The Man Who Ate Everything
For the first time in a while, I made the second resolution(the first one has always been the same, check this out if curious) of the new year, which was to rekindle the passtion of reading(and hopefully writing, too). And without a doubt, I chose this book as the first one, to taste more of Jeffrey Steingarten’s cynical humor
which he had presented very well in the apperances as one of the judges in US version of cooking show ‘Iron Chef.’
By the way, who is Jefferey Steingarten? As known, he is the former laywer who turned himself into the food critic of Vogue magazine(here, the more about him) since 1990s. As mentioned above, I had very high expection on his book, because a) as mentioned, I have found that his cynical humor is very interesting, or I think I would rather say ‘it’s my type,’ b) the introductory essay of this book, ‘omnibore’ from the internet was very interesting. So I just could not wait until having the book.
And yes, the book is very intereting, and have fulfilled my expection more than 100% based on the assumtions which have built that expectation. However, it cannot fulfil my third, and hidden expection, which is my prejudice toward stereotypical food critic: go to the restaurant, eat the food, evaluate, then how many stars the places will get?
It is not that the author have not written such kind of articles in the book. However, the essays cover much broader spectrum of author’s reflection about good food, whether it is cooked and sold in the restaurant or not, or the food itself or one specific and general ingredient… In other words, the book almost covers the food culture, which includes history, geography, scientific fact… etc.
Then, is the book too generic? I do not think so. Even though the whole book covers so much of broad spectrum of food and relevant culture, each essay explores very detailed and deep bottom of the topic. For example, Water…
And what I like most about his appoach in research is that it is very empirical and thorough
has been the food critic of Vogue magazine, but I have gotten to know him from the US version of Iron Chef, which I personally prefer to the original version of Japan. When the first time I saw him, I didn’t pay much attention, however, I had found that his cynical humor for arguing with chefs and other judges was very interesting (or I would rather say ‘my type’), so I guessed I could have tasted more of his humor if wanted to taste more of his cyni
# by bluexmas | 2007/02/28 13:00 | Book | 트랙백