The United States of Arugula: The Sun Dried, Cold Pressed, Dark Roasted, Extra Virgin Story of the American Food Revolution (Paperback)

by David Kamp (Author)
Key Phrases: food press, New York, Chez Panisse, Los Angeles (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Review

“With the sweep of an epic novel, David Kamp takes us behind the scenes and into the sweaty, wacky, weird trenches of the Great American Food Revolution. His reporting is solid, his storytelling magnificent, and his good humor is seemingly inexhaustible . . . . a terrific book.” —Molly O’Neill

“Culturally aware and cleverly written, this anatomy of the French-fried versus sun-dried tension at the heart of American gastronomy is refreshingly non-snooty.”
—Atlantic Monthly

"A page-turner filled with fascinating footnotes, a delicious dish about bold-faced names, and an in-depth look at the ways in which a series of food pioneers touched off a revolution." —USA Today

“Juicy, irreverent, and full of bite.” —Gael Greene

Product Description

The wickedly entertaining, hunger-inducing, behind-the-scenes story of the revolution in American food that has made exotic ingredients, celebrity chefs, rarefied cooking tools, and destination restaurants familiar aspects of our everyday lives.

Amazingly enough, just twenty years ago eating sushi was a daring novelty and many Americans had never even heard of salsa. Today, we don't bat an eye at a construction worker dipping a croissant into robust specialty coffee, city dwellers buying just-picked farmstand produce, or suburbanites stocking up on artisanal cheeses and extra virgin oils at supermarkets. The United States of Arugula is a rollicking, revealing stew of culinary innovation, food politics, and kitchen confidences chronicling how gourmet eating in America went from obscure to pervasive—and became the cultural success story of our era.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 416 pages
• Publisher: Broadway (July 17, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0767915801
• ISBN-13: 978-0767915809
• Product Dimensions: 7.9 x 5.2 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #77,646 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars absolutely worth it, August 13, 2007

By	Michael White - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I came to this book from an angle that many potential readers possibly share--I'm interested in food but am not a hard core "foodie"; I enjoy revelatory profiles of people but am not a gossip maven; I know some but by no means all of the characters, events, restaurants and so on addressed in this book. "Arugula", for me, is a compelling, spirited, and illuminating story, which Kamp tells with an eye ever on the parallel unfolding of the American character throughout the 20th century. Specific decades and regions are brought to life in ways not accessible to the survey of music or politics. What should be a dizzying amount of detail is delivered with a clarity and judiciousness that propel the tale forward. I came away from this book surprised and grateful that it had never been written before.

15 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A mix of "good, bad and ugly", July 31, 2007

By	M. J. Smith (Seattle, WA USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

On the positive side: Kamp provides a focused account of fine dining and cooking in America - World War II to present. He keeps the "story-line" moving by concentrating on interesting and influential characters rather than trying to cover the whole scene. One follows the Euro-centric cooking (Europe consisting of France and later Italy) through it's transformation to Ameri-centric cooking - local, natural, organic ingredients. This history is traced primarily through New York City and California chefs and restaraunts.

In the negative, this simplification of culinary history ignores the culinary practices in the hinterlands - growing up in rural Eastern Washington in the 1950's I was familiar with roasting your own coffee beans, salmon sold from the back of cars 3-4 hours from the river, raising my own basil from seeds from the local hardware store, ... Sushi entered my vocabulary in 1970. While Kamp correctly attributes much of the Americanazion of ingredients to James Beard, he fails to recognize that Beard's culinary education at Portland's Farmers' Market was repeated on a small scale in all the roadside fruit and vegetable stands throughout the region. History as described by David Kamp may be accurate regarding the urban fine-dining scene but is not representative of the "total American scene."

The ugly - while it is useful for Kamp to provide insight into the personalities and ideological tensions among the various key players in the evolution of American taste, knowing who slept with whom and who engaged in crude and/or psychotic behavior doesn't particularly interest me nor does it add essential information for following the historical changes.

However, with the exception of the attempt to summarize the future in the final chapter, the book is a fascinating read. It provides a useful overview in which to see one's personal culinary experiences. Recommended with reservations.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Brilliant, April 18, 2008

By	HeyJudy "heyjudy" (East Hampton, NY USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)

David Kamp sets his treatise, THE UNITED STATES OF ARUGULA, at that precise moment in time when America came of age culinarily -- when this nation amalgamated a discrete cuisine of its own, no longer looking to France for inspiration.

Kamp focuses on the many elements which combined to form what we have come to call American cooking. This ranges from the types of ingredients we now take for granted, such as sun-dried tomatoes and balsamic vinegar, through the concepts of regional and seasonal produce, and on to the foreign influences of Asia and Europe.

He explicates the theories of organic foodstuffs and sustainable farming and he pays tribute to those who gave life to these movements.

He also acknowledges the cookware stores which literally brought us the tools of fine cooking, such as Williams-Sonoma. He explains in detail about the gourmet shop Dean-&-DeLuca, which first showcased many imported ingredients we take for granted today, and prepared some of the first dishes those ingredients created: For example, pasta salad in balsamic vinaigrette with sun-dried tomatoes and basil -- and, of course, arugula.

Along the way, Kamp could not fail to pay attention to the brigade of writers who fed this new interest by bringing pertinent information into every kitchen, especially mentioning Julia Child, James Beard and Craig Claiborne.

Also included are the chefs and restaurateurs who originally popularized -- and often created -- these new trends, people who now are household names, such as Wolfgang Puck, Michael McCarthy, Thomas Keller, Alice Waters, Jeremiah Towers and Danny Meyers.

THE UNITED STATE OF ARUGULA is a must-read for anyone with interest in modern American gastronomy. And it's a fun walk down memory lane for anyone who participated in those first days of America's adventure in codifying the elements of fine dining.