The Man Who Ate Everything
by Jeffrey Steingarten
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Book Reviews of The Man Who Ate Everything
Book Review: The Omnivore's Specialist
Summary: 5 Stars
Jeffrey Steingarten is the grumpy judge on Iron Chef America. It was in the chocolate challenge of an episode a couple of years ago, when he said he would give all his points to the chef who could just made a perfect chocolate ice cream, that I understood him. I get you, Jeffrey Steingarten! I even wonder if the falderal of the show embarrasses him a little, though he sometimes says very nice things about the improbable concoctions put in front of him. I call into the other room to my husband, "I think this one's going to win. The grumpy guy likes his food better." And my husband comes in to see this for himself.
Mr. Steingarten has an imperturbable gravitas on the panel, and does deliver his opinions ungarnished with self-deprecation, which tends to rub third-tier show biz types the wrong way. When a former Dancing With the Stars actress rounds on him hotly because he doesn't like something she thinks is wonderful, he takes it with the placid aplomb of an English Mastiff accosted by an anxious Pomerianian. He isn't arrogant. I know that because I have now read his book. A man is not arrogant who buys ten orders of MacDonald's French fries to try out 33 kinds of ketchup. Then confesses it was too much food and he and his wife got mixed up. And in the end decides their favorite ketchup might not be the spiciest, but with fries, "a marriage made in heaven." If he acts as if he knows he's right, it's because he knows he's right. How can you not like a know-all who goes to all that trouble to be sure?
The Man Who Ate Everything is a collection of essays packed with his musings, research, recipes, and travels in quest of culinary perfection. His thing is to search out the experts and recipes, then do it at home. But, "Cesare [his Italian informant] never warned me about making pasta near an open drawer," after his crater of flour was breached and twenty egg yolks surged across the table "like molten lava rolling over a Hawaiian housing development," into the silverware drawer. Cooking methods are detailed and the physics behind certain techniques are explained. What an interdisciplinist he is, if that's a word. I appreciated the history lessons, as well as the attention to biology (I am a wildlife ecologist). He reasonably concludes that food phobias make no sense, because we are omnivores, and gets rid of most of his through determined exposure to the hated items, because he wants to be a fair and liberal food critic who eats everything.
He can't write without being funny, but beneath it he's always serious. Mr. Steingarten gets it right about plants' making poisons, and why. Boil that spinach and throw away the water, People. He is also right that we have been hoodwinked into believing that all fat is bad. Some Americans are begining to get it now, since publication of his book, but I notice the dairy section of my grocery store is still loaded with awful Fat Free substitutes for real cheese, real sour cream, real half-and-half (half of what and what?); and the number of crappy Fat Free salad dressings still crowding the shelves is depressing. I was loading my cart with avocados when a woman next to me sighed and said she loves avocados, too, but (as if surprised I was still alive), "All those fatty acids!" The section Why Aren't the French Dropping Like Flies? should be required reading for anyone with a family history of heart disease.
There's a lot of fun here. He goes on a new French diet that was then all the rage (Atkins, South Beach, etc. were later knock-offs), loses 7 lbs after a month of hilarious obsessing about the number on the scales (he purchases three for comparison), but remains lovably unconverted and returns to "pies, pierogi, pistachios, pizza, popcorn potatoes, puff pastry--and that only covers the P's." He enrolls in waiters school and learns how to trick people into spending more than they intended. He travels to Memphis to judge a barbecue competition and is so in love with the winning ribs that he brings some home, and stoically stops himself from devouring them all before his wife comes home from work--his sensuous description of the meat should be rated PG-13, at least.
Just a couple of minor complaints. Keep portion size small. I was skipping around and had already read a lot--too much, I guess--by the time I got to Primal Bread. I should be interested in this. I actually kept starter once. My donor just waved her hands when I asked where she got it. "Oh, the yeasts just naturally occur, you know. Every kitchen has them." Now I see why it never tasted very good. But my eyes were glazing over and I put the book down. He says I have been making mashed potatoes the wrong way, with Grandmom's hand masher. But in my defense, Mr. Steingarten's way is not to mash them at all, so I think he shouldn't call them mashed. But I can't wait to try his ketchup recipe.
I keep very few books. But this one, I will. I already ordered It Must Have Been Something I Ate, and I wish there were others. The Man Who Ate Everything is funny, intelligent, informed. Just like Mr. Steingarten.
Book Review: I don't know exactly why I bought this book...
Summary: 2 Stars
I can't piece together exactly what made me buy The Man Who Ate Everything. I really don't have an interest in cooking or reading about food. I never read recipe books and am certainly not enthralled when it comes to reading about restaurants and wine. I ask myself why I bought it, and I can't answer the question. My hypothesis was that I bought it because the cover was intriguing- the cover being a suited man with a bread roll for a head. Plus, on the back, the word ESSAY cropped up, as well as an inordinate amount of accolades by various newspapers. But what did I expect apart from essays about food? I don't know. What I would of liked was recounts of humourous anecdotes relating to his tribulations with food, but that's exactly what I get, and I'm not compelled to read on! Perhaps I should see a psychologist. Jeffery Steingarten, a man I'd never heard of till I bought it, is apparantly one of the world's most respected food critics. The Man Who Ate Everything is a compendium of his many essays about food and drink, but it fails to capture the reader's attention. It is not daring enough: not outgoing or bold. Whereas many essay writers go out on a limb with theories and distinctive styles of writing, Mr. Steingarten simply meanders along like an old man reciting a story to his grandson.
There were some memorable passages though. The best parts are at the start of the book, where he describes to the reader his exploits with making "PAIN D'LEVAIN," a bread that requires painstaking effort and precision to be made properly. The story of making it just right is quite amusing: his struggles in the kitchen; his interviews with famous bakers; staying up well into the early hours of the morning, testing, baking and kneading. All of it is quite amusing. But from there, Steingarten slowly descends into things like 'fun facts' and 'how about this for a bit of neat information'. Plus, he never lets up on food! All we hear about is food, food, food, food (did I mention food?) and more food. It's enough to make you salivate.
He has a propensity to use a lot of French. One thinks that he made all these French meals just to sound intelligent. Saying "a'la rounge de jous par vais" certainly beats "baked beans on toast" (I don't know French and what I said was made up, but hey, it's an example). So you just have to accept that Mr. Steingarten knows about French cuisine and you don't.
The book is quite long, and reading about his exploits only endures the patience for so long. It eventually got the best of me and I moved on to the sequel to Catch-22, called "Closing Time," which so far ISN'T matching up to the all time greatest novel.
It's so hard to find a decent book these days.
Book Review: A New Yorker's Views on What's Good to Eat
Summary: 4 Stars
This book is a collection of short essays by Jeffrey Steingarten, food columnist for Vogue magazine. The essays touch on topics such as who makes the best ketchup (and how to make your own), how to make perfect mashed potatoes, judging a barbecue contest, cooking with Olestra (the fake fat), and fruitcakes. There are research essays on health related topics such as the French Paradox, and the possibly over-rated dangers of eating salt. Steingarten also likes to do experimental research in his own kitchen, resulting in essays on topics like bread, french fries, or ice cream. Sometimes he works with exotic ingredients, and other times he experiments with creative uses for packaged processed foods. Sprinkled throughout the book are recipes for specific projects from the essays, but this is not a recipe book by any means. Sources are not cited at all, neither in the text, nor through endnotes or a bibliography. There is, however, an index.
Virtually all of the essays held my interest. Some of them led to some ah-ha moments, as he explains the science or culture behind favorite dishes that just don't always turn out well in my kitchen. Steingarten is a New Yorker through and through. He revels in being able to start an odd cooking project late at night, popping out if need be to 24-hour groceries to get that exotic ingredient that happens to be missing from his kitchen at the time when he needs it. He goes to great lengths to ensure proper cooking procedures for ultimate results, such as continuously monitoring and correcting the cooking temperature when boiling potatoes for mashing, or ordering freshly ground flour to be flown in special for his bread. This seems to be a rather city-oriented way of thinking about cooking. Out here in the country, I don't have time to monitor the temperature of my potato water, but I grow my own potatoes and know that the variety and age of the potatoes probably is much more significant for excellent mashed potatoes than the cooking temperature. To get fresh flour, I grind my own, and if I don't have an ingredient in the house when I begin a recipe, I substitute or change recipes rather than go right out and buy something. In sum, Steingarten's way of thinking about many topics is very much that of a consumer from the big city. While readers may not share that approach, the book is nonetheless interesting and informative.
The one chapter I was less than pleased with was the one on Olestra. Steingarten came across as being so thoroughly enamored with Olestra, it sounded as if he felt he had to say only positive things about the product because the manufacturer had been so generous in letting him play with it.
Book Review: I'd actually send this man fan mail...
Summary: 5 Stars
and I would NEVER send anyone fan mail.I'm afraid that my review of this book will be a complete cliche - ie. I couldn't put it down, I didn't want it to end, I laughed, I cried, I gained 10 pounds etc.
I found Steingarten to be insightful, hilarious, sarcastic and delightfully neurotic. I now realize the joy I missed over the years by not being an avid Vogue reader. I can't believe it took this long for my first exposure to such exquisite food writing.
I CAN'T BELIEVE NO ONE TOLD ME TO READ THIS BOOK UNTIL NOW!
As a (relatively) young person, who has recently discovered the joys of "that which is edible" - I found this book to be as informative as it was entertaining. Many of the topics that Steingarten explores were more relevant to my own culinary exploits and interests than I could have hoped. Despite the fact that I do not have the same resources and colleagues that would allow one to travel as far and wide as I'd like(and as he does), Steingarten manages to truly take the reader with him as he travels, while simultaneously making it possible for the young (or older) homebound gastronome to relate.
I will forevermore approach the subject of food as influenced by Jeffrey Steingarten. I will cook every recipe in his book. I will travel to eat. And most of all, I will overcome my food aversions (especially if stranded on a desert island and everything I would normally eat has run out).
Although I LOVED this book - I had trouble reading it without a break - since these are drawn from his monthly writing, it IS a big dose of food writing, but I took a night off and finished it with no problem.
Hope y'all like it!
Book Review: Steingarten is great on food, hit-and-miss on diet
Summary: 5 Stars
I had a mostly love, slightly hate relationship with this book. If you cut out the middle few chapters, dealing with diet and nutrition, I think it would be an easy 5 stars. As it stands it's a 4.5, rounded up.
Steingarten's writing is witty, insightful and very entertaining. His food essays are uniquely charming in that he often approaches the subject as at best a novice, and shares his (sometimes disastrous) learning experiences with the reader. His love of food shines through brilliantly in the writing; his descriptions of dishes, ingredients and techniques occasionally caused me to actually salivate, a neat trick in an all-text medium.
The breadth of topics covered is phenomenal. While he is a New York, NY foodie and that obviously colors his writing and tastes somewhat, he's nowhere near as NY/Paris-centric as many food writers from those locales are. He runs the gamut from unusual foreign cuisines to American classics to rural European local specialties. All topics are approached with the same keen palate and enthusiasm.
Steingarten only gets into trouble when he ventures into the more nutritional and social aspects of food consumption. While these are certainly incredibly important topics, his casual investigations into dietary fads, questionable eating habits and urban legends about the health effects of food felt weakly researched and myopic. While they were occasionally entertaining, they just didn't feel essential or worthy of inclusion in an otherwise outstanding collection.
Overall, highly recommended for anyone interested in food!