The United States of Arugula: How We Became a Gourmet Nation (2006)

A very gossipy history of the growing interest in food and cooking that has transformed American foodways since the 1970s. I would have liked more substance and less gossip. ( )

This book is a timeline of chefs, restaurant owners, farmers, reviewers and writers that helped move the nation into "Gourmet". Starting with the 1939 World's Fair and continuing through the 1990's. It is a deep in-depth look at how we started 'local sustainable foods'. ( )

Americans and food: Very informative account of the foodie scene in America as it has impacted the average consumer. Kamp includes bios on some of the most well respected chefs like Beard, Waters, Keller, LaGasse, and Towers, and cooks in this nation, and yet leaves out any mention of chef Cat Cora, the only female Iron Chef. Otherwise a fantastic and well written book. Highly recommended.

Most of the book focuses on high end restaurant food the changes we've seen over time in that. There's a sense that what's popular in the country's best restaurants trickles down to the dining room table, but we don't get much of it. My favorite chapter was the one on Dean and Delucca, because how food gets from high end to my table is what most interests me. I think the marketing of the book (including the subtitle and jacket copy) made it seem like it would focus more on home-eating than restaurant eating, but the book skewers heavily to the celebrity-chef side of things and stays rather coastal in focus. However, while I wasn't as interested in the history of fine dining and the character sketches of the people who shaped it, I found the dishy, gossipy, who-hates-who, style of writing very enjoyable and a fun read.

I also enjoyed Kamp's argument that even though we currently live in a world where they've replaced the burger bun with fried chicken, we are living in a golden age of food. Despite our fast-food calorie/fat/sodium laden wasteland, there's also raw milk cheese and local cured meats and imported craft beer.

And frankly, as someone who once drank a bottle of Lafite-Rothschild with a grocery-store brand frozen pizza, I appreciate both.

See my full review and more at www.jenrothschild.com ( )

This book was an entertaining look at how I ended up with a son who will happily eat eel sushi at a Japanese restaurant. Starting in the 50s, it looks at key figures in America's rise to culinary sophistication: Julia Child, Craig Claiborne, James Beard, Wolfgang Puck, Dean & Deluca, Chuck Williams...

The story is heavy on description and anecdote and gossip. It brings these characters and their dreams to life.

Where the book is weakest is in the explanation: it doesn't do a great job of actually explaining how these pieces added up to change. But it helped me see the history of how we got here, and gave me back story on a lot of those folks who were on Top Chef Masters. ( )