Ten Restaurants That Changed America
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4.5 • 6 Ratings
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- $19.99
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- $19.99
Publisher Description
Finalist for the IACP Cookbook Award
A Washington Post Notable Book of the Year
A Smithsonian Best Food Book of the Year
Longlisted for the Art of Eating Prize
Featuring a new chapter on ten restaurants changing America today, a “fascinating . . . sweep through centuries of food culture” (Washington Post).
Combining an historian’s rigor with a food enthusiast’s palate, Paul Freedman’s seminal and highly entertaining Ten Restaurants That Changed America reveals how the history of our restaurants reflects nothing less than the history of America itself. Whether charting the rise of our love affair with Chinese food through San Francisco’s fabled Mandarin; evoking the poignant nostalgia of Howard Johnson’s, the beloved roadside chain that foreshadowed the pandemic of McDonald’s; or chronicling the convivial lunchtime crowd at Schrafft’s, the first dining establishment to cater to women’s tastes, Freedman uses each restaurant to reveal a wider story of race and class, immigration and assimilation. “As much about the contradictions and contrasts in this country as it is about its places to eat” (The New Yorker), Ten Restaurants That Changed America is a “must-read” (Eater) that proves “essential for anyone who cares about where they go to dinner” (Wall Street Journal Magazine).
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Freedman (Food: The History of Taste), a history professor at Yale, highlights 10 restaurants that influenced a culture of eating. Some of the landmark eateries featured in this volume no longer exist but they still claim a cherished and notable spot in culinary history. The edifice of Delmonico's in New York graces the cover; it's given American palates a taste for fine dining since 1827. Freedman also prominently features Schrafft's, the East Coast institution that catered to "ladies who lunch" and served dainty, middle-class fare without the grease-laden platters enjoyed by working men. Freedman believes the Howard Johnson restaurants carved out a niche for the on-the-road, market which grew exponentially in the auto-crazed period of the 1920s. Freedman discusses Sylvia's, a Harlem restaurant that has welcomed a spectrum of eaters from locals to heads of state; he also supplies wonderful details of the Four Seasons, the Mandarin, and Chez Panisse in Berkeley; Antoine's in New Orleans; and Mamma Leone's and Le Pavillon in New York. Freedman's extensive knowledge and trusted palate give readers a definitive and approachable take on restaurant history in America.
