About this item
A provocative look at how and what Americans eat and why - a flavorful blend of The Omnivore's Dilemma, Salt Sugar Fat, and Freakonomics that reveals how the way we live shapes the way we eat.Food writer and Culinary Institute of America program director Sophie Egan takes readers on an eye-opening journey through the American food psyche, examining the connections between the values that define our national character - work, freedom, and progress - and our eating habits, the good and the bad. Egan explores why these values make for such an unstable, and often unhealthy, food culture and, paradoxically, why they also make America's cuisine so great.Egan raises a host of intriguing questions: Why does McDonald's have 107 items on its menu? Why are breakfast sandwiches, protein bars, and gluten-free anything so popular? Will bland, soulless meal replacements like Soylent revolutionize our definition of a meal? The search for answers takes her across the culinary landscape, from the prioritization of convenience over health to the unintended consequences of "perks" like free meals for employees; from the American obsession with "having it our way" to the surge of Starbucks, Chipotle, and other chains individualizing the eating experience; from high culture - artisan and organic and what exactly "natural" means - to low culture - the sale of 100 million Taco Bell Doritos Locos Tacos in ten weeks. She also looks at how America's cuisine - like the nation itself - has been shaped by diverse influences from across the globe.Devoured weaves together insights from the fields of psychology, anthropology, food science, and behavioral economics as well as myriad examples from daily life to create a powerful and unique look at food in America.
About the Author
Sophie Egan is a Stanford lecturer and New York Times contributor whose work at The Culinary Institute of America and now her own agency, Full Table Solutions, has galvanized a nationwide movement to help all of us make healthier, more sustainable food choices--from moms to mayors, restaurant chains to foodservice companies, K-12 school districts to universities. She has written for the Washington Post, EatingWell, TIME, the Wall Street Journal, Bon Appétit, WIRED, and Sunset magazine. Her first book, Devoured: How What We Eat Defines Who We Are, is a journey into the American food psyche. She holds a master's degree from the University of California, Berkeley, with a focus on health and social behavior. You can find her in the mountains, on Twitter at @SophieEganM, and online at sophieegan.com.
