Fast Food Nation by
Are we what we eat?
To a degree both engrossing and alarming, the story of fast food is the story of postwar Amerca. Though created by a handful of mavericks, the fast food industry has triggered the homogenization of our society. Fast food has hastened the malling of our landscape, widened the chasm between rich and poor, fueled an epidemic of obesity, and propelled the juggernaut of American cultural imperialism abroad. That's a lengthy list of charges, but Eric Schlosser makes them stick with an artfulmix of first-rate reportage, wry wit, and careful reasoning.
Schlosser's myth-shattering survey stretches from the California subdivisions where the business was born to the industrial corridor along the New Jersey Turnpike where many of fast food's flavors are concocted. He hangs out with the teenagers who make the restaurants run and communes with those unlucky enough to hold America's most dangerous job -- meatpacker. He travels to Las Vegas for a giddily surreal franchisers' convention where Mikhail Gorbachev delivers the keynote address. Heeven ventures to England and Germany to clock the rate at which those countries are becoming fast food nations.
Along the way, Schlosser unearths a trove of fascinating, unsettling truths -- from the unholy alliance between fast food and Hollywood to the seismic changes the industry has wrought in food production, popular culture, and even real estate. He also uncovers the fast food chains' efforts to reel in the youngest, most susceptible consumers even while they hone their institutionalized exploitation of teenagers and minorities. Schlosser then turns a critical eye toward the hot topic of globalization -- a phenomenon launched by fast food.
FAST FOOD NATION is a groundbreaking work of investigation and cultural history that may change the way America thinks about the way it eats.
The Food of a Younger Land by
Using long-forgotten WPA files archived in the Library of Congress, bestselling author Mark Kurlansky paints a detailed picture of Depression Era Americans through the food that they ate and the local traditions and customs they observed when planning and preparing meals.
Kitchen Literacy by
Ask children where food comes from, and they'll probably answer: "the supermarket." Ask most adults, and their replies may not be much different. Where our foods are raised and what happens to them between farm and supermarket shelf have become mysteries. How did we become so disconnected from the sources of our breads, beef, cheeses, cereal, apples, and countless other foods that nourish us every day?
Ann Vileisis's answer is a sensory-rich journey through the history of making dinner. Kitchen Literacy takes us from an eighteenth-century garden to today's sleek supermarket aisles, and eventually to farmer's markets that are now enjoying a resurgence. Vileisis chronicles profound changes in how American cooks have considered their foods over two centuries and delivers a powerful statement: what we don't know could hurt us.
As the distance between farm and table grew, we went from knowing particular places and specific stories behind our foods' origins to instead relying on advertisers' claims. The woman who raised, plucked, and cooked her own chicken knew its entire life history while today most of us have no idea whether hormones were fed to our poultry. Industrialized eating is undeniably convenient, but it has also created health and environmental problems, including food-borne pathogens, toxic pesticides, and pollution from factory farms.
Though the hidden costs of modern meals can be high, Vileisis shows that greater understanding can lead consumers to healthier and more sustainable choices. Revealing how knowledge of our food has been lost and how it might now be regained, Kitchen Literacy promises to make us think differently about what we eat.
A Taste of Power by
Since the founding of the United States, culinary texts and practices have played a crucial role in the making of cultural identities and social hierarchies. "A Taste of Power" examines culinary writing and practices as forces for the production of social order and, at the same time, points of cultural resistance. Culinary writing has helped shape dominant ideas of nationalism, gender, and sexuality, suggesting that eating right is a gateway to becoming an American, a good citizen, an ideal man, or a perfect wife and mother.In this brilliant interdisciplinary work, Katharina Vester examines how cookbooks became a way for women to participate in nation-building before they had access to the vote or public office, for Americans to distinguish themselves from Europeans, for middle-class authors to assert their class privileges, for men to claim superiority over women in the kitchen, and for lesbian authors to insert themselves into the heteronormative economy of culinary culture. "A Taste of Power" engages in close reading of a wide variety of sources and genres to uncover the intersections of food, politics, and privilege in American culture.
Three Squares by
The story of how the simple gruel of our forefathers gave way to snack fixes and fast food, "Three Squares" also explains how Americans' eating habits may change in the years to come.
White Bread by
How did white bread, once an icon of American progress, become "white trash"? In this lively history of bakers, dietary crusaders, and social reformers, Aaron Bobrow-Strain shows us that what we think about the humble, puffy loaf says a lot about who we are and what we want our society to look like.
White Bread teaches us that when Americans debate what one should eat, they are also wrestling with larger questions of race, class, immigration, and gender. As Bobrow-Strain traces the story of bread, from the first factory loaf to the latest gourmet pain au levain, he shows how efforts to champion "good food" reflect dreams of a better society--even as they reinforce stark social hierarchies.
In the early twentieth century, the factory-baked loaf heralded a bright new future, a world away from the hot, dusty, "dirty" bakeries run by immigrants. Fortified with vitamins, this bread was considered the original "superfood" and even marketed as patriotic--while food reformers painted white bread as a symbol of all that was wrong with America.
The history of America's one-hundred-year-long love-hate relationship with white bread reveals a lot about contemporary efforts to change the way we eat. Today, the alternative food movement favors foods deemed ethical and environmentally correct to eat, and fluffy industrial loaves are about as far from slow, local, and organic as you can get. Still, the beliefs of early twentieth-century food experts and diet gurus, that getting people to eat a certain food could restore the nation's decaying physical, moral, and social fabric, will sound surprisingly familiar. Given that open disdain for "unhealthy" eaters and discrimination on the basis of eating habits grow increasingly acceptable, White Bread is a timely and important examination of what we talk about when we talk about food.
The American Century Cookbook by
For the past ten years, Jean Anderson has been on a quest: to search out the most popular recipes of the 20th century and to chronicle 100 years of culinary change in America. The result is a rich and fascinating look at where we've been, at the recipes our mothers and grandmothers loved, and at how our own tastes have evolved. The more than 500 cherished recipes in these pages are mainstays of American home cooking, the recipes that have remained favorites year after year. For the smallest sampling: California dip . . . Buffalo chicken wings . . . vichyssoise . . . tuna-noodle casserole . . . Swiss steak . . . frosted meat loaf . . . tamale pie . . . corn dogs . . . lobster rolls . . . classic green bean bake . . . perfection salad . . . green goddess salad . . . frozen fruit salad . . . chiffon cake . . . brownies . . . chocolate chip cookies . . . chocolate decadence Beyond this collection is Jean's exploration of the diversity of our nation's cuisine and our adoption of such "foreign" dishes as pizza, gazpacho, lasagne, moussaka, and tarte tatin. Her painstakingly researched text includes extensive headnotes, thumbnail profiles of important people and products (from Fannie Farmer to James Beard and from electric refrigerators to the microwave), and a timeline of major 20th-century food firsts. In recording popular recipes that might have been lost, in setting them in richly detailed historical context, Jean Anderson has written her masterwork. The American Century Cookbook may well be the most important new cookbook of the decade; it is certainly the book America will love.
The Fannie Farmer Cookbook by
Here is the great basic American cookbook--with more than 1,990 recipes, plain and fancy--that belongs in every household. Originally published in 1896 as The Boston Cooking-School Cook Book by Fannie Merritt Farmer, it becamethecoobook that taught generations of Americans how to cook. Completely updating it for the first time since 1979, Marion Cunningham made Fannie Farmer once again a household word for a new generation of cooks. What makes this basic cookbook so distinctive is that Marion Cunningham, who is the personification of the nineteenth-century teacher, is always at your side with her forthright tips and comments, encouraging the beginning cook and inspiring the more adventurous. She knows what today's cooks are looking for, and she has a way of instilling confidence and joy in the act of cooking. In giving the book new life, Mrs. Cunningham has been careful always to preserve the best of the old. She has retained all the particularly good, tried-and-true recipes from preceding editions, retesting and rewriting when necessary. She has rediscovered lost treasures, including delicious recipes that were eliminated when practically no one baked bread at home. This is now the place to find the finest possible recipes for Pumpkin Soup, Boston Baked Beans, Carpetbag Steak, Roast Stuffed Turkey, Anadama Bread, Indian Pudding, Apple Pie, and all of the other traditional favorites. The new recipes reflect ethnic influences--Mediterranean, Moroccan, Asian--that have been adding their flavors to American cooking in recent years. Tucked in among all your favorites like Old-Fashioned Beef Stew, New England Clam Chowder, Ham Timbales, and Chicken Jambalaya, you'll find her cool Cucumber Sushi, Enchiladas with Chicken and Green Sauce, or a layered dish of Polenta and Fish to add variety to your repertoire. Always a champion of old-fashioned breakfasts and delectable desserts, Mrs. Cunningham has many splendid new offerings to tempt you. Throughout, cooking terms and procedures are explained, essential ingredients are spelled out, basic equipment is assessed. Mrs. Cunningham even tells you how to make a good cup of coffee and how to brew tea properly. For the diet-conscious, there is an expanded nutritional chart that includes a breakdown of cholesterol and fat in common ingredients as well as in Fannie Farmer basic recipes. Where the taste of a dish would not be altered, Mrs. Cunningham has reduced the amount of cream and butter in some of the recipes from the preceding edition. She carefully evaluates the issues of food safety today and alerts us to potential hazards. But the emphasis here is always on good flavor, fresh ingredients, and lots of variety in one's daily fare, which Marion Cunningham believes is the secret to a healthy diet. Dedicated to the home cooks of America, young and old, this thirteenth edition of the book that won the hearts of Americans more than a century ago invites us all--as did the original Fannie Farmer--to cherish the delights of the family table. From the Hardcover edition.
The Pioneer Woman Cooks - A Year of Holidays by
New Year's Day -- New Year's Day Brunch -- New Year's Day Dinner -- The Big Game -- Food and Football -- Valentine's Day -- Valentine's Breakfast -- Treats for Your Sweetie -- Romantic Dinner for Two -- Easter -- Eastertime Treats -- Easter Brunch -- Easter Leftovers -- Cinco de Mayo -- Fiesta! -- Mother's Day -- Breakfast in Bed for Mom -- Father's Day -- Dinner for Dear 'Ol Dad -- Fourth of July -- Summertime Cookout -- Halloween -- Terrifying Treats -- Thanksgiving -- Thanksgiving Feast -- Turkey Day Leftovers -- Christmas -- Christmas Delights and Deliveries -- Christmas Eve Dinner -- Christmas Morning Brunch -- New Year's Eve -- Ring in the New Year Cocktail Party.
The Pioneer Woman Cooks - Dinnertime by
The #1 bestselling author and Food Network personality at last answers that age-old question--"What's for Dinner?"--Bringing together more than 125 simple, scrumptious, step-by-step recipes for delicious dinners the whole family will love.
The Pioneer Woman Cooks: Food From My Frontier by
A mouthwatering collection of the simple-but-scrumptious recipes that rotate through Ree's kitchen on a regular basis, from perfect pancakes to honey-plum-soy chicken, from cowgirl quiche to blackberry chip ice cream.
The Pioneer Woman Cooks: Recipes from an Accidental Country Girl by
Paula Deen meets Erma Bombeck in The Pioneer Woman Cooks, Ree Drummond's spirited, homespun cookbook. Drummond colorfully traces her transition from city life to ranch wife through recipes, photos, and pithy commentary based on her popular, award-winning blog, Confessions of a Pioneer Woman, and whips up delicious, satisfying meals for cowboys and cowgirls alike made from simple, widely available ingredients. The Pioneer Woman Cooks--and with these "Recipes from an Accidental Country Girl," she pleases the palate and tickles the funny bone at the same time.
Moosewood Restaurant Favorites by
"Moosewood Restaurant, founded in 1973, revolutionized vegetarian cooking by introducing delicious soups, satisfying sandwiches, warming casseroles, zesty entrees, spiffy salads, and divine desserts. Moosewood Restaurant Favorites contains 250 of their most requested recipes completely updated and revised to reflect the way they're cooked now--increasingly vegan and gluten-free, benefiting from fresh herbs, new varieties of vegetables, and the wholesome goodness of newly-rediscovered grains. This mouthwatering cookbook includes favorites like: Red Lentil Soup with Ginger and Cilantro, Sweet-Potato and Black Bean Burrito, The Classic Moosewood Tofu Burger, Carmelized Onion Pie, Peruvian Quinoa Salad, Confetti Kale Slaw, Vegan Chocolate Cake, Moosewood Restaurant Brownies, Apple Spice Cake with Sesame Seeds. Including a guide to natural-cooking techniques, Moosewood Restaurant Favorites is the next classic book on their much-loved cookbook shelf"
Pike Place Market Recipes by
The Pike Place Market sits in the center of downtown Seattle and at the center of the Seattle food scene. With its famous seafood and locally grown produce, it is seven acres of wonderful ingredients and inspiration for the home cook. Cookbook author Jess Thomson has prowled the Market's stalls, shops, restaurants, and purveyors to assemble 80 wonderful recipes that express all of the flavors of the Pike Place Market. Included here are Le Pichet's Salade Verte, Etta's Mini Dungeness Crab Cakes by Tom Douglas, and the Pink Door's Linguine alla Vongole. The author has also created recipes that are inspired by ingredients found at the market, such as Spanish Chickpea and Chorizo Stew (with Uli's Sausage) and a MarketSpice Tea Cake. The author is so well versed in the market that her cookbook can also serve as a guide to the specialty shops and off-the-beaten path purveyors and cafes. With gorgeous images by photographer Clare Barboza of prepared recipes, dazzling ingredients, and scenes of the Pike Place Market, this is the ultimate Seattle cookbook.
The New American Chef by
America's leading authorities on ten influential cuisines offer a master class on authentic flavors and techniques from around the world
Today's professional chefs have the world to use as their pantry and draw freely on a global palette of flavors. Now Andrew Dornenburg and Karen Page bring together some of the foremost culinary authorities to reveal how to use different flavors and techniques to create a new level of culinary artistry. Mario Batali, Daniel Boulud, Alain Ducasse, Paula Wolfert, and many others share the foundations of ten influential cuisines:
* Japanese
* Italian
* Spanish
* French
* Chinese
* Indian
* Mexican
* Thai
* Vietnamese
* Moroccan
