"Although diminutive in size--one hundred and fifty pages, many of them with images or illustrations--this book by New York-based chef and culinary historian Ganeshram captures much of the reverence and mystique associated with saffron, the delicate stigmas plucked from the flowers of Crocus sativus , from antiquity to the present. Ganeshram crafts a compelling tale of saffron's 'circuitous route' over the centuries, from its humble wild origins in ancient Greece to exotic cultivar and precious trade commodity, shaping tastes and traditional dishes in various ways as it was acculturated into cuisines across the globe. The geographical transference of saffron is fascinating, its spread mapping the rise and fall of conquerors and empires that took the spice from Europe to the Orient, to England and the New World and eventually, the Antipodes.".