A review by bluestjuice
The United States of Arugula: How We Became a Gourmet Nation by David Kamp

2.0

Essentially a history of the pop culture of cuisine, specifically gourmet cuisine, over the past hundred years, tracing quickly through the various movements and rising and falling stars within this world: the chefs, the restaurants, the celebrities, the cookbooks, and the food trends themselves. I found the stories of the advent of particular gourmet, now taken for granted, foodstuffs (like balsamic vinegar and sushi) to be more fascinating than the careers of even the most storied chefs, interesting though they were. The perspective here is refreshingly different - he talks about the so-called evils of the modern American diet only in passing, and mostly in reference to how particular activists or chefs were responding to it. Mostly, this book made me want to a.) eat in a lot of expensive restaurants, particularly famous expensive restaurants that have now mostly closed, and b.) watch Top Chef again now that I might have some idea who some of the chef guest judges actually are. Overall, it was an interesting read, but one that was a bit of a chore.