Since history has been recorded, humankind has spent enormous amounts of energy and creativity to alter the form of raw foodstuffs – to conserve them or make them edible, to transport them or the values and myths they represent. Host wafers have few calories, taste like nothing, are not particularly pretty, and would be easier to produce were they rectangular, yet they are consumed the world over; the sacramental bread is one of the oldest known examples of edible product design. Some ancient motives survive today (the plaited loaf and the croissant), and though their meanings have been forgotten, their forms carry on their original significance. Successful food tells a story. Design can turn simple ingredients into national symbols, emblems of love or sex, victimhood or religion. We eat not only what is nutritious or tastes good, what is available and consumable. We eat what possesses cultural value, strengthening us in our identity and our sense of life.