Cool Food: Erasing Your Carbon Footprint One Bite at a Time

by Robert Downey Jr., Thomas Kostigen Narrated by Robert Downey Jr., Thomas Kostigen, Deepti Gupta, various narrators

Overview

Notes From Your Bookseller

Funny and engaging, as Robert Downey Jr. always tends to be, this team-up with Thomas Kostigen is an actionable guide to sustainability, focusing on the difference an individual can make.

In Cool Food, celebrated actor and philanthropist Robert Downey, Jr. and New York Times bestselling author Thomas Kostigen team up to discover how we can erase our carbon footprints-one bite at a time.

What we eat matters-to us, and to the planet. Cool Food is a game-changing new food category and way of thinking that can help fix the climate. This engaging and persuasive book will show you how to make simple choices, starting today-in the supermarket, in your kitchen, and in the world-to reduce your environmental impact. Hundreds of cool foods exist, but until now have gone largely uncelebrated for their climate-positive powers. Some of these foods may already be on your shelf, and some are just on the horizon. But cool food is much more than just a shopping list: it's a way of life vitally important to our future.

Packed with eye-opening information, actionable items, and two dozen delicious recipes, Cool Food comes alive with engaging storytelling and refreshing humor. Robert and Tom have talked with experts around the globe-from farmers who are pioneering new pathways to more sustainable food, to cutting-edge, climate-friendly chefs. In seeking answers to what each of us can do, this intrepid duo discovered:

the power of ancient grains;

revolutionary farming techniques that create more sustainable foods;

the unexpected benefits of meal kits;

future foods that are made of thin air;

delicious and different recipes that do the world good, and much more.

What we choose to eat, where we shop, and how we plan our meals are daily choices that can have a wide impact on the world, whether we realize it or not. We have the power with each one of our daily purchases and our individual food habits to encourage a healthier and more sustainable food system for everyone.

Join Robert and Tom on this fun, exciting, and enlightening adventure and learn how to become part of the Cool Food revolution.

Editorial Reviews

MARCH 2024 - AudioFile

Robert Downey, Jr., teamed up with prolific climate change author Thomas Kostigen to write and narrate a fun yet impactful audio guide to choosing food habits that will cool the planet. The passionate duo seek to popularize a new climate-friendly food category--cool food--to represent the best edible options for producers and consumers. Downey, Jr., is an absolute riot to listen to--whether popping in with a "fast fact" in each chapter, reading a vegetarian recipe, or describing how his own family eats. Kostigen's scientific expertise carries through his soft-spoken performance, which contrasts well with Downey, Jr.'s, pops of narrative energy. Experienced voice actor Deepti Gupta enjoyably narrates much of the audiobook, bringing an international tone to a production aiming to effect change globally. J.T. © AudioFile 2024, Portland, Maine

FandomWire

While superstardom is a fruit of his labor, Robert Downey Jr. is all set to push his horizons to new possibilities with his upcoming book Cool Food.”

People

Simultaneously humorous and engaging, Cool Food will provide simple changes that people can make to their food habits to help reduce our carbon footprint…Delectable.”

Kirkus Reviews

2023-11-07
Eating to fix the planet.

Working with climate journalist Kostigen, founder of the Climate Survivalist column for USA Today and author of The Green Book and Hacking Planet Earth, Downey Jr. serves up food that’s not just hip (as it surely is) but can also be useful in containing or even reversing climate change. Cool food, write the authors, is “a holistic approach to making the world a whole lot better by simply making more informed decisions about something that each and every one of us does anyway—eat.” Those informed decisions require doing a little homework—for example, chasing down sources of locally grown organic food that is appropriate to its season (no Chilean strawberries in January) and finding restaurants that are committed to the humane treatment of animals and to pesticide-free plants. Among other things, the authors counsel that seeking out “ancient grains” such as amaranth is one step to getting away from environmentally damaging mass-produced products. Perhaps curiously, they name rice among the baddies while writing that “wheat is the best cool food to eat,” but the environmental reasoning seems basically sound, even if readers with celiac disease won’t benefit much from the advice. Some of their recommendations are unremarkable—Francis Moore Lappé counseled lowering if not cutting out meat consumption half a century ago—but much is broadly practical. It’s good to know, for instance, that lentils not only pack a powerful protein punch but also have “a puny carbon footprint.” Scattered liberally throughout the vibrant graphics-heavy book are various delightful recipes, including lentil and tomato dahl with whole-meal roti bread, which ticks all the healthful and environmentally sensitive boxes, and aromatic tofu pho, with a dozen kinds of veggies and flat rice noodles.

Lotus root, anyone? A pleasure, and an education, for climate-conscious foodies.

Product Details

BN ID:	2940159400963
Publisher:	Blackstone Audio, Inc.
Publication date:	01/23/2024
Edition description:	Unabridged
Sales rank:	821,939

Videos

Cool Food Sizzle