Menus, from elaborate works-of-art to chalkboard scrawls, are being reborn in a 2,000-year-long evolution.
From the Chinese Song dynasty (960-1279) to the digital age, the menu journey has been creative, colourful and circuitous.
From ancient stone tablets to today’s interactive digital displays, menus reflect historic changes in culinary culture, human connection, community moods and tastes and technology.
The digital revolution is enveloping the way eateries present their offerings to customers. This was fanned during the Covid crisis with online menus being accessed through QR codes.
Restaurants today create and maintain online menus that are interactive, responsive and easy to update in real time.
Especially for takeaways, customers need merely to point and select dishes on a colourful screen above the counter or punch orders directly into a fixed computer.
Restaurant operators with online menus instantly update prices, dishes and availability with lower printing and production costs. Customers can see food images and, in a more hygienic dining experience, order without handling printed menus.
Earliest historical evidence comes from Assyrian King Ashurnasirpal II in 879 BCE. He commissioned a massive stone tablet, detailing an elaborate feast including delicacies, lamb and other meats, for a whopping 70,000 guests.
Modern menus were born in China during the early 12th Century because of increasingly-mobile clientele. Regional dishes in local eateries were largely unknown to visitors so written menus flourished.
Asian tea houses played a key role in menu development, offering a variety of dishes and beverages.
In medieval Europe, noble households relied on oral instructions to kitchen staff to pass on to customers. During the Renaissance, hand-written banquet lists began appearing in prominent households.
The lists served both as planning tools for kitchen staff and as records of notable events.
Wealthy patrons commissioned elaborately decorated menus, many in true art form.
European menus show intimate suppers given by wealthy hosts. A 1751 menu for Louis XV of France at the Château de Choisy, for between 31 and 36 guests, listed four courses, each with several dishes, plus dessert.
Menus spread to restaurants after the 1789 French Revolution. Before then, dishes were chosen by chefs or proprietors with meals served from a common table. A table d’hôte establishment charged its customers a fixed price.
High-class Australian menus from the 1800s were often written in French when educated Australians were expected to be well versed in French.
Wildlife dominated; this is from an 1872 menu: Rotis or roasts – pintardes piquees – guinea fowl in a spiced wine sauce, canards aux olives – ducks with olives, wonga wonga pigeon – and dindes sauvage – wild turkey.
Menus gradually reflected the welcome influx of Italians, Greeks, Lebanese, Vietnamese, Chinese, Indians and other migrants.
Until the early 1980s, posh eateries had two gender menus: one for men showing prices and one for women, minus prices. Discrimination lawsuits in America and changing times eliminated the practice.
In Perth, the State Library presents A Recipe for Life: The Food That Shapes Us, it runs until March 2026, displaying menus from memorable restaurants and historic cookbooks.
