Eating history : 30 turning points in the making of American cuisine / Andrew F. Smith.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Smith, Andrew F., 1946-

Series:

Arts and traditions of the table

Arts & traditions of the table

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Cooking, American.

Cooking, American--History.

Food habits--United States--History.

Food habits.

United States.

Genre:

Nonfiction.

Cookbooks.

History.

Physical Description:

xii, 376 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm.

Place of Publication:

New York : Columbia University Press, [2009]

Summary:

Overview: 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, 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.

Contents:

Preface

Acknowledgments

Prologue

1: Oliver Evans's automated mill

2: Erie Canal

3: Delmonico's

4: Sylvester Graham's reforms

5: Cyrus McCormick's reaper

6: Multiethnic smorgasbord

7: Giving thanks

8: Gail Borden's canned milk

9: Homogenizing war

10: Transcontinental railroad

11: Fair food

12: Henry Crowell's Quaker special

13: Wilbur O Atwater's calorimeter

14: Cracker Jack snack

15: Fannie Farmer's cookbook

16: Kelloggs' corn flakes

17: Upton Sinclair's Jungle

18: Frozen seafood and TV dinners

19: Michael Cullen's super market

20: Earle MacAusland's Gourmet

21: Jerome I Rodale's Organic gardening

22: Percy Spencer's radar

23: Frances Roth and Katharine Angell's CIA

24: McDonald's drive-in

25: Julia Child, the French chef

26: Jean Nidetch's diet

27: Alice Waters's Chez Panisse

28: TVFN

29: Flavr Savr

30: Mergers, acquisitions, and spin-offs

Epilogue

Notes

Bibliography

Index.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 347-363) and index.

Local Notes:

HSP Historic Culinary Arts Collection.

ISBN:

9780231140935

0231140932

9780231140928

0231140924

9780231511759

0231511752

OCLC:

300280325