Know That What You Eat You Are: The Best Food Writing from ‘Harper’s’ Magazine

Editors Rosenbush (a former Harper’s editor) and Melucci (Harper’s v-p of public relations and author of I Loved, I Lost, I Made Spaghetti) deliver a solid compilation of food writing from the archives of Harper’s magazine. The editors have included pieces by M.F.K. Fisher, Michael Pollan, Upton Sinclair, and David Foster Wallace, who graze over topics such as the politics of food and food fashions and fads. In a hilarious reflection on the excesses of fashionable New York restaurants such as Per Se and Eleven Madison Park, Tanya Gold points out that the food served at these restaurants is “tortured and contorted beyond what is reasonable.” In a 1937 essay, Fisher ponders the “social status of vegetables” as she reflects on the cultural associations between certain foods—in this case, cabbage—and class. Writing in the early ’80s, Alexander Theroux discusses candy, while Susan Dooley mentions Jackie Kennedy’s recipe for seafood-and-potato-chip casserole in an essay from 1982. Tony Hiss explores the advent of the use of bovine growth hormones and the subsequent decline of dairy farming in Vermont, while Pollan celebrates the rich fertility of compost. Wendell Berry bemoans our loss of connection to the food we eat and its origins, remarking that “eating is an agricultural act.” He suggests that learning where our food comes from or participating in food production as much as possible are ways that we can reconnect to the origins of our food. This collection offers a pleasantly surprising assortment of food writing. (Nov.)