In New Kingdom Egypt, there is no separation of starter, main course, and dessert: food is organized around the offering table (hetep) set for the divine, and the daily fare of bread and beer. For Aten, Akhenaten's revolution imposes a unique table: no flesh, no bloodshed, only emmer bread, sun-drenched fruits, fresh garden flowers, and vases of pure Nile water, offered in the open air under the rays of the sun-disk. The rest of the people live on flatbreads, fava beans, dates, and honey-sweetened drinks.

Where other Egyptian gods received cattle and geese, Aten receives only the luminous plant world: fruits, flowers, breads, honey, and water. The red thread of this table is solar purity — the sweetness of honey and dates, the freshness of the lotus, never sacrificed meat.