Customer Reviews

Last Chance to Eat: The Fate of Taste in a Fast Food World

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

[Cross-posted to LibraryThing and LivingSocial]

The Julie/Julia Project recently rekindled my passion for cooking and since food was on my mind, I picked up this book. Part memoir, part history of food, and part manifesto against the industrialization of food, Mallet argues that in the interest of having mass produced food with no fat or bacteria in it, we've sacrificed flavour. 'We' mostly being North Americans, whom Mallet seems content to write off as ignorant germophobes.

Mallet takes on five food items that she argues have gone by the wayside over the last few decades: eggs, cheese/dairy, beef, good quality fruits and vegetables, and fish. She shares anecdotes from her family's past and her own childhood and discusses the current state of these foods. Since Mallet is a food writer, I was expecting better. The book often felt disjointed and inconsistent - Mallet would allude to a particular experience or some bit of food trivia that was tangentially related to the topic at hand and rather than develop these threads, she left them hanging. At times, she seemed to contradict herself.

I think what bothered me the most was Mallet's tone. Throughout the entire book, she is somewhat pretentious and haughty and cannot mask her disdain for North American food culture. She makes valid points but I would be more inclined to hear her out if the points came from a well-researched, balanced perspective rather than anecdotes and an air of superiority.

There were some positive aspects to this book; it was informative and motivated me to learn more about certain foods that I consume, particularly eggs. I think we do need to be more mindful of what we eat, how our food is being produced, and where it comes from. This, however, is not the book with which to begin that process. I'd recommend Barbara Kingsolver's Animal, Vegetable, Miracle instead ' informative without constantly talking down to her readers.

don't eat out or anywhere without this book .Last chance to eat is a guide to modern eating, controversial, funny and stuffed with the kind of information i wasn't quite sure i really wanted to know - until i read it.