American Cuisine: And How It Got This Way

Whoever things America does not have a distinct cuisine should read this. Outstanding research and truly comprehensive in detail. Plus very well written.

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What a delicious subject—all and any puns in this review fully intended—but I'm not sure what side of the table Paul Freedman is on. He spends much of the book debunking the very existence of "American cuisine", declaring it a travesty of native cuisines gone amok in a misguided melting pot stew. On the other hand, there is some good information here, and I slogged through to the end, taking notes on source materials to investigate later. What keeps "American Cuisine" from being a tasty feast is the pedantic writing style, so "professor-high-on-the-mountaintop". Granted most of us have lived through some embarrassing culinary lows, but hind sight, as they say, is 20/20. His put downs left a bad taste in my mouth.

This book covers 200 years of food in America, what we ate, how it came to be, and what the author defines as American cuisine. The author is a Yale history professor and at times this reads like a textbook but a very readable one. There are many pictures, insets, advertisements, menus, recipes, etc. Many interesting stories and fact. This isn't a book I'd read straight through but enjoyed picking it up at times and reading a few chapters.