| Title | : | The Best American Food Writing 2020 |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | |
| ISBN | : | 0358344581 |
| ISBN-10 | : | 9780358344582 |
| Language | : | English |
| Format Type | : | Paperback |
| Number of Pages | : | 272 |
| Publication | : | First published January 1, 2020 |
THE BEST AMERICAN FOOD WRITING 2020 INCLUDES
BURKHARD BILGER, KAT KINSMAN, LAURA HAYES, TAMAR HASPEL, SHO SPAETH, TIM MURPHY and others
The Best American Food Writing 2020 Reviews
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[3.5 stars] A curated collection of food-related writing from 2019. I suppose putting out an anthology of previously-published food writing was never going to age well in 2020, no matter the content. J. Kenji López-Alt also wasn’t doing himself any favors. I enjoyed the pieces by Cynthia Greenlee (A Real Hot Mess: How Grits Got Weaponized Against Cheating Men), Korsha Wilson (A Critic for All Seasons), and José Ralat (The Demand for “Authenticity” is Threatening Kansas City’s Homegrown Tacos) and had previously read the opening essay on Per Se’s abusive culture by Kwame Onuwachi and Joshua David Stein. But, with the exception of Katy Kelleher’s Wet ‘n Wild, could’ve done without most of the second two-thirds of the book.
After reading last year’s excellent Samin Nosrat-edited volume with its intentional #OwnVoices approach, I think I expected more oomph. They were all fine, but left me skeptically wondering - were these really the collective best? Did Michael Twitty or Soleil Ho or literally trans and/or queer and/or person of color writing about race and gender and class and migration and climate *at the intersections* rather than mutually exclusive areas of power and oppression not publish anything better than what’s offered in full-form here? Pieces by regularly engaging writers Tina Vasquez, Bryan Washington, and John Paul Brammer (among many others) are listed in the appendix, making me wonder what the criteria actually was. If you haven’t read last year’s collection, I’d suggest going with that one instead, and hopefully the 2021 edition will be more reflective of the questions we should be asking about food’s production, profit, in/equity, and culture.
Goodreads Challenge: 94/90 -
The Best American Food Writing 2020 had a great range of essays that covered everything from chef profiles to how the concept of "authentic" food in reviews upholds white supremacy. I really enjoyed this collection. The mix of shorter and longer essays was great as was the large variety of topics. Some favorites from this collection were Brett Martin's "The Provocations of Tunde Wey," Charlotte Druckman's "We All Scream," and Dan Nosowitz' "What the Heck is a Crab Rangoon Anyway?"
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Quite a meh collection this year. Some interesting articles, but nothing amazing.
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“Good food writing, just like good cooking, need not be too serious.”
Every year, I delight in reading the latest installment in the Best American anthology series. While I always make sure to read the short story and essay collections, this was my first time reading a volume dedicated exclusively to food writing (RIP the Best Music Writing series, 2000-2011).
I thought this was a really engaging selection of pieces, many of which focused on the intersection of food, race, authenticity, and cultural appropriation. My favourite pieces were Joe Fassler’s piece on grocery store design, Brett Martin’s profile of chef Tunde Wey, Sho Spaeth’s piece on Benihana, Tim Murphy’s examination of the New Coke “failure,” and Paige Williams’ profile of Prince’s Hot Chicken Shack, the Nashville restaurant that invented hot chicken.
My only complaint with the collection is that I wished it had more long-form pieces, although that has more to do with the death of print journalism than anything. This was an engaging, thoughtful, and relatively quick read that I would recommend if you are interested in the more political and historical aspects of food. I recommend the Best American series overall if you are looking to discover new writers. -
I'm a sucker for food writing, and this collection of essays was no exception. I found myself laughing or saying "What?!" almost every essay. My poor wife is probably annoyed at how often I made her listen to me read a paragraph.
Did you know New Coke failed, but when they switched back to Coke Classic they kept the same recipe?
Do you want to read one of the most savage restaurant reviews ever written for the NYT?
There is an expose about activists working to help restaurants in DC become more accessible and to follow the ADA.
Why do we say "I just want to eat her up," when talking about cute kids? It's weird, right?
Several essays deal with "authenticity", colonialism, and eurocentrism in the food world.
These are what constitutes food writing, and it's fascinating. -
I've been reading these collections of food essays for years upon years - such a fun way to watch food trends change. This one had all kinds of interesting essays, from hot grits to hot chicken to more than one about the dangers of "authenticity" to my favorite about the origins of the crab rangoon. Occasionally you'll hit a boring essay, but keep plugging, there's usually another goodie coming along. (Come to think of it, I think I missed 2019...)
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This is a set of essays on food! As with any collection, I liked some stories more than others. The one about Prince's Hot Chicken Shack has really stuck with me, as have the ones about disappearing tacos in Kansas and a profile of Jamie Oliver. I feel like you'll probably already know if you want to read this or not just by reading the title.
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Pretty good collection of food op-ed
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I've read a quite a few of these annuals and this is a really strong collection, with all the pieces pre-pandemic though the intro and foreward during the first throes and so, interesting juxtaposition. Nice important piece on accessible restaurants.
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I *really* enjoyed the writing and cultural commentary. From restaurants to design to food manufacturing to substance abuse to folktales, the collection covered some serious ground. The essays on hot grits, grocery store design, and ice cream particularly stood out to me. I found the writing styles to be lacking in range and tone (compared to other anthologies of essays like Great American Essays) - they were almost all great content wise but I was looking for more originality in form and voice. So 4 stars instead of 5, but still a great read!
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Title: The Best American Food Writing of 2020
Editors: J. Kenji Lopez-Alt and Silvia Killingsworth
Age Group: Adult
Genre: Nonfiction, essays
Series: The Best American Food Writing
Star Rating: 5 out of 5 Stars
I borrowed this book from my local library and reviewed it.
If you know anything about me at all, you know that I’m totally obsessed with food, mainly eating and cooking. (I’m not much of a baker yet!) So, with that in mind, I reserved a copy of these essays. Normally, I’m not a huge nonfiction reader; as a whole, I tend to find the genre rather dry. But these curious little bundle of essays takes the new of 2020, the year of the global pandemic, and attempts to put it in perspective using a medium that connects us all, across the globe and the oceans: food. This meaty (ha, I couldn’t resist at least one food pun) collection of 26 essays explores how food affects culture, history, and humanity in general. I won’t review the entire collection; rather, I will give the collection an overall rating and highlight my favorites! Okay, without further ado, here we go!
The Kitchen at Per Se Was a Clean Place but Hard and Heartless, Too by Kwame Onwauchi and Joshua David Stein: I admit that this essay was difficult for me to read. I’ve followed Onwauchi’s career ever since his Top Chef days, and it was especially hard to read about the abuse and the racism that the young chef suffered early in his career. This essay was especially eye-opening, every word searing itself into my brain. Stunning, eye-opening, and powerful!
A Real Hot Mess: How Grits Got Weaponized Against Cheating Men by Cynthia R. Greenlee: I knew vaguely of the origins of Nashville, Tennessee’s hot chicken, a devilish dish whipped up as a nasty surprise for unfaithful lovers, particularly husbands. But I had no idea that sometimes, a woman in that area will wait in a dark kitchen, patiently stirring a hot pot of grits, all the better to fling upon an unfaithful partner. Famously, a philandering singer back in the 20s was known to be a playboy. When he returned that night to see his paramour, she waited until he was naked in the bathtub before promptly dumping a pot of hot grits all over his back. A lot of people don’t really associate food with culture, as if the two don’t go hand in hand. I really liked this essay; it gave me the impression that the South hides more than its share of dark secrets, and it was really interesting!
Open Wide by Burkhard Bilger: Have you ever wondered about a baby’s sense of taste, their journey from the womb to their first taste of breastmilk, their transition to solid foods? This essay took me to the beginning of an explosive food movement: the baby food industry! It sounds strange, doesn’t it? Bilger goes deep into the origin of the fairly new industry, and the puzzle he tries to solve is: How do we figure out what we like, don’t like? Why do we hate some foods, but love others? This essay was extremely thought-provoking, and I find myself, days later, returning to it. This was such a weird, surprising essay; it was definitely unexpected. One of my favorites!
Fare Access: DC Restaurants Could Do More to Welcome Diners with Disabilities, by Laura Hayes: This particular essay really struck a chord with me. I’ve been disabled my entire life with spastic cerebral palsy, and this essay, admittedly, really hurt. Most people don’t seem to notice my disability, despite the fact that I walk with a cane and have multiple surgeries done on my legs. Thinking about how hard it can be for disabled people, especially in DC, to go about their lives normally, especially when there is a great percentage of restaurants don’t even bother to try accommodating disabled individuals, was extremely painful. This essay hit really hard, and it reminded me that as much progress as we’ve made as Americans, we have a long, long way to go nonetheless.
Lean Cuisine Doesn’t Want to be Part of Diet Culture Anymore: Does It Have a Choice? By Kaitlyn Tiffany: Ah, Lean Cuisine! Honestly, this was one of the essays that caught my eye and intrigued me to the entire collection! It’s strange to think that the popular diet food brand wasn’t always around, owned by the corporate giant, Nestle (who, interestingly enough, comes up twice in the collection). It debuted back in the 70s and early 80s, as an alternative to busy, working women, who also just so happened to be longing to be thin. Lean Cuisine was brought forward at the peak of the diet-culture explosion, and has since tried to shake off the mantle, despite the trademark orange lettering and white box. Lean Cuisine will quite possibly be forever linked to dieting, to women fooling themselves that they only need to eat a certain number of calories, and despite it all, all the revamping and rebranding, it remains one of the biggest diet/weight loss brands in America. Very interesting reading! Stunning!
The Man Who’s Going to Save Your Neighborhood Grocery Store, by Joe Fassler: I’ll start this off by being honest: Marketing, business, and other such things normally bore me to tears. (There are only so many numbers and figures you can read before your brain breaks.) But this essay was very interesting and thought-provoking: What hidden forces behind the scenes propel and engineer our favorite stores, locally and on the national stage? This essay took me behind the scenes of America’s most beloved grocery store chains: Aldi, Trader Joe’s, Whole Foods (now owned by Amazon, interestingly enough).
The Provocations of Chef Tunde Wey by Brett Martin: This essay is definitely one of my very favorites; it really brought the insidious nature of racism in America in the spotlight. Chef Tunde Way holds high-cost, thought-provoking pop-up events at various venues, upcharging white guests and selling them at a steal to black ones, to highlight the grave, inexcusable wealth disparity in our nation. This piece was particularly eye-opening and illuminating, and I loved it so much!
When Jacques Pepin Made All the World an Omelet by Joshua David Stein: This essay might be my favorite of the entire collection; I distinctly remember the first time I ever watched his show, on CBS’s Julie and Jacques, and being captivated by the cozy set, and the comforting, almost purring accents of the two people, one an American expat, the other a French native. I loved this essay so much; both Jacques and Julia are beloved figures in the food world, and this essay perfectly illustrated that! Bravo!
Easy, Peasy, Japanese-y: Benihana and the Question of Cultural Appropriation by Sho Spaeth: This essay brought into question one of food’s (and by extension, our culture’s) biggest questions: When is it okay for one culture to cherrypick another, all for the sake of profit? Is it moral, ethical, perhaps even defensible? Spaeth brings Benihana’s and Trader Joe’s in particular as the biggest offenders of this cultural taboo, an increasingly red-button issue. Very thought-provoking and interesting reading!
New Coke Didn’t Die, It was Murdered by Tim Murphy: Who knew the American soft drink market was so cutthroat and secretive?! I certainly didn’t! Murphy pulls back the curtain to the American soda industry, and reveals how Coke tried once to change its signature formula, and how half of the population was on board. But there was a small group of purists who demanded that the soft drink company keep to its original recipe. As a result, the brand canceled the ‘New’ Coke and stuck to its original formula. To be honest I’m a little sad because I’m more than a bit curious about Coke’s new flavor...
Pete Luger Used to Sizzle, Now It Sputters by Pete Wells: I was waiting for this essay with bated breath! Finally, an essay that discusses the seismic cultural shift that resulted in the #MeToo movement. Specifically, this essay focuses on one restaurant, reborn after their chefs and staff were decimated by the devastation of the dark underbelly of the American industries, exposing years of secretive misogyny and the antiquated boys’ club that permeates our culture. This essay was not easy reading by any means; there were several times when I had to put the book down, due to being emotional or falling down internet rabbit holes. Easily one of the best in the whole collection!
The Spice Trade by Paige Williams: Spices in general have always intrigued me; they give food magical flavor and depth, and I use them often in my own home cooking! To think about how valuable and precious spices were (and still are) was a really cool thing to read about! Absolutely stunning and one of my favorites of the collection!
We All Scream by Charlotte Druckman: Ah, what kind of food essay collection would this be without one about one of Americans’ favorite treats: ice cream?! I and many others, I’m sure, have fond childhood memories of this frozen dairy treat. Such a culinary treasure, cool and refreshing and decadent. I really loved this origin story of one of our most precious food resources!
This collection of food essays was everything I loved in an anthology: essays about a wide range of food topics, from the well-rounded individuals who work in the food industry! I’m normally not a big nonfiction writer, but I really enjoyed this volume! The bottom line: Diverse, well-researched, and surprising, I loved The Best American Food Writing of 2020! Next on deck: Aurora Rising by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff!
https://literatureobsessed.blogspot.c... -
As with all essay collections, the writing (style, topic, my interest) is a mixed bag. However, the overall quality was above average. Everything was worth reading.
Foreward by Silvia Killingsworth: This acknowledges the 2020 pandemic, given the essays were selected before March 2020.
Introduction by editor J. Kenji Lopez-Alt: This also acknowledges to pandemic but then shifts to provide an overview of the following essays.
Onwuachi & Stein: About the cut-throat nature of some kitchens.
Van Buren: A sociological view of the idea of eating children because they are so cute.
Wilson: A call for greater diversity among restaurant critics
Greenlee: In this case, the subtitle does convey the thesis: "How Grits Got Weaponized Against Cheating Men"
Bilger: The science behind developing baby food (spoiler alert: add sugar)
Hayes: A call to increase access for diners with disabilities
Goldfield: The culture of drinking and problem of alcoholism among restaurant staff
Tiffany: The evolution of Lean Cuisine
Ralat: The creation of a KC fried Mexican taco topped with parmesean, and how the quest for "authentic" Mexican cuisine is trying to pushing this local creation from the mid 20th C. (As if only dishes direct from Mexico are authentic and Mexican-heritage people can't be authentic.)
Fassler: The author goes behind the scenes to reveal the strategies grocery store managers use to attract and keep customers.
Martin: Chef Tunde Wey creates a Nigerian version of hot chicken and negotiates his identity as an undocumented immigrant from Africa.
McCarron: A review of trends in Portland over the last couple of decades, including Burritogate--where two-nonmexican women created a menu inspired by a trip to Puerto Nuevo, Mexico.
Stein: A detailed description of Jacques Pe'pin's video demonstrating how to make two French omelets: country and classic.
Kinsman: A musing over Rocco DiSpirito's rollercoaster career.
Spaeth: A parsing of Benihana and how it's not really Japanese, but why it has appeal.
Severson: An overview of Jamie Oliver's career.
Murphy: The backstory and broader context of the New Coke debacle.
Kelleher: A closer look at the bottled water industry and the definition of "spring."
Wells: An description of the formula Peter Luger steak house uses to make their Brooklyn restaurant an experience centered on the steak itself.
Nierenberg: Climate change threatens the chili crop in New Mexico.
Haspel: Government dietary guidelines and the "mushiness" of nutrition research.
Williams: A deep dive into Nashville's spicy chicken.
Druckman: A description of all the ingredients in ice cream, their chemical properties, and the proliferation of premium ice creams.
Nosowitz: The dialectic between Asian and American food cultures that made crab rangoon possible.
Kay: An analysis of Yelp restaurant reviews and the white centering / supremacy / snobbery of the use of "authentic." -
What a delightful collection! Especially around Thanksgiving I like to double down on reading food writing. The collection used food as a lens to interrogate debates about “authenticity” (which often doesn’t benefit who you think it does), identity, recovery from illness, and what to make of a high-priced steakhouse coasting on reputation and no longer serving quality steak. It’s great to dip in and out of or read cover-to-cover (I only skipped one essay).
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A wonderful collection of food writing. Each essay is a surprise and delight to read. I recommend this book to anyone who wants to look at the world through the lens of food.
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A nice, broad collection of contemporary food writing. There are restaurant reviews, industry reports, subcultural deep dives, and sharp political criticism throughout. As is always the case with anthologized works, some key themes emerge from the collection, including the questions about race and capital raised by the fetishization of authenticity in foodie culture, the relationship between taste and gentrification, and the tension of food as pleasure and food as necessity. Some highlights here include Brett Martin's profile, The Provocations of Chef Tunde Wey, Joe Fassler's examination of design and grocery shopping, The Man Who's Going to Save Your Neighborhood Grocery Store, Kwame Onwuachi and Joshua David Stein's reflection on haute cuisine workplace abuses, The Kitchen at Per Se Was a Clean Place but Hard and Heartless Too and Charlotte Druckman's piece about the burgeoning "super premium" tier of ice cream, We All Scream.
All of the writers included herein are worth following. The collection is a good reminder that thoughtful food criticism is more prevalent and more important than ever. -
I realize now that the publisher makes a bunch of "Best of..." anthologies, which I used to overlook.
But, reading this for a second year in a row I recognize not only the editor and curator, but a number of names and a number of the pieces.
It really is a well-curated collection of stories about food, and that some of the other anthologies may be equally well-curated by experts in their field.
This is a good way to catch up on the writing you've missed from the previous year. It's not all-encompassing but it'll give you enough context to really understand the previous year of food-writing. -
This was a huge disappointment compared to last year. Not 1 or 2 but 4 or 5 of these articles used the phrase "whole cloth" so cliche I don't know what to say.
One writer didn't know Nigella was a CHEF.....how can you call yourself a food writer and be that ignorant.......
not to mention the jewish writer whose topic of alcohol-abusing chefs has to just mention an israeli chef/restaurant in a different city! Isn't it bad enough every recipe has to say kosher salt when they really mean use whatever salt you already have!
#boycottisrael #freepalestine #savgaza -
I love this new series so much! My favorites this year were about Lean Cuisine, New Coke, crab rangoon, and how to increase access for diners with disabilities. The three from the New Yorker about baby food, substance abuse in the restaurant industry, and Prince's Hot Chicken were also great. And the essays about neighborhood grocery stores and Portland were prescient (all of these essays were originally published in 2019).
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2019 was an ok year for short stories about cooking, but not really that entertaining. Lots of social issue stories about harassment in the kitchens, and overall I felt it was one of the weaker years of content. The stories did reflect more of the social issues of the US in the year just before the Pandemic turned everything upside down. If you like reading about cooking you might enjoy this, but then again, it's not quite the entertainment that I usually get out of these anthologies.
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I wasn’t expecting to enjoy this book. I mean, how many restaurant reviews or chef adulations can I take? However, I really enjoyed it. The framework is good, but the topics are very varied: toxic bosses, racism, prejudice against the disabled, cultural appropriation, what does authentic mean, and many more. I’ll admit I didn’t read all the essays, but I read well more than half and my mind was expanded.
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While reading a 2020 collection of 2019 writings was setting myself up for hah oh you didn't know, some of these essays, the best ones, stood out because they were about food and race and society rather than just food trends. Not my favorite collection ever, but very solid, especially the ones that touched on "authenticity" and how that upholds white supremacist ideals of what is elevated and what is "ethnic".
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This is the first Best American volume I read every year and J. Kenji Lopez-Alt has selected a fantastic selection of writing about food that has a great range. A great collection to read one piece at a time when you're pressed and your brain is trying to go walkabout.
