Why We Eat What We Eat: How Columbus Changed the Way the World Eats [Paperback]

Raymond Sokolov (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 5, 1993

of the Americas set in motion a transformation of food cultures around the world, this look at the five-hundred-year revolution in food history explains how Europeans, Americans, and Asians came to eat what they eat today.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Sokolov ( The Jewish American Kitchen ) has scoured published sources and ventured as a dedicated "gastroethnographic reporter" throughout the "Hispanic diaspora" of the New World to chronicle the collision of ingredients and culinary traditions resulting from Columbus's voyages. Readers who have never considered whether or how the various cuisines of the New World relate to one another--or who have never thought much about the progress of the chili pepper through Africa, Europe and Asia--will be moved to view regional food traditions quite differently. The author doesn't miss an opportunity to submit revisionist insights: that Puerto Rico offers "the most complex tangle of culinary influence and geography in the world" (he chides New Yorkers for neglecting it); or that Philippine dishes somewhat resembling Spanish paella are actually native, rather than evidence of Spain's mercantile empire. Sokolov, a hands-on researcher, is also an anecdotalist of warmth, skill and appetite who knows how to wind through the complexities of culinary history.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

This delightful discourse by a well-known food writer shows how the world's culinary traditions were radically transformed after 1492. Columbus's introduction of New World foodstuffs to the Old World and vice versa led to the establishment of national or ethnic cuisines. Sokolov discusses in some detail the evolution of these New and Old World cuisines--Mexican, Philippine, French, and Chinese, to name a few--and describes the ingredients responsible for reshaping the cooking of these countries. He explains how America's traditional cuisine is the result of many separate collusions between immigrant groups applying what they knew from the old country to what they found in the new. And, finally, Sokolov explores the world of nouvelle cuisine, illustrating how it subtly combines exotic ingredients from the East and the West. This thoroughly researched, thoughtfully presented history should be purchased by all libraries with active food/cooking collections. Previewed in "Rediscovering Columbus," p. 120-122, LJ 8/91.
- Linda Chopra, Cleveland Heights-University Heights P.L., Ohio
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 240 pages
• Publisher: Touchstone (April 5, 1993)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0671797913
• ISBN-13: 978-0671797911
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 5.5 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #629,944 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Cuisine for the Mind, September 22, 2003

By 

Avid Reader (Franklin, Tn) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Why We Eat What We Eat: How the Encounter Between the New World and the Old Changed the Way Everyone on the Planet Eats (Hardcover)

One cannot help but be impressed by the prodigious research that preceeded this book. As in his other works, the author travels at a steady pace, casually informing and experiencing and reporting as he goes.

The premise offered here is quite revolutionary: Namely, that it was Spain, through its colonization in the New World and particularly Mexico, initiated a culinary melting pot that has been bubbling ever faster since Columbus's voyages. At first, the idea sounds preposterous but the evidence is overwhelming. He shows that many "African" foods were orginially New World foods, that the chili we associate with Thai, Indian and Korean cooking had its origins in colonial Mexico. The latter also provided chocolate, corn, the tomato, various fruits and another colony (Peru) gave us the potato.

He goes on to demonstrate that French, Italian, Spanish, German and the other national European cuisines are rather recent inventions. The tomato plays an exceptionally large role in the world of food and this despite the tirades and "scientific" arguments against it well into the 19th century. Spanish food affected South America which affected Africa. Some foods, paprika for example, traveled a circuitous route - from Brazil to Iran to the Arab lands to Europe. Thus, the underbelly of Europe - Hungary, Slovenia, Croatia - to this day use the stuff in huge amounts.

Final chapters covered "American" food, what the term really meant and what our future portends. Especially endearing were the tales of lonely innovators, scientists, industrialists and plain folk who - through sheer ingenuity and curiousity - added to the pleasure of mankind.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Much food for thought, January 16, 2001

By 

Mark R. Chartrand "Electivore" (Baltimore, MD USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Why We Eat What We Eat: How the Encounter Between the New World and the Old Changed the Way Everyone on the Planet Eats (Hardcover)

It is a shame that this book has been let go out of print. Someone ought to get to Penguin or Dover and ask them to bring it back to availability. The text is fascinating, and, rather like good science fiction, makes you stop and rethink your assumptions about "the way things are." Our assumptions that the food on today's tables and menus has always been much the same are fascinatingly wrong. The authors treats several places in both the "new" and "old" worlds as to the effect of ingredients imported after 1492, and then looks in more detail at several of the seminal products, such as corn and potatoes. Particularly if you like "ethnic" cuisine, you will never look at a recipe or menu in the same way again.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars very readable, entertaining and authoritative, January 12, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Why We Eat What We Eat: How the Encounter Between the New World and the Old Changed the Way Everyone on the Planet Eats (Hardcover)

This is a very readable and entertaining history of the revolution in cuisine with the introduction
of foods from the New World. It includes some marginal political history necessary to
understand the subject, but is filled with interesting anecdotes. Highly recommended for anyone interested in the evolution of cuisine or just a good read.