Five Loaves, Two Fishes and Six Chicken Nuggets

Everybody likes to take pot shots at the world of Big Food - particularly Big Fast Food. It's making everybody fat. It's making our children diabetic. It's an agent for sinister globalism. It exploits labour. It always seems to be Public Enemy # 1. There is, however, another world of Fast Food. A world that is not just about five big brands and America. A world that employs, feeds and creates wealth for billions of people every day. A world that is ever-present throughout the planet, and which has been so since pre-neolithic times. A world that can be funny, which sometimes does daft things, but which usually gets it right in the long run. Welcome to that world. Barry Gibbons has spent much of his adult life in it, courtesy of a series of career steps he likens to a demented game of hopscotch. At one stage he found himself responsible for every Burger King on the Planet. Amongst other activities, he now writes about it - in all its forms, skimming the rooftops of its history and rafting across geography. He puts it in the context of the broader issues facing all businesses. Discover: how the British Raj invented modern franchising in India; what happened to the frying pan; how long it takes a customer to make his or her mind up about a restaurant upon entry; the secret recipe for Bang-Bang Chicken; why you should never dance in the nude with a blue light on; how and why the author invented punk rock; and why the principle of Intelligent Design should apply to a club sandwich, and not the origin of species. Afterwards, you may have put a pound or two on, but you will never look at Big Food in the same way again.