Reviews for American Food Writing: An Anthology with Classic Recipes

The average rating for American Food Writing: An Anthology with Classic Recipes based on 2 reviews is 4.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2011-08-09 00:00:00 Andrew Cohen An anthology of American food prose and recipes from 1753 to the present. Some amazing pieces from the country's early years demonstrate that not only does the US definitely have a rich food culture, it's been around long enough that we've actually lost and forgotten some dishes that used to be hugely popular. Who knew how much beaver tail, canvasback duck, and turtle soup we used to eat? There are pieces here by everyone from Thomas Jefferson, to Alice B. Toklas, to Ray Kroc. That's an incredible diversity of viewpoints. Walt Whitman's description of bringing exotic and rare iced cream to wounded civil war veterans contrasts strangely, but tantalizingly, with Eric Schlosser's exploration of exactly how the chemical factories in northern New Jersey create the artificial and "natural" flavors that permeate all of our processed food. From dozens of almost completely unrelated pieces, a picture of American food pointillistically emerges. I went to this book's release party back in 2007 at the Redcat Theater in Los Angeles. (No conflict of interest in this review; the event was open to the public.) Some chefs from around the city had prepared a variety of foods from the recipes in the book, and they were all superb. Particularly fantastic were Helen Evans Brown's 1952 gazpacho (which I have since made at home to my wife's delight), and Union Square Cafe's 1994 yellowfin tuna burgers.

Review # 2 was written on 2008-04-06 00:00:00 Jared Boyce The foodie and the avid reader in me did a little happy dance over this book. This book is an anthology with classic recipes sprinkled throughout. It's not a cookbook. Rather, it's an anthology featuring accounts of "iconic American foods" by some well-known writers: **Henry David Thoreau writes about the delights of bread and watermelon. **Herman Melville writes about the glories clam chowder. **H. L. Mencken immortalizes the hot dog. **M.F.K. Fisher writes in praise of the oyster. **Ralph Ellison waxes poetic over baked yams. **William Styron praises Southern fried chicken. **John Steinbeck presents an ode to breakfast. And the list goes on, with writers such as Nathaniel Hawthorne, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Walt Whitman, Thomas Wolfe, Willa Cather, and Langston Hughes. Plus, travelers to America, like the legendary French gourmet J.A. Brillat-Savarin write about their discovering American dishes such as Virginia barbeque, pumpkin pie, and turkey. Further, great chefs like Julia Child as well as food critics discuss their food philosophies and some of the finer points of different cooking techniques while also discussing both home cooking disasters and triumphs. The book explores the history of American food from coast to coast as well as explores the roots of many ethnic traditions, including Cuban, Italian, Jewish, Chinese, Japanese, and Scandinavian, to name just a few, that have been absorbed into American food culture. This is a book you can really sink your teeth into! Well, maybe it would be better to sink our teeth into some of the recipes included.