A review by kristennd
The United States of Arugula: How We Became a Gourmet Nation by David Kamp

4.0

When reading the intro, I was afraid that this book was rehashing all the stuff that I already knew, but he did end up going into all sorts of new-to-me detail. Although it was still detail on familiar people/places/trends. There was only one name that I didn't recognize, and she was in Wisconsin. It was really clear that he writes for Vanity Fair, however. I didn't need all the asides about their sex lives. And most of the interviews seemed to involve provoking famous chefs and or food writers to take digs at other (still living) famous chefs and/or food writers. I've never read good things about Amanda Hesser from anyone anyway, but a lot of the rest seemed gratuitous. But when he's not dishing, he's pretty funny, and again, there's a lot of good detail as well as a very balanced look at the more recent foodie controversies.