Ancient Egyptian funerary cuisine is not organized into starter-main-dessert: it is arranged around the offering table (hetep), set out to feed the ka of the deceased and appease the powers of the Duat. On the mat or calcite table, according to the formula htp-di-nsw ("an offering which the king gives"), are lined up emmer bread loaves, beer jugs, a fowl or a quarter of beef, baskets of figs and dates, sweet cakes, and a jar of wine. The dishes are not eaten in order: they are presented together, in symbolic abundance, from the most meaty to the sweetest, to ensure survival and "justification" (maat-kheru) before the judgment.

Two queen sweets of ancient Egypt. The tiger nut — a small sweet tuber harvested in the Nile marshes — ground and bound with wild honey produced the world's first confectionery, found in Theban tombs. Honey, the tear of the god Ra according to the texts, was the food of the gods par excellence: it sweetens offerings, preserves flesh, and flavors beer. It is the golden note that returns across the entire table of Ammit.