Notes from April's Not Fiction Book Discussion

In his preface to The United States of Arugula, David Kamp says, "This is a book about how we got to this point--how food in America got better, and how it hopped the fence from the ghettos of home economics and snobby gourmandism to the expansive realm of popular culture." Our discussion of his book on April 1 focused largely on whether he accomplished this goal for us as readers. We decided that perhaps his background as a writer of short profile pieces for Vanity Fair and GQ influenced his style and content--a tendency toward name-dropping and sharing gossipy bits about the personal lives of the many chefs he names. We agreed that we had expected more of a social and cultural history of the ordinary eaters who had participated in this food revolution, although we understand after reading his book that television programs, restaurant reviews, and cook books by celebrity chefs certainly ignited the revolution. Our favorite chapters were "Righteous and Crunchy" and "The New Sun-Dried Lifestyle"--both move beyond a mere timeline of events into a more in-depth presentation of the characters and trends they present, and the trends involved the world outside the walls of a five-star restaurant.

Kamp's book did spark a fun discussion of our own childhood memories of food and the transformations described in the book that have been most relevant in our lifetime. For example, one of our group was planning a dinner of penne with arugula, roma tomatoes, pine nuts, extra virgin olive oil, and parmigiano reggiano . . . a dish her mother certainly never made for the family back in the 1960s! And as soon as I finish this post, I will head out for a latte break . . .

Kamp's book will provide an interesting comparison for our next book, Michael Pollan's The Omnivore's Dilemma. While Kamp is unreservedly optimistic about our culture's current abundance of ingredients and culinary sophistication, Pollan points out the many dilemmas involved in that plastic box of arugula from California, those tomatoes in early April . . .

We hope you will join our conversation!