All Consuming - by Ruby Tandoh (Hardcover)

Book Synopsis

A NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE BOOK
Food dominates our every waking minute: Hype restaurants. Allrecipes. The Great British Bake Off. In this dazzling cultural history, bestselling food writer Ruby Tandoh (author of Cook As You Are) traces how--and why--we've all become foodies.

"Ruby Tandoh is a genius and All Consuming is everything." --Bryan Washington, author of Family Meal

"A fascinating, sometimes shocking, eye-opener that is also brilliantly funny." --Claudia Roden

How, in the space of a few decades, has food gone from fact of life to national past time; something to be thought about--and talked about--24/7?
In this startlingly original, deeply irreverent cultural history, Ruby Tandoh traces that transformation, exposing how cult cookbooks, bad TV, visionary restaurants, and new social media have all wildly overhauled our appetites. All Consuming explores:
-The rise of the TikTok food critic
-What makes a hype restaurant go viral
-Bubble tea's world domination
-The dream of the modern dinner party
-The limits of the cookbook
-The history of the supermarket
-Wellness drinks--and where they come from
-The rise and fall of the automat

Our tastes have been radically refashioned, painstakingly engineered in the depths of food factories, and hacked by craveable Instagram recipes. They've been pulled into supermarket aisles and seduced by Michelin stars, transfixed by Top Chefs and shaped by fads. A deep dive into the social, economic, cultural, legislative, and demographic forces that have reshaped our relationship with food, All Consuming questions how our tastes have been shaped--and how much they are, in fact, our own.

Review Quotes

"All Consuming is extraordinary. In masterful prose, Tandoh shows us who we are, where we've been, and where we're going through what we eat--and also what we say we're eating, and what we'd like to eat, and what we refuse to eat, alongside everything in between. But All Consuming is just that--all of it--in the expansiveness of Tandoh's vision, through the humor and knowingness of her craft. Ruby Tandoh is a genius and All Consuming is everything." --BRYAN WASHINGTON, author of Family Meal

"Ruby Tandoh's sharp, insightful investigation into our evolving mass food cultures--the influences and drivers, weird excesses and absurdities--is a fascinating, sometimes shocking, eye-opener that is also brilliantly funny." --CLAUDIA RODEN, author of Claudia Roden's Mediterranean

"I loved this book. Witty and profound, informative and original, no one could write with more insight than Ruby on the question of our appetites, and what it is that we are really searching for when we google what to make for dinner." --BEE WILSON, author of Consider the Fork

"Ruby Tandoh is a charming, knowledgeable tour guide through the culinary traditions so deeply embedded in our culture that most of us hardly bother to think about them. Her voice is lively and her research thorough, calling to mind that one extra cool history teacher we all wanted to impress." --RAX KING, author of Sloppy

"A brilliant and engrossing investigation of what really shapes our desires when it comes to food. By following the shifting currents of restaurant criticism, the explosive rise of bubble tea, and the 'delusion economy' of wellness drinks, Ruby Tandoh offers a sharp riposte to culinary romanticism." --FUCHSIA DUNLOP, author of Invitation to a Banquet

About the Author

RUBY TANDOH is an author and journalist who has written for The New Yorker, The Guardian, Vittles, and Elle. A finalist on The Great British Bake Off in 2013, she has also written Eat Up!, a book about the pleasure of eating, as well as three cookery books, Crumb, Flavour, and Cook As You Are.