In Old Kingdom Egypt, there is no starter or dessert. Every meal, from the farmer to the pharaoh, revolves around two linked words: "ta" (bread) and "henqet" (beer). Around this foundation, a dish of vegetables or legumes is added on ordinary days, roasted meats on feast days, and sweet offerings placed for the gods and the dead. Meals are thus counted in "loaves and jugs," the very unit used to pay the workers of Saqqarah.

Emmer wheat — this ancient grain with a rustic ear — is the soul of the Egyptian table: it makes both bread and beer. The date and wild honey provide the only known sweetness, which flavors both flatbreads and beer. For the rest, the cuisine is marked by coriander, cumin, and the onion of the Nile.