(2013)
written by Michael Pollan
published by Penguin
Press
ISBN-10: 1594204217
ISBN-13: 978-1594204210
A cookbook that is worth reading from cover to cover!
Michael Pollan has been writing about various processes of
food and how we should be eating it for a while now. From his book on how
plants see the world (The
Botany Of Desire), to following the chain of food from birth/growth to the
table (the brilliant The
Omnivore’s Dilemma) to giving us some rules on how to eat food (In
Defense Of Food and Food
Rules). He has always found an interesting way to tell us about something
that is extremely important to all of us. Whether you agree with him or not, he
does have a talent for making books about food processing interesting.
Cooked is no exception.
Looking at cooking through the Aristotle’s four basic
elements: fire, water, air, and earth, Pollan takes a classic type of cooking
and traces out its origins to its modern day equivalent that strives to stick
to the traditions. With Fire he examines whole hog barbeque. With Water he regales
us with stories of stews and braises. With Air he looks at the wonder of bread,
both through artisan and Wonder Bread. And with Earth he looks at fermentation
and how we make alcohol. At the end of the book is a list of recipes that he
has learned and modified as he went along in the process of writing the book.
Every since I became a vegetarian (pescatarian specifically)
I have been more interested in food and how and why we eat it. A book like this
is just written for a person like me. I found the writing wonderful and the
topic engaging. Though I don’t eat meat I had wondered about the origin of
cooking it. I make all of the bread we eat here at home so the Air section was
like an agreement with everything I already do. I loved how Pollan pointed out
everything that the cooks he worked with did even if it didn’t agree with the
traditions that they use to cook. There is something that is said about cooking
that you can’t really say about the other activities we engage in from day to
day. If we go back to being connected with our food in ways like those lined
out in the book we will be heading for a happy, healthy life that is better for
the world.
Read it, and cook with it:
5 out of 5
No comments:
Post a Comment