The Gastronomica Reader

Described on Saveur's Top 100 List as "At the top of our bedside reading pile since its inception in 2001," the award-winning Gastronomica: The Journal of Food and Culture is a quarterly feast of truly exceptional writing on food. Designed both to entertain and provoke, The Gastronomica Reader now offers a sumptuous sampling from the journal's pages-including essays, poetry, interviews, memoirs, and an outstanding selection of the artwork that has made Gastronomica so distinctive. In words and images, it takes us around the globe, through time, and into a dazzling array of cultures, investigating topics from early hominid cooking to Third Reich caterers to the Shiite clergy under Ayatollah Khomeini who deemed Iranian caviar fit for consumption under Islamic law. From an incisive look at Christian diet movements to an analysis of cooking shows as pornography, these challenging, engaging offerings are often unexpected. Informed throughout by a keen sense of the pleasures of eating, tasting, and sharing food, The Gastronomica Reader will inspire readers to think seriously, widely, and deeply about what goes onto their plates.

Gastronomica is a winner of the Utne Reader's Independent Press Award for Social/Cultural coverage