Richard Pillsbury - Böcker

No Foreign Food explores the evolution and transformation of the American diet from colonial times to the present. How and why did our bland colonial diet evolve into today's restless mnge of exotic foods? Why are Hoppin' Jon, lutefisk, and scrapple, once so important, seldom eaten today? How has the restaurant shaped our daily menus? These and hun

“Reading Richard Pillsbury’s remarkable No Foreign Food, like the grand opening of a new restaurant in one’s neighborhood, is an exciting and pleasurable event. He engagingly chronicles the amazing diversity of America’s food ways that are so central to our history and culture, but he also tells us why our eating habits are much more than mere gastronomic experiences.” Karl Raitz UNIVERSITY OF KENTUCKY “No Foreign Food is the only serious up-to-date treatment of American food habits that I know—a subject unaccountably neglected by most students of the American scene. In Pillsbury’s skillful hands, American food habits become more than just a set of cranky likes and dislikes, but instead a mirror to America’s larger culture. … It is an indispensable book for any serious student of the American scene.” Pierce Lewis PENNSYLVANIA STATE UNIVERSITY No Foreign Food explores the evolution and transformation of the American diet from colonial times to the present. How and why did our bland colonial diet evolve into today’s restless melange of exotic foods? Why are Hoppin’ John, lutefisk, and scrapple, once so important, seldom eaten today? How has the restaurant shaped our daily menus? These and hundreds of other questions are addressed in this examination of the changing American diet.

The quest for food to fill the body, and food to seduce the soul, has provided a catalyst for the exploding variety of restaurants in the United States. Mapping out the development of the great American restaurant, the author takes us on a nostalgic journey in From Boarding House to Bistro (originally published in 1990) through the history of a nation’s eating houses.From the earliest taverns and inns to the fast-food chains of 1990s, the restaurant mirrored a changing way of life. Increasingly Americans chose to eat away from home, in a variety of downtown establishments, or in the burgeoning sprawl of suburban eateries. Richard Pillsbury traces this evolution, emphasizing how the restaurant’s form, its fare, and its location reflect the country’s diverse economy and social life.Abundantly illustrated, and with entertaining vignettes on individual eating places, this fascinating account is accessible to all readers. The unique product of extensive travel across the continent, this book gives new insight into the restaurant as an institution and will especially appeal to those interested in the social and behavioral sciences, urban planners, marketing specialists, and others working with the changing American urban scene.