Customer Reviews

The Man Who Ate Everything

5 star:		(35)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Steingarten combines passion, curiosity, erudition, and his lovely wry writing to make a great food book. His scholarly digging and his willingness to use the scientific method to test things is remarkable (his chapter on water, for example). He also finds some real food curiosities such as the Thompson Turkey.

Anyone who relishes seeing an active, far ranging mind at work will love this book. Great gift book. Easy to read a chapter at a time.

I picked up this book on a whim, because I recognized Jeffrey Steingarten from Iron Chef on Food Network, and I loved it. Funny, insightful, and incredibly human, this book taught me a lot about food (from french fries to diet cookbooks, from ice cream to choucroute, which I had never heard of before), and was a delightful read. Read my full review at [...].

This is the perfect book to have when at a traffic jam, doctor's office or any of the hundreds of daily jams we find ourselves caught. I found myself laughing out loud several times at many of these admittedly wacky but witty tales.

The subject matter was in itself a winner - he touches on everything from non-fat fat to fruit ripening to when to buy certain products. And this is the best feature of the book - it is not only entertaining but also informative...the best of both worlds. He does not have the poignancy of a M.F.K. Fisher or the razor claws of the reviewer Simon Britchky or the down-to-earth charm of a Nika Hazelton but in his own way, he is just as good.

and I would NEVER send anyone fan mail.

I'm afraid that my review of this book will be a complete cliche - ie. I couldn't put it down, I didn't want it to end, I laughed, I cried, I gained 10 pounds etc.

I found Steingarten to be insightful, hilarious, sarcastic and delightfully neurotic. I now realize the joy I missed over the years by not being an avid Vogue reader. I can't believe it took this long for my first exposure to such exquisite food writing.

I CAN'T BELIEVE NO ONE TOLD ME TO READ THIS BOOK UNTIL NOW!

As a (relatively) young person, who has recently discovered the joys of "that which is edible" - I found this book to be as informative as it was entertaining. Many of the topics that Steingarten explores were more relevant to my own culinary exploits and interests than I could have hoped. Despite the fact that I do not have the same resources and colleagues that would allow one to travel as far and wide as I'd like(and as he does), Steingarten manages to truly take the reader with him as he travels, while simultaneously making it possible for the young (or older) homebound gastronome to relate.

I will forevermore approach the subject of food as influenced by Jeffrey Steingarten. I will cook every recipe in his book. I will travel to eat. And most of all, I will overcome my food aversions (especially if stranded on a desert island and everything I would normally eat has run out).

Although I LOVED this book - I had trouble reading it without a break - since these are drawn from his monthly writing, it IS a big dose of food writing, but I took a night off and finished it with no problem.

Hope y'all like it!

I read this book in no time at all. I have found myself picking it up again and again to read the odd chapter. His recipes are superb and the writing is fantastic. His comments about everything from fruitcake to spit roasting are so funny I found myself falling out of my chair laughing. I would recommend this book to anyone regardless of your interest in food. He pulls you into the world of gastronomy like whirlwind until you find yourself intensely interested in everything gastronomic.

Jeffrey Steingarten is simply the funniest nonfiction writer at work today. His wit, thanks to his self-deprecation, is never cruel. And his service to the world, should just one reader cast off the burdens of food phobias or psychosomatic food allergies, is enormous. Buy a bar of good dark chocolate or cut yourself some smelly raw milk cheese, sit back, and enjoy.

Despite the Oliver Sacks-like title, this is a culinary florilegium by the food critic of Vogue and Slate. I quote the New York Time Book Review, bowing to its laconic accuracy: "Part cookbook, part travelogue, part medical and scientific treatise." Steingarten is tireless in poring over the scientific research on nutrition and cooking, and clearly loves his subject as much as he loves to try the same recipe a dozen times, hunting for perfection. He praises the greatest cooking and the finest simple pleasures (McDonald's, barbecue), investigates everything from ketchup to salt to Kobe beef, and argues for common-sense nutrition. He kicks against the Food Police: salt doesn't raise blood pressure, sugar isn't that bad for you, alcohol is good for you once a day, etc. (His essay "Salad, the Silent Killer," even if it doesn't burst the bubbles of the Food Police, serves as wicked parody of obsessive toxin-phobia and fault-finding.) To top it all off, Steingarten writes very well and is at times wickedly funny. A great food read.

At the beginning of the book I read that he didn't like blue cheese. I told my family that I was disgusted. After reading a whole chapter, I had stuffed those words back down my throat and almost choked on them! Jeffrey Steingarten is my hero. Ok, he hasn't converted me to ketchup, but he sure got really close.
If you love, or even just like food, you will keep this book by your bed like the bible! Steingarten drags you along on his trips and adventures, from his fervent defense of fats to his dreams of Olestra, from a chapter on Venice to a chapter on sustenance (don't ask me how that works)! Within a few days you will succeed in alienating your whole family with your constant talk of food. That is until you make them read it too!
This book is a MUST!!!!!! read, so please do me the honor of reading it!

This is the funniest food-book I've ever read! I laugh out loud while reading it, and my husband always wants to know "what's so funny"?

Although he must be partly an epicurean hedonist, Mr. Steingarten has a very technical and, well, weird way about analyzing food. When he was nominated food editor of Vogue, instead of starting to plan wonderful exotic food trips, his first worry was - how was he going to force himself to taste things he doesn't like?

He also hits on many truths - such as "the french paradoxe" - and wonderfully bashes the current American fat phobia.

He often takes a very technical approach - the lesson on fruit ripening really opened my eyes. Ever wonder why avocados don't turn brown if you leave the stone in; read this.

He only disappoints me with his enthusiasm for Olestra. From someone who is so on target in criticizing trashy, artificial American junk food, "Butter Busters" and the like, this is a big let-down.

Read "The Zone" by Barry Sears, and 99% of Mr. Steingarten's observations (about olive oil, fats, carbohydrates, vegetarianism, etc...)will hit home.

This is a wonderfully creative and fabulous book. Jeffrey Steingarten infuses his writing with contagious passion. He approaches each subject with such verve and from a perspective only he could invent. It's a great read for anyone who has a sense of humor or loves food!