Social history of the 1950s and 1960s with 100 memorable recipes of the time.

Fine dining and the accolades of Michelin stars once meant chandeliers, white tablecloths, and suited waiters with elegant accents. The stuffy attitude and often scant portions were the punchlines of sitcom jokes—it was unthinkable that a gourmet chef would stoop to plate a burger or a taco in his kitchen. And yet today many of us will queue up for a seat at a loud, crowded noodle bar or eagerly seek out that farm-to-table restaurant where not only the burgers and fries are organic but the ketchup is homemade—but it’s not just us: the critics will be there too, ready to award distinction. Haute has blurred with homey cuisine in the last few decades, but how did this radical change happen, and what does it say about current attitudes toward taste? Here with the answers is food writer Alison Pearlman. In Smart Casual:The Transformation of Gourmet Restaurant Style in America, Pearlman investigates what she identifies as the increasing informality in the design of contemporary American restaurants. By design, Pearlman does not just mean architecture. Her argument is more expansive—she is as interested in the style and presentation of food, the business plan, and the marketing of chefs as she is in the restaurant’s floor plan or menu design. Pearlman takes us hungrily inside the kitchens and dining rooms of restaurants coast to coast—from David Chang’s Momofuku noodle bar in New York to the seasonal, French-inspired cuisine of Alice Waters and Thomas Keller in California to the deconstructed comfort food of Homaro Cantu’s Moto in Chicago—to explore the different forms and flavors this casualization is taking. Smart Casual examines the assumed correlation between taste and social status, and argues that recent upsets to these distinctions have given rise to a new idea of sophistication, one that champions the omnivorous. The boundaries between high and low have been made flexible due to our desire to eat everything, try everything, and do so in a convivial setting. Through lively on-the-scene observation and interviews with major players and chefs, Smart Casual will transport readers to restaurants around the country to learn the secrets to their success and popularity. It is certain to give foodies and restaurant-goers something delectable to chew on.

All the incredients that make THE FRUGAL GOURMET one of the most popular cooking shows on television are in this bestselling cookbook, including: a complete range of cooking techniques, advice on kitchen equipment, special hints and tips, exciting ideas for vegetarian meals, PLUS more than100 illustrations of recipes and techniques. "From the Paperback edition."

Attempting to define and promote American ethnic cooking, the Frugal Gourmet introduces home cooks to "strictly American" ingredients and selected recipes from American regional cuisines

Shoshaman takes us inside Japan's integrated trading companies to explore the daily lives of the shoshamen, the high-powered pro-fessionals who make them work.

Gourmet Gringo introduces Gringo-Mex, traditional Mexican cooking for the American kitchen. Gourmet Gringo runs a wide gamut: fast-food favorites, tempting appetizers, festive dips and salads, one-dish meals and dinner casseroles, spicy entrees, and some thoroughly gringoized foods, as well as the trendy and sweet innovations. Includes generous insider information on Mexico including culture, fiestas, foods, and more.

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.

"The perfect book for every cookie-loving American" (Dorie Greenspan, author of "Baking with Julia"), this exciting and definitive collection of the nation's best cookies covers every cookie imaginable--from Key Lime Frosties to Pennsylvania Dutch Soft Sugar Cookies. Full color.

Nutrition/cook book

Describes the lives of six Americans who wrote extensively about food and wine as they traveled, explored, immersed themselves in culture, and struggled with their writing careers in France between 1945 and 1974.