The Man Who Ate Everything
by Jeffrey Steingarten
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Book Reviews of The Man Who Ate Everything
Book Review: Great Fun - Gastronomic Gusto
Summary: 5 Stars
This book is hysterically funny and informative at the same time. The chapter on Salad the Silent Killer cracked me up. I will read this one again. Whole sections had to be read aloud, just because they were so funny. When Jeffrey Steingarten was made food critic of Vogue in 1989, he began by systematically learning to like all the food he had previously avoided. From clams to Greek food to Indian desserts with the consistency of face cream, Steingarten undertook an extraordinary program of self-inflicted behavior modification to prepare himself for his new career. He describes the experience in this collection's first piece, before setting out on a series of culinary adventures that take him around the world.
It's clear that Vogue gave Steingarten carte blanche to write on whatever subjects tickled his taste buds, and the result is a frequently hilarious collection of essays that emphasize good eating over an obsession with health. "Salad, the Silent Killer" is a catalog of the toxins lurking in every bowl of raw vegetables, while "Fries" follows a heroic attempt to create the perfect French fry--cooked in horse fat.
Whether baking sourdough bread in his Manhattan loft or spraying miso soup across a Kyoto restaurant, Steingarten is an ideal guide to the wilder reaches of gastronomy, a cross between M.F.K. Fisher and H.L. Mencken.
Book Review: A fascinating look at food around the world
Summary: 4 Stars
I came across Steingarten's book quite by accident. Pulled in by the title, I found myself absorbed from the first chapter in the witty and informative style of the book. It's a series of essays or articles on all the important food topics, such as bread, seafood, wine, and more. The thing I loved about it was his relentless commitment to researching. In the first chapter, he resolved to identify and conquer all his food prejudices.
In subsequent chapters, he goes to great lengths to learn all he can about a particular food-related topic, and he tests the ideas in his kitchen. My favorite chapter was the one on bread, or more specifically, his quest for the perfect levain, a type of bread made without yeast. He takes us through attempt after attempt in his kitchen until he gets it right, then reports that he and his wife ate nothing but the levain when it did come out right. What dedication to his craft!
Also highly enjoyable was his chapter on attempting to lose weight - I could really relate! As he discovered, however, some diets will make you lose your joy for food, which would be disastrous for him professionally.
You should read this book even if you don't usually read books like this, and get copies for all your relatives and friends who like to cook.
Book Review: Funny, informative and inspiring (to make you cook, that is)
Summary: 4 Stars
Despite the Oliver Sacks-like title, this is a culinary florilegium by the food critic of Vogue and Slate. I quote the New York Time Book Review, bowing to its laconic accuracy: "Part cookbook, part travelogue, part medical and scientific treatise." Steingarten is tireless in poring over the scientific research on nutrition and cooking, and clearly loves his subject as much as he loves to try the same recipe a dozen times, hunting for perfection. He praises the greatest cooking and the finest simple pleasures (McDonald's, barbecue), investigates everything from ketchup to salt to Kobe beef, and argues for common-sense nutrition. He kicks against the Food Police: salt doesn't raise blood pressure, sugar isn't that bad for you, alcohol is good for you once a day, etc. (His essay "Salad, the Silent Killer," even if it doesn't burst the bubbles of the Food Police, serves as wicked parody of obsessive toxin-phobia and fault-finding.) To top it all off, Steingarten writes very well and is at times wickedly funny. A great food read.Book Review: Highly informative and entertaining
Summary: 4 Stars
I had never heard of this author and had no expectations about what I was going to get when I read this book, and I loved it. It's full of interesting articles about why foods should be cooked certain ways (for example, how to cook potatoes for mashing so that they come out right and not gluey.) It tells stories about how to eat foods in certain cultures, and about new and interesting types of foods that you may never get to taste. There are also chapters where the author (and often his wife) review common foods such as ketchup - giving you descriptions of each brand and it's flavors and ingredients. The author has a quippy sense of humor that I found cute and relatively fresh - again, I had no expectations of what his style of humor was going to be. Apparently from reading some other reviews here there are people who like the author who feel that this book isn't his best work... but I recommend it to people who are unfamiliar with the author. A friend of mine started perusing my copy when she was over and later got her own.Book Review: Destroys the "food scolds" with truth and humor
Summary: 5 Stars
A very refreshing look at the way the food police are trying to control what we eat through fear and intimidation.For instance, his coverage on saturated fats, salt, and sugar provide the only sane view of the subject that I've seen (the sane view does include, of course, Julia Child).
The "foodie" parts are very well done, and I compare him very favorably with the writers I'm familiar with in the foodie magazines like Saveur and Gourmet. He is willing to treat the subject with fewer hushed tones (such as dining in Japan) than the gee whiz crowd.
The humor is fun, especially now that I noted in the credits that he wrote for the Lampoon. It shows. Food is too important a subject to take too extremely seriously.
The usual biases show through, such as his living in New York City, but he dishes it out with great humor and a willingness to travel to some of the truly important food places in the world and the US.
If you care about what you eat, this is a great read.