Consider the Fork
A History of How We Cook and Eat
by Bee Wilson
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Pub. Ed. $26.99
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Consider the Fork
Kitchen technology has become increasingly elaborate and eye-catching. Far from a new development, however, the modern kitchen is only the most recent iteration of an ancient lineage of food technology, as acclaimed food historian Bee Wilson reveals in Consider the Fork.
Many of our technologies for preparing food have remained strikingly consistent. The Greeks and Romans already had pestles and mortars. Knives predate the discovery of fire. Other tools emerged suddenly (like the microwave, whose secrets were unlocked during radar tests conducted during World War II) or in fits and starts (like the fork, which endured centuries of ridicule). Others, like andirons and dangle spits, have fallen by the wayside.
Wilson blends history, science, and anecdote as she traces myriad technologies. But, as she shows, cooks are a notoriously conservative bunch, and only adopt new tools with great reluctance (for example, the refrigerator was initially condemned as an unnatural technology that risked changing the fundamental “essence” of food).
Consider the Fork explores the astonishing ways in which the implements we use in the kitchen affect what we eat, how we eat, and how we relate to food.
Hardcover Book : 352 pages
Publisher: Basic Books Inc. ( September 11, 2012 )
Item #: 13-635620
ISBN: 9780465021765
Product Dimensions: 6.125 x 9.25 x 0.88inches
Product Weight: 19.0 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
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