When the gentlemen of the Royal Society in London sat down to their turtle dinner in 1793 they were participating in an historical event: an act simultaneously of fine dining and colonialism. Feasting and drinking, the communities in which they occurred, and larger themes of historical significance are explored here in case studies from the banquets in Ancient Rome through to dinners at the Olympic Games in twentieth-century Melbourne. These histories illuminate food and drink"s value in offering new insights into the past.