Cooked
A Natural History of Transformation
(Sprache: Englisch)
In Cooked, Michael Pollan explores the previously uncharted territory of his own kitchen. Here, he discovers the enduring power of the four classical elements - fire, water, air, and earth - to transform the stuff of nature into delicious things to eat and drink.
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In Cooked, Michael Pollan explores the previously uncharted territory of his own kitchen. Here, he discovers the enduring power of the four classical elements - fire, water, air, and earth - to transform the stuff of nature into delicious things to eat and drink.
Klappentext zu „Cooked “
Michael Pollan, the bestselling author of The Omnivore's Dilemma, Food Rules, and How to Change Your Mind, explores the previously uncharted territory of his own kitchen in Cooked. Cooked is now a Netflix docuseries based on the book that focuses on the four kinds of "transformations" that occur in cooking. Directed by Oscar-winning filmmaker Alex Gibney and starring Michael Pollan, Cooked teases out the links between science, culture and the flavors we love.
In Cooked, Pollan discovers the enduring power of the four classical elements-fire, water, air, and earth-to transform the stuff of nature into delicious things to eat and drink. Apprenticing himself to a succession of culinary masters, Pollan learns how to grill with fire, cook with liquid, bake bread, and ferment everything from cheese to beer.
Each section of Cooked tracks Pollan's effort to master a single classic recipe using one of the four elements. A North Carolina barbecue pit master tutors him in the primal magic of fire; a Chez Panisse-trained cook schools him in the art of braising; a celebrated baker teaches him how air transforms grain and water into a fragrant loaf of bread; and finally, several mad-genius "fermentos" (a tribe that includes brewers, cheese makers, and all kinds of picklers) reveal how fungi and bacteria can perform the most amazing alchemies of all. The reader learns alongside Pollan, but the lessons move beyond the practical to become an investigation of how cooking involves us in a web of social and ecological relationships. Cooking, above all, connects us.
The effects of not cooking are similarly far reaching. Relying upon corporations to process our food means we consume large quantities of fat, sugar, and salt; disrupt an essential link to the natural world; and weaken our relationships with family and friends. In fact, Cooked argues, taking back control of cooking may be the single most important step anyone can take to help make the American food system
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healthier and more sustainable. Reclaiming cooking as an act of enjoyment and self-reliance, learning to perform the magic of these everyday transformations, opens the door to a more nourishing life.
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INTRODUCTIONWHY COOK?
I.
At a certain point in the late middle of my life I made the unexpected but happy discovery that the answer to several of the questions that most occupied me was in fact one and the same.
Cook.
Some of these questions were personal. For example, what was the single most important thing we could do as a family to improve our health and general well-being? And then what would be a good way to better connect to my teenage son? (As it turned out, this involved not only ordinary cooking but also the specialized form of it known as brewing.) Other questions were slightly more political in nature. For years I had been trying to determine (because I am often asked) what is the most important thing an ordinary person can do to help reform the American food system, to make it healthier and more sustainable? Another related question is, how can people living in a highly specialized consumer economy reduce their sense of dependence and achieve a greater degree of self-sufficiency? And then there were the more philosophical questions, the ones I ve been chewing on since I first started writing books. How, in our everyday lives, can we acquire a deeper understanding of the natural world and our species peculiar role in it? You can always go to the woods to confront such questions, but I discovered that even more interesting answers could be had simply by going to the kitchen.
I would not, as I said, ever have expected it. Cooking has always been a part of my life, but more like the furniture than an object of scrutiny, much less a passion. I counted myself lucky to have a parent my mother who loved to cook and almost every night made us a delicious meal. By the time I had a place of my own, I could find my way around a kitchen well enough, the result of nothing more purposeful than all those hours spent hanging around the kitchen while my mother fixed dinner. And though once I had my own place I cooked
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whenever I had the time, I seldom made time for cooking or gave it much consideration. My kitchen skills, such as they were, were pretty much frozen in place by the time I turned thirty. Truth be told, my most successful dishes leaned heavily on the cooking of others, as when I drizzled my incredible sage-butter sauce over store-bought ravioli. Every now and then I d look at a cookbook or clip a recipe from the newspaper to add a new dish to my tiny repertoire, or I d buy a new kitchen gadget, though most of these eventually ended up in a closet.
In retrospect, the mildness of my interest in cooking surprises me, since my interest in every other link of the food chain had been so keen. I ve been a gardener since I was eight, growing mostly vegetables, and I ve always enjoyed being on farms and writing about agriculture. I ve also written a fair amount about the opposite end of the food chain the eating end, I mean, and the implications of our eating for our health. But to the middle links of the food chain, where the stuff of nature gets transformed into the things we eat and drink, I hadn t really given much thought.
Until, that is, I began trying to unpack a curious paradox I had noticed while watching television, which was simply this: How is it that at the precise historical moment when Americans were abandoning the kitchen, handing over the preparation of most of our meals to the food industry, we began spending so much of our time thinking about food and watching other people cook it on television? The less cooking we were doing in our own lives, it seemed, the more that food and its vicarious preparation fascinated us.
Our culture seems to be of at least two minds on this subject. Survey research confirms we re cooking less and buying more prepared meals every year. The amount of time spent preparing meals in American households has fallen b
In retrospect, the mildness of my interest in cooking surprises me, since my interest in every other link of the food chain had been so keen. I ve been a gardener since I was eight, growing mostly vegetables, and I ve always enjoyed being on farms and writing about agriculture. I ve also written a fair amount about the opposite end of the food chain the eating end, I mean, and the implications of our eating for our health. But to the middle links of the food chain, where the stuff of nature gets transformed into the things we eat and drink, I hadn t really given much thought.
Until, that is, I began trying to unpack a curious paradox I had noticed while watching television, which was simply this: How is it that at the precise historical moment when Americans were abandoning the kitchen, handing over the preparation of most of our meals to the food industry, we began spending so much of our time thinking about food and watching other people cook it on television? The less cooking we were doing in our own lives, it seemed, the more that food and its vicarious preparation fascinated us.
Our culture seems to be of at least two minds on this subject. Survey research confirms we re cooking less and buying more prepared meals every year. The amount of time spent preparing meals in American households has fallen b
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Autoren-Porträt von Michael Pollan
Michael Pollan is the author of seven previous books, including Cooked, Food Rules, In Defense of Food, The Omnivore's Dilemma and The Botany of Desire, all of which were New York Times bestsellers. He's also the author of the audiobook Caffeine: How Caffeine Created the Modern World. A longtime contributor to the New York Times Magazine, he also teaches writing at Harvard and the University of California, Berkeley. In 2010, TIME magazine named him one of the one hundred most influential people in the world.
Bibliographische Angaben
- Autor: Michael Pollan
- 2014, 480 Seiten, Maße: 14,1 x 21,3 cm, Kartoniert (TB), Englisch
- Verlag: Penguin US
- ISBN-10: 0143125338
- ISBN-13: 9780143125334
- Erscheinungsdatum: 08.04.2014
Sprache:
Englisch
Pressezitat
[A] rare, ranging breed of narrative that manages to do all . . . It s nothing short of important, possibly life-altering, reading for every living, breathing human being . . . In Pollan s dexterous hands, we get the science, the history, the inspiration, ultimately the recipe. What feels like all of it. It doesn t hurt that he also happens to be very funny. Boston Globe"Because of the power of his prose and his reasoning, Cooked may prove to be just as influential as Pollan s seminal book, The Omnivore s Dilemma . . . The results are fascinating, but the magic of Cooked lies not in its ability to unlock the secrets of slow-roasting a whole hog or brewing beer . . . No, what Pollan pulls off is even more impressive: He manages to illuminate the wealth of connections that stem from our DIY time in the kitchen. The Washington Post
"As in The Omnivore s Dilemma, Pollan is never less than delightful, full of curiosity, insight, and good humor. This is a book to be read, savored, and smudged with spatterings of olive oil, wine, butter, and the sulfuric streaks of chopped onion." Outside
The book's surplus of fascinating tidbits about everything from barbecue (which Pollan connects to ritual animal sacrifice) to the mysterious workings of bread yeast makes it a feast for intellectual omnivores. Entertainment Weekly
Through cooking, Pollan argues, we clear a space, allowing ourselves not only to consider our sometimes troubled bond with nature but to reestablish our ties to one another, and to become makers instead of consumers. Cooked is a potently seductive invitation to discover or rediscover our most primal connection to the natural world. Bookforum
"Spurred by a number of objectives improving his family s general health, connecting with his teenage son, and learning how people can reduce their dependence on corporations, among others Pollan (The Omnivore s Dilemma; In Defense of
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Food) came to the realization that he d be able to accomplish all those goals and more if he spent more time in his kitchen. He began cooking. Divided into four chapters based on the four elements, Pollan eloquently explains how grilling with fire, braising (water), baking bread (air), and fermented foods (earth) have impacted our health and culture. . . . Engaging and enlightening reading." Publishers Weekly (starred review)
New York Times best-selling author Pollan (The Botany of Desire; The Omnivore s Dilemma) delivers a thoughtful meditation on cooking that is both difficult to categorize and uniquely, inimitably his . . . Intensely focused yet wide ranging, beautifully written, thought provoking, and, yes, fun, Pollan s latest is not to be missed by those interested in how, why, or what we cook and eat." Library Journal (starred review)
"Having described what's wrong with American food in his best-selling The Omnivore's Dilemma (2006), New York Times contributor Pollan delivers a more optimistic but equally fascinating account of how to do it right. . . . A delightful chronicle of the education of a cook who steps back frequently to extol the scientific and philosophical basis of this deeply satisfying human activity." Kirkus (starred review)
"Pollan s newest treatise on how food reaches the world s tables delves into the history of how humankind turns raw ingredients into palatable and nutritious food. To bring some sense of order to this vast subject, he resurrects classical categories of fire, water, air, and earth . . . Four recipes accompany the text, and an extensive bibliography offers much deeper exploration. Pollan s peerless reputation as one of America s most compelling expositors of food and human sustainability will boost demand." Booklist (starred review)
New York Times best-selling author Pollan (The Botany of Desire; The Omnivore s Dilemma) delivers a thoughtful meditation on cooking that is both difficult to categorize and uniquely, inimitably his . . . Intensely focused yet wide ranging, beautifully written, thought provoking, and, yes, fun, Pollan s latest is not to be missed by those interested in how, why, or what we cook and eat." Library Journal (starred review)
"Having described what's wrong with American food in his best-selling The Omnivore's Dilemma (2006), New York Times contributor Pollan delivers a more optimistic but equally fascinating account of how to do it right. . . . A delightful chronicle of the education of a cook who steps back frequently to extol the scientific and philosophical basis of this deeply satisfying human activity." Kirkus (starred review)
"Pollan s newest treatise on how food reaches the world s tables delves into the history of how humankind turns raw ingredients into palatable and nutritious food. To bring some sense of order to this vast subject, he resurrects classical categories of fire, water, air, and earth . . . Four recipes accompany the text, and an extensive bibliography offers much deeper exploration. Pollan s peerless reputation as one of America s most compelling expositors of food and human sustainability will boost demand." Booklist (starred review)
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