According to Josh Kun, who told Los Angeles' history through the public library's menu collection in his recent book, To Live and Dine in L.A, most early menus weren't linked to restaurants, but rather to special events, as the high cost of printing individual menus only made sense for a banquet. That's exactly what art historian and food lover Pearlman set out to discover, by interviewing restaurateurs, visiting dozens of restaurants and analyzing their menus, and reading every book and study she could find on the science of menu engineering. Gastropod listener Bob Timmermann wrote this introduction to the Los Angeles Public Library's menu collection, one of the Rare Book's divisions many and varied special collections (Nicky's favorite is the citrus label collection).