collingham/","keywords":["Books"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltdcea00740d7c0528/6988dfb5bc6cfc16893e348a/birth-of-britains-global-palate.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Sarah Begley","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/sarah-begley/"}],"articleSection":"Ideas","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltdcea00740d7c0528/6988dfb5bc6cfc16893e348a/birth-of-britains-global-palate.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"birth-of-britains-global-palate","caption":"birth-of-britains-global-palate","creditText":"","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/ideas/","name":"Ideas"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/books/","name":"Books"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4960621/the-taste-of-empire-lizzie-collingham/","name":"The Birth of Britain's Global Palate"}}]}] ```