The Century in Food: America's Fads and Favorites [Hardcover]

Beverly Bundy (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 1, 2002

In 1900, most cooking was done in fireplaces; if you didn't have a servant, you most likely were one; and a slim figure was considered a mark of ill health. Economic conditions, attitudes, and tastes have changed a lot over the twentieth century, and The Century in Food examines the inventions, innovations, and ingenuity that have fueled American appetites for the past hundred years. Bacardi Double-Chocolate Rum Cake, Playboy Paella, Sausage-Stuffed Baked Apples, and Chicken Fillets In Tomato-Wine Sauce are just a sampling of the scrumptious recipes found here, but more than a simple cookbook, The Century in Food provides an enthralling history of American culture. This book is destined to become a classic amid food lovers and historians alike.

Features popular recipes from each decade.

Timelines and sidebars provide historical background and fascinating reading.

Lavishly presented with over 400 full-color images.

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

•Features popular recipes from each decade.

•Timelines and sidebars provide historical background and fascinating reading.

•Lavishly presented with over 400 full-color images.

About the Author

Beverly Bundy is the Food Editor of The Fort Worth Star-Telegram. After graduating from the University of Missouri, she worked as a journalist in Iran, Nebraska, Arizona, Germany, and Texas. This book is based on stories written for The Fort Worth Star-Telegram, which received a James Beard Award nomination for Best Newspaper Series in 1999. She has also won awards from the Association of Food Journalists, including top honors in column writing in 2000.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 192 pages
• Publisher: Collectors Press (October 1, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1888054670
• ISBN-13: 978-1888054675
• Product Dimensions: 10.1 x 9 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,653,979 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

23 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars ...others are more worthy..., January 25, 2003

By 

L Goodman-Malamuth "Leslie Goodman-Malamuth" (Washington, D.C.) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Century in Food: America's Fads and Favorites (Hardcover)

I bought this book the same day it got a nice plug in the Washington Post's food section. This may have been a professional courtesy, as Beverly Bundy is food editor at the Fort-Worth Star-Telegram. However, as a longtime collector of books and pamphlets on American food history, I was shocked at the slapdash quality of this overhyped large-format book, which lists for the [$$$] I paid at my neighborhood bookseller.

The type is hard to read, especially when it appears over dark color screens. Full pages are are devoted to banal recipes for things like pineapple upside-cake, or clam dip, that just about everyone has already seen. The author has plenty of space for graphics, but despite the generous page size, many of the ads reproduced are too small to read without squinting, surrounded by overgenerous margins. The design of this book is kitchen-table awkward, unusual for a book of this price.

The images include such non-food head-scratchers as a U.S. Navy recruiting poster and a photograph of prospective immigrants at Ellis Island having their eyes inspected for trachoma. Granted, women in the workforce and immigration have had an impact on American food, but American food is what we bought this book, ostensibly, to read about. Such padding is frustrating considering the incredibly rich subject matter, much of which is still hanging around our mothers' kitchens, if not our own.

Bundy credits a scant 30 sources, and she appears to have borrowed heavily--very heavily--from several of them. There are disturbing similarities both in recipe selection and even in text to some of the pre-existing books. My copy of "The Century in Food" is plastered with annotated Post-Its after just one reading.

[...]

Both "Fashionable Food" and "Kitchen Culture" are meticulously edited, put together with loving care and LOTS more content than Bundy's book. ... I also recommend "The Gallery of Regrettable Food" (2001) by James Lileks, which is less comprehensive but extremely funny.

"The Century in Food" is a big waste of money, with the exception of Bundy's photo of the seven-cent Doritos bag, an artifact of my childhood. Nice to see it again, but it isn't worth [$$$].

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Needs a lot of improvement, January 1, 2003

By 

Chris Frost (Ingalls, IN United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Century in Food: America's Fads and Favorites (Hardcover)

This is probably one of the worst books on food history I've ever read. One would think that since the publisher released the book several months late, they might have used that extra time to proofread. The number of typographical errors truly astounded me, and made the book difficult, if not agonizing, to read. There is very little actual text, as this is primarily a picture book. While the pictures are of fine quality and brought back many memories, I noticed that the captions didn't always match up with the pictures. And while the brightly colored pages did make a visually interesting background, it also made the tiny type rather difficult to read. Overall, there is very little to learn from this book, and anyone who is interested in food history would be better served by one of the many other books already on the market.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Innovations, and evolutions in American food preparation, February 10, 2003

By 

Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Century in Food: America's Fads and Favorites (Hardcover)

The Century In Food: America's Fads And Favorites begins a culinary history of America in 1900, a time when most of the cooking was done in fireplaces and a slim figure was considered a mark of ill health. Author Beverly Bundy (Food Editor at The Fort Worth Star-Telegram newspaper) proceeds to provide a fascinating and informative survey of the inventions, innovations, and evolutions in American food preparation, culinary tastes, and a steadily expanding roster of recipe ingredients available to Americans whether eating at home or dining out. Although there are a wealth of featured and illustrative recipes, The Century In Food is more than just one more cookbook, it is also an informed and highly entertaining history of American culinary culture spread out over ten decades and enhanced with 400 full-color images. The Century In Food is highly recommended reading for both students of American Popular Culture and cookbook enthusiasts.