At the Amarna court, meals were not divided into starter-main course-dessert. Instead, baskets of bread, jars of beer, roast meats, and fruits were set out simultaneously on low mats and small tables. The royal service followed the rhythm of the sun god Aten: a light meal at dawn when the disk rose, the main meal at zenith, and food offerings placed on open-air altars in the Great Temple—the gods' food then being redistributed to priests and servants (the "reversion of offerings"). Eating and drinking under Aten's rays was itself an act of piety.

All Egyptian civilization rested on the bread-beer duo (made from the same dough of barley and emmer). To this was added the Amarna aromatic signature: honey, dates, coriander, and fragrant oils imported from Asia that distinguished a pharaoh's table from a peasant's.