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Best food books 2019 – the American collection

December 30, 2019 Leave a Comment Filed Under: Books, Food, Food history

American food writing is often more advanced than British food writing. American publishers don’t just support tv chefs, influencers and newspaper columnists either, they push the envelope further. With a larger audience, creative American publishers, such as Abrams and Chronicle, can finance authors who appeal to food geeks like me.

American food pic: Kerstin Rodgers

American Food, a not so serious history by Rachel Wharton (Abrams), illustrations by Kimberly Ellen Hall.

An A to Z illustrated book of the history of American foods such as the doughnut, the blueberry, Monterey Jack cheese, velveeta and tomato ketchup amongst others, makes me want to travel to the United States again.

Did you know that Green Goddess dressing didn’t originally have avocado in it and was white with green flecks? I want to go to San Francisco’s Palace hotel, where it was invented, and try the original version. (But on further research, they don’t appear to serve the dressing anymore. Mistake!)

That most American of food products, Heinz Ketchup, is disparaged by gourmets, especially the French, but I love it. But when developing the product, Henry Heinz improved food safety for all American foods.

The authors discuss New Mexican cuisine, pointing out that it isn’t Americanised Mexican food but Native American plus dairy. Likewise ‘queso’, that popular cheesy Chile dip (mentioned so frequently in the movie ‘Boyhood’ which hasn’t yet made inroads into the UK) is Texan Mexican rather than Tex-Mex. Texan Mexican food is the historical food of pre-United States Texas, “whose ancestors are the Native Americans who first lived here over 12,000 years ago”.

Many Italian foods are in fact American by birth, from pizza to pepperoni, the latter distinguishing itself by a smokiness rarely found in Italian food.

There is fascinating research, a few recipes and some necessary myth busting in this small book. Essential reading for any American food fan.

ruffage pic: Kerstin Rodgers

Ruffage by Abra Berens (Chronicle)

Berens was a farmer before she became a chef: “Farming taught me how much freaking work goes into food production, and that wasting food is truly a waste- of money, time and resources.”

The first chapter is about a strong pantry. If I were her editor, I would have cut out much of this. It’s not a book for beginners – we all know how to cook pasta and she’s wrong about the correct rice for risotto. You can tell this is her first book, she wants to explain everything. She has too much to say but writes elegantly:

“A pantry is like a quiver of arrows, at your back and at the ready” she starts, like the Katniss Everdene of cooking. You can tell she’s an outdoors girl.

It’s part two, the majority of the book, that is a delight: like me, she is in love with vegetables and writes about them in tender lovelorn prose. The photographs and illustrations (Lucy Engelman) are beautifully done. Recipes are simple yet sophisticated with several variations. She suggests techniques for preparing and cooking vegetables such as blistering, charring, shaving, massaging and poaching which will inspire.

I believe ‘ruffage’ is the American spelling of ‘roughage’. Eat your fibre people!

Breakfast pic: Kerstin Rodgers

Breakfast by Emily Elyse Miller (Phaidon)

To write a book for Phaidon publishers is a privilege, you get a big glossy coffee table tome to add to your CV.

Emily runs an international pop-up ‘BreakfastClub’ (yes one word, a portmanteau of mixed case grooviness). She’s done her research alright.

The largest proportion of the book is devoted to eggs in all their global guises, from the Japanese rolled omelette to Israeli shakshouka, to Eggs Benedict. It may seem odd to have a chapter on soups and stews in a breakfast book, but Asian cultures will often have a noodle soup for breakfast, while India and Northern Africa enjoy a bean stew.

And yes I checked, she does mention Marmite on toast.

If it’s the British fry-up including its ‘magic nine’ ingredients, that interests you, some time ago I did an interview with the witty Seb Emina, author of the Breakfast Bible .

Women on. Food pic: Kerstin Rodgers

Women on Food by Charlotte Druckman (Abrams)

This large volume is a compendium of female food writing, mostly by Americans but also such UK luminaries as Bee Wilson, Diana Henry and an interview with Nigella Lawson. This is a brilliantly intersectional cast of writers, including black and ethic minority essayists. Anthologist Charlotte Druckman intersperses essays by women working in food (farmers, chefs, writers, home cooks) with round-robin questionnaires: ‘Are there any words or phrases you really wish people would stop using to describe women chefs?’; ‘The truth about my mother(‘s cooking)’; ‘Have you experienced a failing up or a failing down?’ and ‘What are some misconceptions about women who do your job?’. These are all great questions.

Charlotte herself writes a chapter on the ‘catfight’ between two eminent US female restaurant reviewers, Gael Greene and Mimi Sheraton. Their review styles were totally different, (the first wrote ‘features’ and the second wrote ‘service journalism’), and yet, because they are women, they are denigrated by (male) historians of restaurant criticism into being one amorphous girlie type.

This is an American book and so I do not know all the writers. But what applies to the female voice in food in the United States, applies everywhere. The problems and themes are tiresomely recognisable. And that’s worth documenting.

The only clanger is the chapter on horoscopes. While justly remarking that astrology is a devalued ‘housewife’ subject in journalism as food used to be, and that it would likely be colonised by men the minute it becomes important or profitable, the example presented was neither foodie nor astrological. As I’ve worked in both disciplines, it didn’t chime right (the astrology of food is a valid subject and I’ve prepared a menu based on a chart for an early supper club).

American Sfoglino pic: Kerstin Rodgers

American Sfoglino by Evan Funke (Chronicle)

What is sfoglino? It’s a type of pasta, from the Emilia Romagna region of Italy, rolled out by hand into a large circle. No machine other than a rolling pin is involved. This large book is a masterclass in how to do it. Chef Evan Funke, though an American lacking Italian roots, learnt from two masters, one from Bologna and the other from Japan. He’s a big chap; you can imagine him making short work of a lump of pasta dough, egg yellow and firm, gradually flipping, flouring and flattening it to a fine translucent disc.

The photographs and step by step instructions to different sauces and types of pasta are beautiful and informative. So even if you aren’t likely to make your own sfoglino, it’s an impressive coffee table book for Italian food lovers. I tend to make pasta with a machine, so I’d love to try sfoglino. Why aren’t there restaurants in the UK making it?

From Scratch pic: Kerstin Rodgers

From Scratch by Michael Ruhlman (Abrams)

In American food writing there are two big Mikes: Michael Ruhlman and Michael Pollan. These guys are not only foodies but thinkers; cook -philosophers if you will. Not content with producing another recipe book, Michael Ruhlman is grouping recipes into families and techniques, rather like our own Nikki Segnit in last year’s ‘Lateral Cooking’. They want to get to the essence of cooking methods, the genealogy of recipes.

From Scratch is a big shiny book, with an engaging and approachable voice, taking the reader through ten classic central meals from roast chicken to paella then fanning outwards. Ruhlman starts by asking- what is cooking from scratch? If you are making lasagne for instance, is it making the dish with pasta and two sauces. Is it making the pasta itself and the cheeses? Is it milking the cow/buffalo/goat/sheep then making the cheese, growing the tomatoes and garlic and basil and growing and grinding your own flour for the pasta sheets? How far does this go? How fundamentalist are we being here?

I like to cook from scratch but you have to be realistic. I do have a garden so I can grow some vegetables and fruit and herbs. But it’s hard in any city to keep animals or grow cereals such as wheat. Ruhlman probes this question and gives you options. I’ll be playing in the kitchen with this book all year.

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MsMarmiteLover aka Kerstin Rodgers.

Chef, photographer, author, journalist, blogger. Pioneer of the supperclub movement.

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Doing a spring budget recipe cooking demo for @bre Doing a spring budget recipe cooking demo for @brentcouncil Willesden library. I’ve been doing this a few times a year for the last few years. Wouldn’t it be great if they had a kitchen set up permanently. Libraries are community centres and could be used to teach how to cook from scratch.
Mother’s Day flowers from @siennamarla who is ex Mother’s Day flowers from @siennamarla who is experiencing her own first Mother’s Day with Ophelia. I’m still living in chaos & work was slow yesterday due to rain. Only another month…
Last week I did a wild foraging walk with @luciath Last week I did a wild foraging walk with @luciathewildkitchen in Kent @kent_downs_aonb just outside Canterbury. I’m going to help out during her May wild asparagus workshop. This chef lived in France, is a brilliant forager and cook. Her campfire meal of lentils, wild garlic raitha and a dukkah of alexanders, Parmesan was genuinely delicious not worthy like so much foraged food.
I did a bushcraft workshop with @naturalpathwaysbu I did a bushcraft workshop with @naturalpathwaysbushcraft Hannah Nicholls in Kent. An all female group, this felt very empowering and I must get myself one of these fire sticks. @kent_downs_aonb
Me @hamyardhotelsoho where I participated in a BRI Me @hamyardhotelsoho where I participated in a BRILLIANT block printing workshop with @mollymahonblockprinting it was a belated birthday present from @siennamarla The hotel is gorgeously designed, look at the fabric wallpaper behind me. Every corner is a feast for the eyes. Lunch was included and unlike many hotel restaurants the food was so tasty (and vegetarian), perfectly judged in quantity. Congrats to the chef. I got so excited on Friday I bombarded my timeline with stories which may have been a tad overwhelming. I’ve had a great week, going to Kent @kent_downs_aonb to meet foraging chef @luciathewildkitchen and bushcraft teacher hannah @naturalpathwaysbushcraft so it’s been one of extremes, from urban high glamour to roughing it outside in frosty countryside. I’m loving life as a journalist and photographer, I get to meet so many inspiring people. At home things are a bit grim because I’m having building work done and for almost 3 months I’ve lived in rubble, without heating, and sometimes without cooking or hot water. So these days out are fab for my mental and physical health. I will be posting more on Kent, Molly Mahon, Ham Yard hotel and the building works. #springiscoming🌸 dress by @designerfriday
Artichoke lasagne. I made a white lasagna with bec Artichoke lasagne. I made a white lasagna with bechamel, Parmesan, mozzarella and artichokes. I prepped the artichokes from fresh but you could use jarred. I had this @nonna_betta in Rome. It was so good I had to figure out how to make it myself. #artichokes #carciofi #romanjewishfood
Hags by Victoria Smith @glosswitch on twitter. On Hags by Victoria Smith @glosswitch on twitter. On the demonisation of middle-aged women. We are all karens now. We’ve passed our last fuckable day. This book, an easy read, not an academic one, is brilliantly written, with an ice cold anger at the way women over 40 are erased, told to shut up. Yes we call the manager. We are sticking up for ourselves. We don’t take shit anymore. We aren’t beholden to being liked by men, being girl-friend material anymore. Embrace your hagdom. You can buy your own flowers. #books #feminism #hags
Carciofi alle giudia, artichokes, Roman Jewish sty Carciofi alle giudia, artichokes, Roman Jewish style. I learnt how to prepare these from @silvia_nacamulli a local Jewish Italian cook and teacher, who recently wrote a book ‘Jewish flavours of Italy’ available from @green_bean_books you need the right type of artichokes: mammole are currently available @natoora via @ocadouk have some lemon quarters to rub on the newly exposed parts of the artichoke and put them in water with lemon juice to stop them going black. #you take off many of the outer leaves until they are half pale green. Then cutting in a circular upward stroke, you take off the hard green purple tops of leaves. It ends up looking like a peony. Cut off the fibrous parts of the stalk. Smear salt and pepper inside the flower. Fry at 150c for 15 minutes. Remove and drain, open up to look like a sunflower. Then fry again at 180c until the outer leaves are golden and crispy. Serve immediately. Divine! #jewishitalianfood #carciofi #artichokes #mammole #artichokeseason
@silvia_nacamulli has just brought out a fantastic @silvia_nacamulli has just brought out a fantastic book ‘Jewish flavours of Italy’ . She lives local to me so I went round to see how she prepares artichokes for the famous carciofi alle guidea and artichoke stew. You need mamole artichokes that are in season now from @natoora I’ll be publishing a longer video on YouTube and a piece on her cooking in the @hamandhigh
Whipped feta dip is so simple: a block of feta, a Whipped feta dip is so simple: a block of feta, a couple of spoons of yoghurt, some lemon juice, whizzed up. Add black pepper or herbs. #5minuterecipes
This is what I’ve been doing for the last month. This is what I’ve been doing for the last month. Want to replace window overlooking garden with a wider, lower one but struggling to find something nice. All new sash windows look kinda fake. #vintagewindows #building #exposedrafters
Baking for the builder: cranberry pie with cream. Baking for the builder: cranberry pie with cream. Just because you are a builder it doesn’t mean you don’t appreciate pretty pink china and home baking. #builders
My piece is The Great Read: My piece is The Great Read:
Naples at Christmas- discovering piennolo di vesuv Naples at Christmas- discovering piennolo di vesuvio,the Christmas 🍅, which lasts up to a year fresh. It’s given boxed as gifts around Christmas being the only local fresh tomato available. It dresses all the Christmas pizzas and pastas. It’s grown on volcanic Vesuvius soil and sparsely watered. As a result it has thick skins, and a sweet intense flavour. #tomatoes #italy #naples
Not cooking much at the moment due to a thick laye Not cooking much at the moment due to a thick layer of dust over my kitchen. This will be my dining room/photography studio. Done on a whim.#unplanneddemolition
Another picture of my granddaughter Ophelia in a n Another picture of my granddaughter Ophelia in a nest of apricot tulle (found at portobello market). Isn’t she lovely? #granfluencer
Broccoli Stilton soup. This freezing week is defin Broccoli Stilton soup. This freezing week is definitely a week for soups. My friend @jimfrommanc is staying & needs his hot lunch.
Cheese on toast with crushed chilli 🌶️ in Ven Cheese on toast with crushed chilli 🌶️ in Venice the fresh food market sells bouquets of colourful chillies. I’ve still got mine, drying in an enamel jug. #travelandfood
The Christmas tomato or piennolo di vesuvio. Read The Christmas tomato or piennolo di vesuvio. Read all about it: https://msmarmitelover.com/2022/12/christmas-in-naples.html  Got a couple of bunches hanging in my kitchen. #naples #campania #tomatoes🍅 #travelphotography
Opheliagram. This morning I photographed her in an Opheliagram. This morning I photographed her in an Italian outfit I bought in Naples on a William Morris playmat which looks great and is practical for tummy time. So many things are different about parenting now. Parents use apps to track feeding, pooing, weeing etc. You don’t bathe them anymore for the first few weeks because you want to leave the vernix ( the white waxy stuff they are covered in at birth) on their skin as long as possible. Nappies now have a line on them that turns blue if they’ve done a pee. White noise apps to help them sleep. New technology guides new parents. As well as ancient probably prehistoric customs being rediscovered. #granfluencer #grandaughter I’ve tagged in @siennamarla and @jamescalmus as the authors of this baby.
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