Best Food Literature of the Decade

[Richard Kilgore]

During the first decade of this century there has been a wide variety of books, journals and magazines devoted to food literature. Not cook books as such. While these publications may have recipes, they are predominately food lit: history, essays, autobiography and biography, and other non-fiction, as well as fiction.

What are your top 10 of the decade?

[Dakki]

1- Consider the Lobster by David Foster Wallace.

Number 2 should be A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again by the same, but I'm not sure it qualifies as food literature per se. There's a good bit about food in it, anyway.

Not nominating anything else since I haven't read any food-related stuff nearly as good in the past 10 years.

[plum tart]

My Life in France - Julia Child

Letters to a Young Chef - Daniel Boulud

A Meal Observed - Andrew Toddhunter

Tender at the Bone nd its 2 sequels- Ruth Reichl

Monsoon Diary - Shoba Narayan

Feeding a Yen - Calvin Trillin

Mouth Wide Open - John Thorne

Risotto with Nettles - Anna del Conte

Raw...Anthony Bourdain

Animal, Mineral, Vegetable - Barbara Kingsolver

This was a hard list to write and there are several more titles that I would have liked to include. This is a highly personal list. I collect fook writing and like it to evoke the pleasures of life and of eating. I like it to be well written and humorous, opinionated and personal and not too academic. I like it to transport me and deepen my understanding of food and its preparation in other cultures as well as my own. I like it to make me hungry and eager to cook.

[Darienne]

The Fruit Hunters: A Story of Nature, Adventure, Commerce, and Obsession. Adam Leith Gollner

Candy Freak: A Journey Through the Chocolate Underbelly of America. Steve Almond.

Two fascinating books from the decade.

The title, Candy Freak, is one that the publishers must have picked because it is purely sensational and does not reflect on the nature of the book at all. I would recommend this one for a good read. It's the engaging history of the many little regional and family candy manufacturers of the USA and how they have just about all disappeared in the face of the marketing practices of the current biggies. It sent me on a hunt in Moab for all the regional type candies I could find which still are out there.

[Alex]

I second Candyfreak and David Foster Wallace. If I could stretch the definition just a bit, along with the decade (to 2000; and let's not debate right here when the century actually started), I'd add Hot Sour Salty Sweet, by Jeffrey Alford and Naomi Duguid.

[pkeibel]

Salt by Mark Kurlansky and Oyster and Cod

[Pierogi]

"The Apprentice" by Jacques Pepin, a great look at what formed his career and life, and also at the traditional French brigade system of training chefs.

I'd 2nd the reccomendation for Julia's "My Life In France" and Reichl's "Tender At The Bone" although not so much "Comfort Me With Apples". That one didn't sing to me as much as "Tender At The Bone" did.

[nickrey]

"Delizia! The epic history of the Italians and their food" by John Dickie.

"Curry: A Tale of Cooks and Conquerors" by Lizzie Collingham.

"Heat" by Bill Buford.

[nickrey]

Although I'm still reading it, I'd also add:

"Cheese Slices" by Will Studd.

He did a television program of the same name but the book is not just a tie in but instead a completely different approach to the subject.

[Foodietopo]

I just read Une gourmandise by Muriel Barbery. I read the book in French, but the book was translated. The English title is Gourmet Rhapsody.

It　is a very short novel about the death of a famous food critic and the writer take us through a journey of food and memories.

Great novel about food.