The first book that puts the hearth of the American home-its many unique challenges and innovations-in its proper place in contemporary history.Thomas Jefferson once wrote that if you really want to understand the workings of a society, you have to "look into their pots" and "eat their bread." Steven Gdula gives us a view of American culture from the most popular room in the house: the kitchen. Examining the relationship between trends and innovations in the kitchen and the cultural...

In the tradition of Fast Food Nation and The Omnivore’s Dilemma comes an “indispensable,” (New York Newsday) fascinating, and cutting-edge look from the author of The Magic Feather Effect at the scary truth about what really goes into our food.If a piece of individually wrapped cheese can retain its shape, color, and texture for years, what does it say about the food we eat and feed to our children?Former New York Tim...

A leading economist, “who may very well turn out to be this decade’s Thomas Friedman” (Wall Street Journal), illuminates the state of American food todayTyler Cowen, one of the most influential economists of the last decade, wants you to know that just about everything you’ve heard about how to get good food is wrong. Drawing on a provocative range of examples from around the globe, Cowen reveals why airplane food is bad, but airport food is improving; why...

Accidental Chef is a sobering account of what it's really like to be a professional chef, not the glamorized, sugar-coated depictions we see on cable television. This book offers a glimpse of what it really like to work in a hotel patry shop and a busy restaurant. When you read Accidental Chef you can't help feeling that you right there with Charles in the kitchen. Through his vivid descriptions you'll be able to imagine the sights, sounds and smells of a real kitchen. Accidental Chef puts...

For many of us the idea of healthy eating equals bland food, calorie counting, and general joylessness. Or we see the task of great cooking for ourselves as a complicated and expensive luxury beyond our means or ability. Now Peter Kaminsky—who has written cookbooks with four-star chefs (for example, Daniel Boulud) and no-star chefs (such as football legend John Madden)—shows us that anyone can learn to eat food that is absolutely delicious and doesn’t give you a permanently creeping waistl...

“A profound, graceful, and literary work of philosophy and economics, well tempered for our times, and yet timeless. . . . It will change the way you look at the food you put into your body. Which is to say, it can change who you are.” — Boston GlobeFrom acclaimed author Barbara Kingsolver—recipient of numerous literary awards including the Pulitzer Prize, the National Humanities Medal, the Dayton Literary Peace Pr...

Celebrate the winners of this competition for Weirdest, Wildest, and Most Hilarious Trivia of the Year . . .Forget the Oscars, Grammys, and Golden Globes—after two decades of producing interesting and mind-boggling stories—the folks at the Bathroom Readers' Institute have come up with their own collection of pop-culture awards!This unique volume provides a new way to recognize some of the world's greatest (and oddest) achievements. Where else could you find...

For coffee enthusiasts everywhere, a charming handbook to becoming your own favorite baristaMore than 100 million Americans start each day with a cup of coffee (many at no small price)! It’s a fact : We love coffee. Now, in The Home Barista, two professionals reveal the secrets to brewing coffee worthy of the priciest cafés right in your own kitchen.Connoisseurs Simone Egger and Ruby Ashby Orr enlighten readers with insights and advice fro...

Food writing has exploded in the past decade; nowhere else is it as easy and enjoyable to catch the trends, big stories, and upcoming stars than in the annual Best Food Writing collection. From molecular gastronomy to the omnivore's dilemma, from meat-free to wheat-free to everything goes, there's something for every foodie in this acclaimed series.Best Food Writing 2011 once more authoritatively and appealingly assembles the finest culinary prose from the...

The New York Times–bestselling author "digs deep into the world of how we shop and how we eat. It's a marvelous, smart, revealing work" (Susan Orlean, #1 bestselling author).In a culture obsessed with food—how it looks, what it tastes like, where it comes from, what is good for us—there are often more questions than answers. Ruhlman proposes that the best practices for consuming wisely could be hiding in plain sight—in the aisles of your local supermarket. ...

The popular New Yorker writer combines the style of Mary Roach with the on-the-ground food savvy of Anthony Bourdain.Dana Goodyear’s narrative debut is a highly entertaining, revelatory look into the raucous, strange, fascinatingly complex world of contemporary American food culture. At once an uproarious behind-the-scenes adventure and a serious attempt to understand the implications of an emergent new cuisine, it introduces a cast of compelling and unexp...

Food Snob n: reference term for the sort of food obsessive for whom the actual joy of eating and cooking is but a side dish to the accumulation of arcane knowledge about these subjectsFrom the author of The United States of Arugula--and coauthor of The Film Snob’s Dictionary and The Rock Snob’s Dictionary--a delectable compendium of food facts, terminology, and famous names that gives ordinary folk the wherewithal to take down the Food Snobs--or ...