Eating History: Thirty Turning Points in the Making of American Cuisine
by Andrew F. Smith
Arts and Traditions of the Table: Perspectives on Culinary History
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Food expert and celebrated food historian Andrew F. Smith recounts--in delicious detail--the creation of contemporary American cuisine. The diet of the modern American wasn't always as corporate, conglomerated, and corn-rich as it is today, and the style of American cooking, along with the ingredients that compose it, has never been fixed. With a cast of characters including bold inventors, savvy restaurateurs, ruthless advertisers, mad scientists, adventurous entrepreneurs, celebrity chefs, show more and relentless health nuts, Smith pins down the truly crackerjack history behind the way America eats. Smith's story opens with early America, an agriculturally independent nation where most citizens grew and consumed their own food. Over the next two hundred years, however, Americans would cultivate an entirely different approach to crops and consumption. Advances in food processing, transportation, regulation, nutrition, and science introduced highly complex and mechanized methods of production. The proliferation of cookbooks, cooking shows, and professionally designed kitchens made meals more commercially, politically, and culturally potent. To better understand these trends, Smith delves deeply and humorously into their creation. Ultimately he shows how, by revisiting this history, we can reclaim the independent, locally sustainable roots of American food. show lessTags
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Fluffy and easy-to-read, this book merges two things I love: history and food. An interesting look into 30 events that shaped the way we eat in the United States today.
Read the excerpt on Thanksgiving, which was admirably researched but not all that fascinating.
(Arts and Traditions of the Table: Perspectives on Culinary History) see other titles.
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Author Information
33+ Works 1,005 Members
Andrew F. Smith has taught food studies courses at The New School in Manhattan since 1996. He is the author or editor of 28 books, including The Oxford Encyclopedia of Food and Drink in America (2nd edn 2013) and Hamburger: A Global History (Reaktion, 2008).
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Common Knowledge
- Canonical title
- Eating History: Thirty Turning Points in the Making of American Cuisine
- Original publication date
- 2009
- First words
- For the past few years, I've asked audiences across America several questions related to food: Do you prefer organic food to food grown with petrochemical fertilizers and synthetic pesticides?
- Last words
- (Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)If there is a lesson to be taken from the thirty turning points discussed in this book, it is that we should expect the unexpected and plan for the unintended effects of any actions we take now and in the future.
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Statistics
- Members
- 83
- Popularity
- 384,003
- Reviews
- 3
- Rating
- (2.57)
- Languages
- English
- Media
- Paper, Ebook
- ISBNs
- 3
- ASINs
- 1
