À la carte

A man walks into a restaurant and sits down expectantly, but instead of a charming server bearing a menu, there’s a QR code glued to the table. With a sigh, he gets out his phone. . . . This depressing dystopian scene has become an increasingly frequent reality since COVID‑19, but however hygienic and handy QR codes may be, they will never inspire a book as thoughtful and rich as Tastes and Traditions, an investigation of the aesthetic and cultural semiotics of the printed menu.

Menus aren’t always necessary. We can assemble an excellent breakfast from the buffet in a hotel dining room without a written guide, and we can choose the lunch we want from the passing carts in a dim sum restaurant. Half the fun of dining omakase in a high-end Japanese establishment is the mystery of what’s coming next. But normally when we go out to eat, a menu makes a useful contribution to the occasion, not just by telling us what food is available and how much it...