Taste of Sweet: Our Complicated Love Affair with Sugar
Author: Joanne Chen
Dismissed as déclassé by gourmands, blamed for the scourge of obesity, and yet loved by all, the taste of sweet has long been at the center of both controversy and celebration. For anyone who has ever felt conflicted about a cupcake, this is a book to sink your teeth into. In The Taste of Sweet, unabashed dessert lover Joanne Chen takes us on an unexpected adventure into the nature of a taste you thought you knew and reveals a world you never imagined.
Sweet is complicated, our individual relationships with it shaped as much by childhood memories and clever marketing as the actual sensation of the confection on the tongue. How did organic honey become a luxury while high-fructose corn syrup has been demonized? Why do Americans think of sweets as a guilty pleasure when other cultures just enjoy them? What new sweetener, destined to change the very definition of the word sweet, is being perfected right now in labs around the world?
Chen finds the answers by visiting sensory scientists who study taste buds, horticulturalists who are out to breed the perfect strawberry, and educators who are researching the link between class and obesity. Along the way she sheds new light on a familiar taste by exploring the historical sweetscape through the banquet tables of emperors, the pie safes of American pioneers, the corporate giants that exist to fulfill our every sweet wish, and the desserts that have delighted her throughout the years. This fabulously entertaining story of sweet will change the way you think about your next cookie.
Publishers Weekly
In her thoughtful first book, Chen, a longtime magazine editor and writer, examines the physical, psychological and historical relationship between sweet flavors and humans, especially Americans. She begins by looking at how we taste by examining the human tongue, and taste buds in particular, meeting up with a psychologist whose work strongly suggests that some of us simply taste things differently. But while the tongue just absorbs this information, the stomach and the brain communicate what we like, what we want more of, whether we've had enough or whether one or the other or both wants to override the system for a variety of reasons, including emotional ones, and permit overindulgence. The author follows a technician whose work includes finding and using flavor components such as the "1950s strawberry." Turning her focus to stateside sweetness in the second half of the book, Chen argues that for a variety of historical and cultural reasons we Americans are uniquely vulnerable to sweetness because of external factors, thus, our uneasy relationship with it. The result is a large industry for and about sugar, another against, yet another for artificial sweeteners and connected others such as those for nutrition, exercise and diet. (Mar.)
Copyright 2007Reed Business InformationSchool Library Journal
Adult/High School- This rollicking survey of desserts is as addictively compelling as the author finds red velvet cake to be. Referencing agricultural history, gastronomic invention, medical research, and social changes, Chen weaves readily between science and art, expertly including readers in her exploration of taste buds, kitchen technology, and up-to-the-moment news about weight and health. Not only is it fun to read about chocolate, sugar, and dueling recipes, but Chen also offers intriguing narrative on the history of candy (the name of which was borrowed by Crusaders from the 11th-century Arabic sweet called Qandi ); how experiments like the Edible Schoolyard, funded by the Alice Waters Foundation, can instill food literacy in adolescents; and the economics of food shopping that distinguishes gustatory selections made by wealthy and poor Americans. Accessible and focused by turns on such topics as fat, hybrid fruit, and artificial sweeteners, this volume can be dipped into or read in full. It's an excellent choice for teens who have any interest in knowing why candy bars are attractive and for curriculum planners in search of stellar writing to add to courses in science, history, health, or sociology.-Francisca Goldsmith, Halifax Public Libraries, Nova Scotia
Books about: Vietnamese Cooking or The Greek Cookbook
Best Food Writing
Author: Holly Hughes
Now in its eighth year, Best Food Writing 2007 hosts a literary feast of the finest culinary prose from the past year’s books, magazines, newspapers, newsletters, and Web sites. With eight sections ranging from Food Fights to Fast Food, The World’s Kitchen to Why I Cook, this stellar collection features both established food writers and rising stars who serve up their culinary forays, musings, and discoveries. By turns luminous, nostalgic, witty, sensual, and sometimes just plain funny, this delectable sampler will invoke your imagination and tantalize your taste buds-whether you’re in the mood for tartare-or tacos.Contributors include: Salma Abdelnour • Bill Addison • Steve Almond • Matthew Amster-Burton • Brett Anderson • Colman Andrews • Dan Barber • Anthony Bourdain • Frank Bruni • Violaine Charest-Sigouin • Melissa Clark • Andrea King Collier • Nancy Coons • Sara Deseran • John T. Edge • Barry Estabrook • Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall • Charles Ferruzza • Tim Gihring • Ame Gilbert • Jonathan Gold • John Grossman • Dara Moskowitz Grumdahl • Madhur Jaffrey • John Kessler • Barbara Kingsolver • Todd Kliman • Ivy Knight • Francis Lam • David Leite • Shuna Fish Lydon • Adam Nagourney • Daniel Patterson • Alan Richman • Adam Sachs • Irene Sax • Kim Severson • Steven Shaw • Jason Sheehan • Gail Shepherd • Raymond Sokolov • James Sturz • Mark Stusser • Carolyn Theriault • John Thorne • Anya Von Bremzen • Robb Walsh • Pete Wells• Marco Pierre White and James Steen • Rita Williams • Laurie Winer • Joe Yonan
Entertainment Weekly
Stories for connoisseurs, celebrations of the specialized, the odd, or simply the excellent.
Pittsburgh Post Gazette
The perfect gift for the literate food lover.
Houston Globe and Chronicle
Spans the globe and palate.
No comments:
Post a Comment