American Cuisine, Paul Freedman
American Cuisine, Paul Freedman
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American Cuisine
And How It Got This Way

Author: Paul Freedman

Narrator: Paul Heitsch

Unabridged: 14 hr 8 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 10/15/2019

Categories: Cooking, Nonfiction


Synopsis

With an ambitious sweep over two hundred years, Paul Freedman's compelling history shows that there actually is an American cuisine.

For centuries, skeptical foreigners—and even millions of Americans—have believed there was no such thing as American cuisine. In recent decades, hamburgers, hot dogs, and pizza have been thought to define the nation's palate. Not so, says food historian Paul Freedman, who demonstrates that there is an exuberant and diverse, if not always coherent, American cuisine that reflects the history of the nation itself.

"A book to be savored" (Stephen Aron), American Cuisine is also a repository of anecdotes that will delight food lovers: how dry cereal was created by William Kellogg for people with digestive and low-energy problems; that chicken Parmesan, the beloved Italian favorite, is actually an American invention; and that Florida Key lime pie goes back only to the 1940s and was based on a recipe developed by Borden's condensed milk. More emphatically, Freedman shows that American cuisine would be nowhere without the constant influx of immigrants, who have popularized everything from tacos to sushi rolls.

About Paul Freedman

Paul Freedman is a history professor at Yale University and the acclaimed author of Ten Restaurants That Changed America, which was named a Washington Post Notable Book of the Year and praised as "essential" by the Wall Street Journal Magazine. He lives in Pelham, New York.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Linda

It’s time for dinner and we have a decision to make. Should we have Chinese or Italian, or how about some Thai at that new little restaurant that just opened across the street? Maybe sushi or a sit-down at a fancy French restaurant? So many styles of cooking, but where is American in all this? That’......more

Goodreads review by Beau

I found the book to be very readable despite covering a broad array of U.S. culinary regions and time periods. Highly recommend, if you are a foodie and a history buff. My biggest lesson from this book is how popular gelatin entrees and desserts had once been. Having been born in 1986, Jello meant "......more

Goodreads review by Katie

Comprehensive nonfiction book about the history of American cuisine from the beginnings of the country to today, including the controversial question of is there even such a thing as "American cuisine". If you're not that interested in the topic it might come off as a bit textbook-y, but I didn't fin......more