Cooking and eating are part of life as a matter of course. There is not much aesthetics involved at first. But as soon as a meal is eaten together, eating becomes a social activity, a means of communication, of representation, of distinction. For this book, a selection of specialists went in search of the specific food culture of the Netherlands. On the basis of a dozen authentic ensembles of dining rooms from various estates and palaces with surviving objects, dining over the past four centuries is illustrated.