Publishers Weekly
07/15/2019
In this well-researched history, Freedman (Ten Restaurants That Changed America) tracks American eating habits from the colonial era to the present in search of a definitive “American cuisine.” Freedman scours decades of dining guides and community cookbooks (sharing recipes throughout) for evidence of regional traditions. He discovers that once Americans could buy “factory-made products at any market anywhere in the country, distinctions among regions and places were obliterated” and mainly lived on in cultural imagination. (Who really eats baked beans in Boston?) Freedman picks apart patterns of appropriation, starting with colonizers’ adoption of indigenous crops, from the now out-of-favor “Indian pudding” (cornmeal, eggs, raisins, butter) to the still ubiquitous pumpkin pie. He exposes the efforts of white Southerners to distance their cooking from African-American soul food in the early 20th century and examines “ethnic” cooking in a country shaped by its immigrants (while German food “was incorporated into the American repertoire, Chinese cuisine remained identifiably foreign”). He finds that, though the farm-to-table movement has revived interest in local, seasonal cooking, many Americans still turn to packaged foods that sacrifice flavor for reliability. History buffs will dig into this astute culinary narrative. (Oct.)
Booklist
"[A] significant, thoroughly researched survey of food and cooking in the U.S. . . . Both serious researchers and armchair readers will find education and amusement here."
William Grimes
"In American Cuisine, Paul Freedman embarks on an epic quest to locate the roots of American foodways and follow changing tastes through the decades, a search that takes him straight to the heart of American identity. It is an enormous, endlessly fascinating subject, and Freedman makes a wonderful tour guide, scholarly and wry."
Laura Shapiro
"Whether it's hasty pudding in 18th century Connecticut, or gluten-free waffles in today's Brooklyn, Americans have always liked their daily bread served with ample portions of sentiment, habit, folklore, and wishful thinking. Only a scholar who's also an avid raconteur could begin to do justice to this nation's complex, frequently unnerving relationship with food, which is where Paul Freedman comes in. Drawing on copious research — and encouraged, clearly, by an excellent appetite — he has untangled the messy strands of nostalgia and speculation that spill across culinary history like a vast helping of spaghetti and come up with a wonderfully engaging study of Americans at table. Anyone who wants to make sense of our edible past should start right here."
Simon Majumdar
"Impeccably researched, Paul Freedman’s American Cuisine is both intellectually satisfying and hugely readable. However, what impresses most of all is Freedman’s palpable and genuine affection not only for American food, but also the people who made and make it happen. At the end of this book, you will be convinced that not only is American cuisine a thing, but that it is a very good thing, and deserves to take its place among the great cuisines on earth."
Allen Salkin
"Shattering holy ideas about our national fare, Paul Freedman’s American Cuisine shows that we have not yet fully emerged from the unhealthy weight of food industrialization, brutal marketing lies, and fake “traditions” meant to divide us. Hearty food for thought."
Jacques Pepin
"Although it is not easy to define, Yes! there is a genuine American Cuisine. In this essential book, Paul Freedman leads us from the food of colonial times to processed industrial food, to ethnic food, to the farm-to-table revolution of the 70s. American Cuisine is a brilliant synthesis which organizes the vast, eclectic, mixed American cooking into a comprehensive, coherent, credible and unified entity."
Lisa Abend
"Contrary to what sniffy foreign gourmets may believe, the United States does have its own cuisine, Freedman argues in this sprawling history. But it’s defined less by ingredients and recipes than by regionalism, modernity, and variety. Relying on sources that range from menus and cookbooks to the odd detective novel, he tracks the interaction among these forces from the colonial period to the present. . . . Gender and ethnicity figure intriguingly in the process."
Stephen Aron
"In American Cuisine, Paul Freedman, an eminent historian of medieval Europe, turns once more to “modern” history and to the United States. A splendid follow up to his Ten Restaurants That Changed America, American Cuisine affirms that we are what we eat (and were what we ate). More than just an excavation of what was and is American cuisine, Freedman’s book is a revelation about what was and is American. Plus, it’s a great read. Filled with forgotten foodways, recovered recipes, and fresh treats, American Cuisine is a book to be savored."
Booklist [starred review]
"[A] significant, thoroughly researched survey of food and cooking in the U.S.... Both serious researchers and armchair readers will find education and amusement here."
Jacques Pépin
"Although it is not easy to define, Yes! there is a genuine American Cuisine. In this essential book, Paul Freedman leads us from the food of colonial times to processed industrial food, to ethnic food, to the farm-to-table revolution of the 70s. American Cuisine is a brilliant synthesis which organizes the vast, eclectic, mixed American cooking into a comprehensive, coherent, credible and unified entity."
Rien Fertel
"In American Cuisine: And How It Got This Way, the Yale University history professor and culinary scholar eschews the banal, dish-centric narrative of countless similar titles to propose a grand theory of the American appetite."
Los Angeles Times - Drew Tewksbury
"In American Cuisine: And How It Got This Way, food historian Paul Freedman embarks on an ambitious exploration of a seemingly impossible question: What is American food? Combing through 200 years of cookbooks and archives, Freedman charts a captivating history of our country told through the meals we make."
Amy Bentley
"Given the old adage “you are what you eat,” American Cuisine, with thoughtful assessments combined with marvelous illustrations, is a mirror reflecting back, helping explain the current abundant yet problematic landscape of American food."
Lidia Bastianich
"Through my fifty years as an Italian chef in America I have followed the evolution of American cuisine and have always wanted to know ever more about its origin, flavors and recipes. My dear friend and Yale professor, Paul Freedman has fulfilled my quest to know more. This is a brilliant book—extensive and detailed—with in-depth research about the chronological journey of American cuisine from the pioneers to the present."
Kirkus Reviews
2019-07-15
A celebration of American diversity as seen through its food.
Freedman (History/Yale Univ.; Ten Restaurants That Changed America, 2016, etc.) offers a sweeping, thoroughly researched social and cultural history of America through its changing food habits and practices, from the nation's founding to the current trend of farm-to-table cuisine. Drawing on cookbooks, culinary histories, advertisements, restaurant menus and reviews, guidebooks, and chef's memoirs, the author argues convincingly that Americans do have "well-defined and consistent tastes" in food: a "national fondness for sweet, spicy, and salty combinations" and enthusiasm both for regional traditions and for variety. In examining culinary delights from different regions, Freedman points out that "invented traditions infuse regional cuisines, just about everywhere and many ‘traditional' foods are not as old as most people believe." If grits and barbecue are unknown in some parts of the South, still, roadside restaurants and cookbooks long have featured dishes—stewed clams from North Carolina and cranberry chiffon pie from Georgia, for example—that evoke particular areas. Variety, though, has been compromised by the rise of agribusiness and supermarkets. Freedman notes that in 1905, 14,000 varieties of apples were grown in the U.S.; by the 1960s, only three were sold in supermarkets. By the end of World War II, processed foods came to be less expensive than fresh ingredients and tempted homemakers with more time for "work, family, and active leisure." For many decades, consumers accepted processing and lack of diversity as trade-offs for the advantages of "hygienic safety, consistency, [and] affordability." The author locates the movement against homogenization and standardization in the 1970s, which also saw a decline of French haute cuisine as the ultimate tastemaker. "All the pieces of New American cuisine—farm-to-table, seasonal, and local—were in place by the end of the 1980s," he writes. Freedman also offers entertaining profiles of many notable chefs, including Alice Waters, Thomas Keller, and René Redzepi, whose influences have reformed how many Americans eat.
A spirited, abundantly illustrated food history.
