Consider the Fork: A History of How We Cook and Eat

An interesting book, but not that well written. The author has some very annoying tendencies in her writing that just ended up grating on my nerves by the end.

For one, she latches on to something she doesn't like an harps on it far longer than she should. For example, the tendency in the United States for us to measure dry ingredients in cups instead of weight clearly annoyed her and she let us know it; She just needs to get over it, that a slight improvement in accuracy does not make up for the convenience of “scooping” over weighing.


Another annoying tendency she has is to make statements about how until a very recent date, every invention of a specific type was just crap, until this widget came along, when in fact the “new invention” isn't new, just modified. For example, on the she states that there were no good ways to peel vegetables (for the home cook) before the 1990's, and that the ones that were invented in the early 20th century worked well enough (the traditional swivel and rex models) but would hurt your hands and give you blisters if you had to use them for very long. The answer to this was just the “OXO Good Grip” version that had a chunky plastic handle. I've used a vegetable peeler since I was a child in the 70's and never hurt my hand with one. That said, the OXO one is an improvement, and evolution to consider ergonomics in the design, but to claim that it has revolutionized the peeling of vegetables for the general public is not only inaccurate, but detracts from the book as a whole.

Overall, the subject matter was interesting, but I wish the writing was more polished.