I liked the idea behind this book – take a deep dive into the history of food, identify some ingredients that were lost to time, and see if it is possible to find them again (and cook with them). Written by someone who loves eating, cooking, history, and is overall very curious – the book takes us to various places in search of ingredients and people who know more about them.
The author apparently has a lot of time and motivation to research these ingredients (it was written during the pandemic). Apparently they also have a nearly unlimited budget to fly all over the place and eat at nice restaurants. What happened to eating local?
Although I liked the idea, the whole pursuit sort of created a dilemma for me: by increasing interest in rare ingredients will we be able to sustainably produce them for a wider audience, or are we putting the final nail in the coffin after it becomes a rare luxury found only in Michelin starred restaurants?
The first section of the book deals with some eggs laid by a certain kind of insect found living on a certain lake in Mexico. The author and some other people lament that the eggs have become a lost delicacy, and pollution and demand has made them even harder to source. Will serious foodies and readers of this book fly down to Mexico to get a last taste? Or will they fund measures to bring the food back from the brink? My cynical side says it is the former.
Because of travel restrictions the author didn’t really write about Asia, but still there is a wide range of different foods. I also liked that the author called out the monoculture of Big Food, and how hard it is to avoid processed food or food additives these days.
It was a good book but I felt a little like it may end up doing more harm than good, at least to some of the more endangered food items out there.
Next I am reading Furies of Calderon by Jim Butcher.
