The Edible City - by Christina Palassio & Alana Wilcox (Paperback)

About the Book

These essays form a saucy picture of how Toronto sustains itself, from growing basil on balconies to four-star restaurants.

Book Synopsis

If a city is its people, and its people are what they eat, then shouldn't food play a larger role in our dialogue about how and where we live? The food of a metropolis is essential to its character. Native plants, proximity to farmland, the locations of supermarkets, immigration, food-security concerns, how chefs are trained: how a city nourishes itself might say more than anything else about what kind of city it is.

With a cornucopia of essays on comestibles, The Edible City considers how one city eats. It includes dishes on peaches and poverty, on processing plants and public gardens, on rats and bees and bad restaurant service, on schnitzel and school lunches. There are incisive studies of food-safety policy, of feeding the poor, and of waste, and a happy tale about a hardy fig tree.

Together they form a saucy picture of how Toronto - and, by extension, every city - sustains itself, from growing basil on balconies to four-star restaurants. Dig into The Edible City and get the whole story, from field to fork.

Review Quotes

'The common theme here is connecting people through food. In the final essay, Wayne Roberts of the Toronto Food Policy Council suggests that this connection is really about empowerment, and empowering readers is exactly what The Edible City is sure to do.' - Quill and Quire

'The Edible City: Toronto's Food From Farm to Fork is an eclectic potluck, exploring the forces that have shaped such civic issues as the protection of urban farmland and support for urban agriculture initiatives. Through topics as varying as Hamutal Dotan's quest for 'ethical meat' and Stéphanie Verge's visit to the rooftop beehives at the Royal York Hotel, 41 essays by some of Toronto's foremost food writers contribute to the feast of opinions on why Canada's largest city has always had a visionary relationship with food.' - Canadian Geographic

'Part historical recollection, part rallying cry and part love letter to all things gustatory in our fair city, this compilation has an angle for every taste.' Taste T.O.