Cooking History Books

Beans is the winner of the 2008 International Association of Culinary Professionals Jane Grigson Award and was also a finalist for the food writing award.

My apologies for posting a review of my own book, but I saw no other way of getting this information onto amazon. I hope you enjoy it. Ken

This is a wonderful book that is both scholarly and entertaining, a good read as well as a valuable reference work. It consists of a series of "biographies" of beans or groups of related beans by region, including the Middle East, Europe, India, Africa, Mexico, South America, North America, and China and Japan. Each "biography" includes a description of the bean's origin and history, philosophical and political dimensions, methods of preparation, and recipes (nearly sixty in all) with many anecdotes and literary references. I never really thought about it before, but in most parts of the world beans are associated with poverty and low social status with the exception of two civilizations: India and China. In order to truly understand beans, the author resolved to eat beans every day during the book's creation, ideally a new species or variety every day. He has assimilated his subject matter well!

This book was excellent. It provided detailed information about the history of the domestication of several members of the Fabaceae. I would suggest it to anyone interested in domestication or beans in general.

I loved Kurlansky's COD and very much liked his SALT. I found Foster and Cordell's "CHILIES TO CHOCOLATE: Food the Americas gave the World" fascinating. And I love eating beans, from garbanzos to black beans to lentils.

So, I like the genre to which "BEANS: A History" belongs as well as the subject itself.

However, I found myself wondering, "What is the point the author is trying to make?" or perhaps "What is the direction of this book?".

The table of contents implies that this book is focused around a "bean by bean" approach. However, only the chapter on soybeans seems to fit that bill. None of the other chapters seem to be a coherent discussion about each bean (or group of beans). Instead, the chapters seem to meander around, seemingly without direction, excepting for the author's fixation on the historical association between the eating of beans and being poor. Honestly, it seems that well over a third of the book is dedicated to making this single point, with endless quotes to support it, often obscuring the boundaries between chapters.

What I craved in this book is closely approximated by his final chapter, which is on Soybeans. Here he starts with its known beginnings, how and why its use morphed over time and varied from place to place. He discusses (but does not fixate upon) its role in society. He gives interesting facts about its biology. At the end of the soy chapter he does, alas, wander off-topic into a confusing discussion about the pros and cons of genetically modified foods -- an interesting topic, but one that should be reviewed by someone more expert and not discussed parenthetically as it is here; similarly, he meanders briefly off into the field of medicine, where mistakes are definitely made(including confusing the findings of scientific medical studies with non-science based/unstudied proclamations), and he sometimes contradicts himself.

Finally, the recipes seem strewn in almost randomly. Sometimes they illustrate points, but other times not. Some interesting from a cooking-in-your-own kitchen standpoint, sometimes from a historical standpoint, and sometimes ????

In the end, I was rather disappointed by this tome. There are interesting nuggets to be dug out.... but I would like more from my reads than that.

Steven Mlodinow

We are a bean eating family, where beans are consumed 3-4 times per week in some form. We used to go to the Bean Festival down in Tracy, CA so we never get tired of eating or learning about beans.

Which makes this book one anyone who loves food archeology, or bean cuisines should at least read if not own. No it doesn't cover everything about beans, but it covers enough to make it worth a read.

After all how many Americans know that virtually every culture has some type of bean dish? Or that beans as a food source goes back thousands of years?

This book has a photo of a man smoking a cigarette. I am returning it. If you don't want to show your young child pictures of smoking, don't buy Loving either by the same author. It also has a photo of a man smoking a cigarette.

Wonderful photos of adults and children from around the world cooking, eating, selling, and otherwise enjoying bread, with minimal text.

Our whole family likes this book. My daughter is not yet two but she loves Ann Morris' entire series of books and likes to identify things in each photograph. We look at the photos and talk about different kinds of bread, different ways of eating, and what different things might taste like. The photos are obviously dated but I don't believe that alters the impact of what the author and photographer are trying to do. There is one photo in particular the the adults enjoy sniggering at (I'll let you guess which one!)

We have also started baking the different types of bread in the book together so she can jump right in to the content (what kid doesn't love to have her/his hands in dough?). As she grows, we'll continue to read these books, moving on from identifying simple items to talking about cultures, traditions, environments, geography, and etc. In the final pages of each Ann Morris book there are maps and descriptions of locations/actions for each page that allow readers and children to talk about where places are in relation to one another. I recommend these books for curious children starting at age 18 months and all the way up into the school years.

This book like the others in the series is great. My 4 yr old & 14month old love both this book. The pictures are vivid, the text is simple...a perfect jump-off for an engaging conversation about the similarities we all share throughout the world.

We may all live in different places, speak different languages and end up having completely different life experiences, but many of us have a common food. My wife and I love this book as much as our children do. It is very simple, extremely genuine and makes me want to try all the world's bread.

When I got this book,I started reading it right away and it was so interesting that I could'nt put it down. It brought back so many good memories to me. Times I spent with my grandmother in the kitchen and watching her use her Betty Crocker cookbook and making such delicious recipes from it. I highly recommend this special book.

Finding Betty Crocker: The Secret Life of America's First Lady of Food is the true story behind a commercial icon of 1950's homemaking - Betty Crocker. Created in 1921 as a "friend to homemakers" for the Washburn Crosby Company (a forerunner of modern-day General Mills), "Betty Crocker" was in fact the collective women of the Home Service Department who signed Betty's name. Betty Crocker's local radio show on WCCO expanded, as audiences across the nation learned to appreciate her money-saving recipes and wrote her nearly 5,000 fan letters a day. An amazing look at an enduring culinary and marketing history figure, illustrated with vintage black-and-white photographs.

This is a delightful book! Susan Marks has researched it well, and tells the story of the selling of American women with clarity and humor. That our mothers were so shamelessly manipulated is appalling, but many good meals came out of it, and, in all honesty, Betty Crocker inspired many women to branch out and create their own recipes using mixes and prepared foods as a basis. It was a very pleasant read and a marvelous depiction of a period in the evolution of American women.

I suppose there's a book coming out for the male counterpart to Betty Crocker, Mr. Duncan Hines. What, there's no Duncan Hines? Well, then surely we'll get biographies of Mr. Clean or the Tidy Bowl Man next then. As if decades of fooling a guillible mass-consumer market weren't enough, here "she" goes again by getting those to buy into "her" biography hook, line and sinker. What fun. Enjoy this garbage if you are into it. Otherwise, avoid.

Over eight decades, Betty Crocker has been one of the most recognizable American advertising icons. Marks' book focuses not just on the image of Betty Crocker, but on her relationship with the American housewife and how she shaped the face of American homemaking. Betty's recipes revolutionized homemaking, and she called for standard pan size and baking temperatures while recommending that only high quality Gold Medal flour be used in baking. Later, Betty's mixes made the homemaker move away from scratch cooking and toward a standard, pre-packaged baking product.

I was fascinated by the Betty Crocker radio program and by the letters from homemakers to Betty. Marks' book is comprehensive, full of excellent illustrations of advertisements, recipes, magazine spreads, letters, and more, and it makes for gripping reading.

I've been a fan of Martin yan's ever since seeing him on PBS some 15 years ago or so. Before Emeril came along Yan was one of the few TV cooks who tried to entertain as well as educate on cooking. I'm quite disappointed he's no long on the Food Network anymore as I just don't see him pop up on PBS that often but maybe I am just missing him.

I was able to pickup this book on the bargain Rack at the local Mediaplay for just a few bucks so it was well worth the price. Different than his other books, Martin takes on a guided world tour to various Chinatowns around the world including San Francisco, Sydney and Yokohama, complete with brief histories and Yan's recommendations on restaurants to visit in each chinatown.

The Recipes are grouped by course. Some of the recipes are pictured; all included a brief introduction, telling a bit about the recipe or hints to making the dish. The directions are easy to follow once you became acquainted with the ingredients. Any questions are easily solved by a trip to the Asian Market or a quick look at the Chinese Pantry section. The Chinese ingredients and many other less common ingredients in the recipes were covered in this Section.

The index, an important area of any cookbook, is great! If you want a duck recipe, look up duck. If you want an appetizer, you got it. Recipes can also be found under their name as well as various main ingredients. You would be able to find "Roast Duck Nachos", under any of these headings.

All in all, not only is this a good cookbook, but a good history into some of the world's finest chinatowns.

I found this book in the library. After reading it, I decided I got to own it. This is a really great book on Chinese food! I am Chinese, grew up in Hong Kong & Macau. I saw his shows in Hong Kong's English TV channel when I was in highschool. I think he was good on his show and we Chinese back home were very impressed that Martin Yan was able to demonstrate authentic Chinese cooking in such an entertaining and easy to understand format!

Since I moved to America, I had been trying to find a Chinese cookbook that I can cook from to soothe my craving for foods from back home. I brought with me Chinese cookbooks from Hong Kong, written in Chinese. But the measurements and ingredients from those books are difficult for me to follow here in America, mainly because people back home cook with different measuring system and they have different terms for the ingredients, thus creating problems for me when I go shopping. I'm glad I found this book, the recipes are great. They are clear and precise and easy to follow. All the ingredients are readily available in grocery stores here in California, Asian or not, like Trader Joes, Gelson or Wholefood where I usually shop!

Of course, the book can't possibly include all the recipes of all the dishes or dim sums back home. But all the recipes in the book are really good and authentic Chinese classics that we Chinese love! Recipes from Macau and Hong Kong are very authentic, like the Mintzi Beef (from Macau, a chinese dish influenced by Portuguese cooking), or the Hong Kong Wonton Bowl... Also the book got my favorite "Pine Apple Bun" that I always ordered 4 dishes and more whenever I go to Dim Sum. (can't go all the time because dim sum is only good with several friends and in L.A. it's not easy to gather several friends like it was when I was in Hong Kong. I only went 2 times this year versus I went twice every week with either my family or my friends in Hong Kong!) So during days when I crave for my "Pine Apple Buns", I refer to Martin Yan's book, and they all came out just the way they taste in the restaurants, only fresher from my own oven!

The book also helps me teach my American friends about Chinese food. I use the book often whenever I entertain at home so I can share with my friends some of the classics that I ate growing up in Hong Kong and Macau. They all love my "Pineapple Buns!", which was always my favorite, as a kid and now as a grown-up! I'm glad I could share one my childhood goodies with my American friends, thanks to Martin. I'm the only one in my Chinese family who knows how to make these buns now! Because they have no need to learn and it is convenient for them to get them from bakeries, Chinese retaurants and everywhere back home.

For those of you who don't cook but who love to eat Chinese food or are interested in the culture, this book gives you a very good education on Chinese food and dim sum. While you may not want to be cooking Chinese, but you will be ordering like a Chinese person whichever Chinese restaurant you go and you will impress the dim sum ladies and the waiters with the fact that you know what you are ordering and that you are ordering items, very often only Chinese people would order! Like my American bf, he now knows how to order in Cantonese because of Martin's book, and of corurse I taught him the prounciation for the dishes he loves (mostly the dishes that I love too because I got him into them), and the Chinese pepole were always shocked when he ordered, and I enjoyed watching the Chinese people's reaction, so I just let him order every time so he can have fun practicing. The Chinese thought he was fluent and were very impressed, but he only knew how to order the dishes he loved! The waiters always talk to me in Chinese, "Your bf is no typical American, has very good taste in Chinese food, just like a Chinese!" I agree, after what I showed him with Martin's book, he can't go back to "Panda Express" or those crappy Chinese take-outs which he used to love.

First of all, I love how beautiful the cookbook is with many pictures throughout. I also like how Martin Yan explains various ingredients and describes what makes each Chinatown he visisted unique. I agree that some ingredients are more difficult to get and require a trip to the Asian supermarket, but I also figured out how to vary recipes to be more convenient for me. (This is based on the fact that I already have several basic Chinese ingredients around the house.) One reviewer felt that the cookbook didn't include many dishes from Chinatown, but there's such variation in what Chinese food is that it's hard to capture it in one book. Many of the dishes are familiar to me, so I guess Martin Yan's taste is a good fit for me! The dishes are tasty and fairly easy to make -- I think it's important to be flexible and experiment with any recipe you come across, and the recipes are simple enough to allow for you to experiment and still taste good. We use this cookbook a lot more often than other ones we have at home.

I think Yan's book is great, the food is delicious. My granparents are from mainland China, my family & relatives are liig scattered around Asia, Australia and United States. I've been eating out since toddler (my parents are traders, no time to cook) in Indonesia, then 5 years in Australia (mainly eating Schezuan & Cantonese food in Chinatown), few months in Singapore; and I'm sure the taste of Yan's cooking is very close to the one I used to eat at restaurants. Yeah, boiled & steam fish are hard to cook (most untrained cook will end up with cooked but smelly fish, or plain taste). But, in restaurants, steamed fish are great tasted! I admit some recipes are hard to make due to extensive ingredients and difficult if u never taste/see the cooking method before. But, they are really rare & prestigius recipes (not many restos have them on the menu list)-- when they r cooked by professional chef, taste like heaven! So we can't judge it by the result of our cooking, better go to the restaurants first and eat it and then u try the recipe: is the taste similar or not.
IF ANYONE WISH TO THROW ANY COOKBOOKS, OR HAVE TOO MANY COOKBOOKS, JUST DONATE THEM 4 CHARITY IN INDONESIA. MY FRIENDS & I ORGANISE TO DONATE FOODSTUFFS TO ORPHANAGES/ELDERLY SHELTERS IN SOUTH KALIMANTAN. IF U R WILLING TO DONATE COOKBOOKS, PLS KINDLY DUMP THEM TO US: Mariane, PO Box 356, BJM 70000, SOUTH KALIMANTAN INDONESIA. Thanks 4 your generousity!

Martin Yan is a true pioneer in bringing Chinese cuisine to our living rooms via his TV shows, with his sense of humor, blazing knife skills, and a teaching style that makes him a real pleasure to watch. But Yan also is a prolific writer who has written 10 best selling cookbooks. With an easy-to-follow style, the books is a real treasure for anyone wanting to learn more about Chinese cuisine. And even if you're never been to a Chinatown, this book will help educate you into the many variations of this wonderfuol cuisine.

This cookbook contains 200 recipes from 11 Chinatown's throughout the world. Recipes are clearly written, and each step is numbered to make it easy to follow. Yan also clearly describes the size of each ingedient. As an example, "large eggs", "unsalted butter". As a result, the recipes produce the intended results with such clear instruction.

The beginning of each recipe includes a short paragraph that provides useful informaiton about the dish preperation, serving suggestions, or recipe variations. Although some recipes contain a large list of ingfredients, that shouldn;t deter you. Yan has done an excellent job of making each dish seem simple to make. And for those of you who are pressed for time, some can be made with just a few ingredients. The book also includes a unique recipe called Char Siu Quesidillas, that combines a Mexican recipe with a Chinese twist. And some recipes have been adapted by Yan for those readers like myself who may not live close to a Chinatown.

I also found the index to be quite helpful, with some dishes listed in multiple locations depending upon it's ingredients. As an example, a fish custard is listed both under eggs, as well as fish. The recipe names also are straightforward - I dislike recipes with names that tend to obscure the recipe's ingredients.

Who should buy this book? Anyone who wants to expand their culinary repjitoire and enhance their knowledge of Chinese cuisine. Yan has done a superb job of covering the many different stlyes of Chinese cooking that can be found in Chibatown. For novice cooks, a 10-page section covering equipment and techniques provide manyn helpful hints, But even more seasonedf cooks like myself found this secion useful. As a case in point, Yan talks about what to do when buying a clay pot. Now, I finally know how I am supposed to prepare the pot before using it - something the manufacturer and store never told me.

The book also includes related informaiton on Chinese culture and celebrations such as celebrating Chinese New Year. Yan talks about his personal memories as well as typical traditions, and how the food is a huge part of the celebration.

I also liked the section on "How to Order in a Chinese Restaurant," that include 11 helpful tips on making your next visit to a Chinese restaurant more enjoyable.

The book is richly illustrated with color photos that make me hungry just looking at it.

Still, I was disappointed that I didn't find some traditional American-Chinese favorites suchs as egg foo yung, and chicken chow mein, that while aren't considered authentic Chinese cooking, nevertheless are probaly some dishes that many of us are most familiar with. Nevertheless, the book is well worth it, and certainly expands one's culinary palette.

This was a wonderful topic for a book -- how Southernness and Jewishness came together in the Jewish kitchen. Cohen Ferris, herself a Jewish woman from a small town in Arkansas, has done exhaustive research, no doubt a labor of love, and has perpetuated many people's memories.

The problem with the book is that it is quite repetitious. Ferris Cohen correctly points out that the culture and history of Atlanta, New Orleans, the Mississippi Delta, and so on are all distinct from each other. Then, however, she spends much of her time recounting menus of long-ago occasions and concluding, over and over again, that the balance between kosher and non-kosher food and between European and American Southern delicacies was important and hard to navigate, because food is so important in daily life.

It is not so much a question of Ferris Cohen's writing style but of the fact that she seemed compelled to put on paper all of the results of her painstaking interviews. Perhaps a more insightful historian could have made more of Ferris Cohen's material, but this book just seemed too long.

As a Deep South Jewish expatriate, I can't say enough about how thoroughly Marcie Cohen Ferris did her research. There is no doubt that she has covered the differences-and similarities-of the various southern states with great heart and accuracy! The sheer volume of names of those she got family information from is more than admirable. The book belongs in every Jewish household-northern and southern! And non-Jewish readers will get a wonderful picture of the influence food had in Southern Jewish homes-part of American culinary history.

This book is a wonderful compilation of Jewish history of the South and Jewish food of the South. Fascinating reading about the history and excellent eating. Enjoy!

Good book if your into a history lesson but I was looking for more receipies.

Fascinating subject matter as I grew up in an area where Jews were a vocal and very assimilated minority. The author's extensive research came to the same conclusions in every chapter: it was hard to keep Kosher in the South and black household help did much of the cooking. As a Jewish woman I am proud of our reputation for a sense of humor and delicious cooking. There are very few recipes; even those were not particularly tempting or typical. The book's major flaws lie in the author's dry, labored, one-note writing style that had me laboring to stay awake.

Any serious student of food and food history
will find a lot of errors and inadequacies in
this book. Sometimes the material is just plain
wrong. More often, the brief comments are just
over-simplified: the section on Italy's D.O.C.
laws is an example.Most of the problems are
questions of emphasis: there are 25 entries for
'pasta' and none for 'soba'. None of the entries
about wine mention the development of bottling,
which is surely one of the most important innova
tions. As other reviewers have observed, there
is a disproportionate emphasis on America and
Europe and the curious inclusion of many short-
lived restaurants.

So with all these cavils, what's the point of
this book and why does it rate three stars?
This books great virtue is as a corrective
companion to all those histories that ignore
food. If you believe that people follow their
food and that nutrition and gastronomy often
lie beneath the big topics in history, this is
your book. What was going on in the world of
food in 1776? 1812? How did salt cod and lime
juice change the course of the European
exploration of the rest of the world?

This is history in a blink-without much
sense of context and no report of the ideas
about food that lurked behind the events.
But it is a valuable dose of perspective and
an excellent starting point. It is also, for
those times and places where a quick browsing
read is desireable, irreplaceable.

My copy sits on a shelf near the rocker in
my kitchen. Another chef of my acquaintance
keeps his in the bathroom. As with so many
things, this book is a pleasure if you know
where it belongs.


Lynn Hoffman, author of The New Short Course in Wine
and the forthcoming novel bang-BANG from kunati press.

I'm told that Mr. Trager's book states that the first Thanksgiving was celebrated in 1621. The first Yankee Thanksgiving, perhaps. Others suggest that the first Thanksgiving was near EL Paso TX in 1598 by Don Juan de Onate and about 400 Spanish colonists after they traveled north across the desert and crossed the Rio Grande river. It was celebrated a full 23 years prior to the Pilgram Thanksgiving in Plymouth MA.

Utterly comprehensive, fantasically informative and an utter delight. If you like food, you'll love this! How anyone else gave it less than five stars I can't imagine

The reviewer from Japan was right in noting mistakes. This book is riddled with them, especially typos, skewed facts and sometimes real gaffes. (But begging your indulgence, fellow reviwer, eggplants are not from the Americas.)

I agree with other reviewers that Trager's book contains numerous errors. Nevertheless, there's nothing I've read quite like it for breadth of coverage of food history. The book is a resource for food writers like me, or anyone who wants a good source of ideas about food. I can check my facts elsewhere. I particularly enjoy Trager's treatment of food processing and industrial food history, as well as his analysis of food and nutrition fads over the past few centuries. His coverage of food-related and deficiency illnesses is also deep, and has spurred me to further reading. If you read The Food Chronology from cover to cover, as I did over a period of several months, you cannot help but be stimulated and enriched.

Food writer Elliot Essman's other reviews and food articles are available at www.stylegourmet.com

1. Nearly ever major religion has had some sects that practiced vegetarianism in some form. If you want a lot of details about that, this book has them. Some of the coverage of early vegetarianism, particularly ancient Egyptian vegetarianism, seems excessively speculative.

2. The vegetarian food of 1700-1800s Britain sounds awfully bad and seems to consist almost solely of starches and sugary dishes.

3. The world, or at least the US and Britain, appears to have been having the same arguments about vegetarianism for about 250 years.

4. Post 1700, the book centers on Britain.

I would have preferred more culinary history (for example on the origins of seitan and tofu) and fewer statements of the author's opinions (such as that, for example, a certain writer argues well), but the book is a useful reference of famous vegetarians and vegetarian sympathizers over the last 2500 years. Also, the sections that briefly discuss animal trials and pre-industrial slaughter methods are fascinating.

Colin Spencer does an excellent job of covering the last couple million years of vegetarianism. This book is not an easy read, especially in the sections about the diet of early man, and the analysis of some of the early Christian sects. You'll learn why mainstream society traditionally looks at vegetarians as "cranks" Puritanical, or just plain heretical. This is slowly beginning to change, but I think that in some areas of the world, (esp. where I live) vegetarians are still those weird outsiders who are thumbing their nose at the hallowed institution of eating meat. You'll also learn that early vegetarians weren't vegetarians for animal welfare reasons. For the Greeks like Plutarch or Pythagoras it was all about reincarnation (metempsychosis or transmigration of souls) For the early Christian sects eating meat was a symbol of man's Fall from grace. Some early Christian hermits also abstained from meat & alcohol because they thought consuming these didn't jive with the ascetic lifestyle; you had to deprive yourself of luxuries to become spiritually closer with your God.

My only quibble is that Spencer could've covered the last 100 years in more depth. The last 50 pages is surprisingly lacking in the same kind of detail that Spencer devoted to, (for instance) the Early Christian era. Maybe the last 100 years has been covered better in other books? I don't know, since this is the first book of its type that I've read.

OK, actually I have one other quibble.....In the last 20 pages, Spencer goes off on a rant about corporate farming, the effects of livestock farming on the environment, the dangers of eating meat (salmonella, heart disease, cancer). I thought this was a "history" of vegetarianism??? I mean, I agree with all the things he says about the above topics. I'm an ardent vegetarian myself, but I wish he had devoted more space to the last 100 years of vegetarianism, instead of the polemic.

Another thing to consider is tha Spencer goes go more in detail about vegetarianism in Europe and the UK. If you want a lengthier discussion on vegetarianism in the U.S try somewhere else. This is still an excellent book for a history of vegetarianism. I hope that other authors will take up this topic.

Well written and comprehensive book on the origins of vegetarian and non-vegetarian dietary habits. It is perfect for those vegetarians who want to understand the historical roots of the movement. Also recommended for anyone 'on the fence' about becoming a vegetarian or consuming less animal products. Here you will find concrete facts on the history, health benefits, and compassionate considerations of vegetarianism. You will be inspired by the stories of history's greatest minds choosing to abstain from meat for either health or humane reasons. Vegetarians can count Pythagoras, Leonardo da Vinci, Ben Franklin, Shelley, and Gandhi among their historical supporters. This book will motivate readers to consume more healthy non-animal foods and recognize the compassion behind vegetarian choices.
But, you don't have to be a vegetarian to enjoy this book. There is a wealth of information on how history, religion, and social development are related to food.

"A reader" says that humans should have priority. I agree with that. That is why I'm vegetarian. By doing so, I make more food available to others, and decrease my chances of degenerate disease in the process.

I thought the book sometime spent too much time on some subjects, and too little on others. But still, overall, a good book.

Lots of people have tried to make an issue about Hitler's claimed vegetarianism. Of course whether he was or wasn't has no bearing on his actions. But since so many people make an issue of it, Spencer had to cover Hitler. What Spencer says about Hitler isn't the same as what I had heard from other sources. Most other sources I thought said Hitler enjoyed meat, but gave up most meat due to digestion problems. Spencer says that Hitler was vegetarian just to be different then everybody else. Which is true, I don't know, but I would assume that Spencer knows what he is talking about.

Som people want to excuse their meat eating on the base of Bible, but theirs attempts are futile,just because quoted often Letters of Paul are simply false ones,introduced to the Bible by clergymen who had been in opposition to true teaching of Jesus. Specially letters to Timothy I,and Timothy II are recognized by modern biblists as forgeries. I didn't know that not harm any creature is...."demonic teaching" It is rather false teaching of the "false apostles" -can be clled

DEMONIC TEACHING.

The product was in the shape you said it was and it also got here in about a week.

This book makes a strong defense of the classical principles of truth, beauty and goodness, jumping from a provoking and very unique starting point: eating. Kass is able to bring the perennial philosophy into the 20th Century, and to create a dialogue between it and modern science, as well as provide a persuasive understanding and defense of traditional ethics, etiquette, and beauty. Kass's analysis of "Babette's Feast" and his speculations on religous ritual are very thought provoking.

One must admire Kass's attempt to pull together so much of traditional philosophy (especially Aristotle) and literature, and still bring this into dialogue with contemporary science (there's reductionism there if anywhere) and culture. His scope is broad, and this book demands a lot of the reader! The argument is purposive, and analysis is difficult--there is so much there, and just about every move is key. (I found summarizing for students very difficult.) Yet Kass's arguments are very much worth considering, and bear more than one reading. To those who are patient, a vision of a very different way of looking at our whole human experience will emerge, one that I believe makes better sense of ourselves than most others offered today.

This book is a fine work of (unintentional?) self parody. Some of you are probably already familiar with a quote from this book in which Kass condemns public ice cream consumption. Some are undoubtedly tempted to guess that this quote as an aberration, a whimsical flight of fancy in which the otherwise sober Kass lets his bizarre pet peeves override his otherwise serious philosophical investigation. Not so! The Hungry Soul consists of nothing but whimsical rants in which Kass makes no distinction between personal pet peeves and universal moral law.

In some sense, one must admire Kass. He makes his blatant contempt for reason clear, and then follows through with this attitude by abandoning it entirely. Kass does not follow in the footsteps of philosophers like Hume who use rationality to probe the limits and uncover the weaknesses and self-contradictions of rationality. He simply has no truck with reason in any manner.

Thus, when Kass exhorts his readers to purge themselves of scientific, enlightenment rationality when they read his book, warning them of what a difficult task that will be, or claims that cannibalism and vegetarianism are moral equivalents, or that the reason behind the biblical prohibition on eating lobster exists is because their mode of locomotion is improper to their environment (i.e., if they walk on legs, they should be land animals and if they live in the water, they should swim like fish), the most enjoyable thing is not to think of counterarguments, nor to reel at the sheer madness of the doctor's thought, but to simply let the wondrous illogic wash over you.

For first an foremost, Kass's thought is not philosophical, nor Biblical, nor conservative (though it has elements of all of these things), but magical. The laws of magic are pre-rational psychological rules-of-thumb, used in pattern recognition, that are found, to varying degrees, in many, if not all, people: the laws of contagion, association, similarity, sympathy, similarity, and the like. It is these magical laws that underpin Kass's thought. Accepted on its own terms, and properly understood, this is a quite enjoyable book.

Just don't look to it for moral guidance.

Martin Buber once wrote that in every animal function human beings are not simply as animals, but instead humanize what they do. In "The Hungry Soul' Leon Kass gives a phenomenological and philosophical basis to the thesis that in eating we can also perfect our nature. Kass is not simply one of the world's senior bioethicists, but a humanist scholar with a medical and scientific background that give his arguments a force in fact and reason. I cannot honestly say I followed the argument of this work throughout but I did understand through it how eating can become a central means of extending our own caring for, and relation to other human beings, a way then of sanctifying ourselves in the world.
I conclude with an illuminating paragraph from Kass' conclusion, a paragraph which I believe gives the true ' flavor ' of the book.
"In the higher animals., the soul energized by hunger gains hunger's satisfaction only through intermediate activities- such as smelling, hearing, seeing, chasing, attacking, capturing, biting, tasting, chewing , and swallowing- activities which themselves become new objects for the hungry soul. Increasingly capable of genuine encounters with the world, with other living forms, and ( especially in birds and mammals) with kith and kin,the souls of the hungry acquire new hungers of their own,and for more nourishment.With the rise of intelligence and especially with the extraordinary development of the upright animal, the hungry soul seeks satisfacgtion in activities animated also by wonder,ambition,affection, curiosity, and awe. We human beings delight in beauty and order, art and action, sociability and friendship, insight and understanding, song and worship. And as self-conscious beings, we especially crave self-understanding and knowledge of our place in the larger whole." pp. 228

I have never read such a neurotic, uptight, angst-filled book as this. The author actually inveighs against the eating of ice cream in public - an expression of his "not only Talmudic view" that "eating in the street is for dogs."

Really. I couldn't make this up.

His detailed review of table manners towards the end is quite interesting, but the book is marred by a long, metaphysical, and wholly irrelevant screed against the materialist, science-driven viewpoint that supposedly dominates our culture. Most authors in the humanities just launch into their subject without apology, but Kass' long justification of Why Science Is Insufficient distracts from, and fatally mars, what might otherwise be a very reasonable (if much shorter) review of the culture of food and eating.

Curiously, the preface contains a detailed explanation of why the author was not qualified to write this book. I'm inclined to believe him on this point.

I bought this book as a gift for a friend who is a great lover of literature. She loved it, and she and her partner enjoyed reading aloud to each other from it. Some of the recipes even look pretty good. The only complaint is that it's so short for the price. Another few recipes would have made it more worth while. This said, I'll probably order it again as a gift for another friend...just not somehting I'd buy for myself.

Very happy with the 2 copies of this book. They arrived safely packed and very prompt. Many thanks.

It is no wonder this $14.95 little book sells new for $3 at Amazon. Once you see how bad it is you couldn't give it away. To anyone who is REALLY interested in authors and their food, this is embarrassingly bad, and a terrible read. It should come with Malox.

this is so much fun for someone who not only loves to read but loves to cook.

Crick has produced a small but rich volume that pays homage to writers from Homer to Raymond Chandler and if there is a false note struck anywhere, I cannot detect it. As an added bonus, the recipes look to be perfectly wonderful all by themselves.

Crick begins with the hilarious Chandler shtick centered on Lamb with Dill Sauce. "It was time to deal with the butter and flour so I mixed them together into a paste and added it to the stock. There wasn't a whisk, so using my blackjack I beat out any lumps until the paste was smooth." Almost makes me sorry I come equipped with three different whisks and not a blackjack in sight.

Speaking in the articulate phrasing of the Marquis de Sade, Crick manages to make fun of politically correct cuisine with its "naive trust in low-fat yogurt" and celebrate the sensuality of food with a story about an innocent maiden forced to observe a hypocritical judge as he lecherously prepares Boned Stuffed Poussins. Makes you quiver, it does.

The Harold Pinter playlet titled "Cheese on Toast" features ciabatta and eggplant and mozzarella and, I swear it, you can taste the results before you've finished reading. My tummy growls in frustration for I have none of the aforementioned ingredients on hand.

So far, my favorite is the gem in the voice of Gabriel Garcia Marquez, titled "Coq au Vin." There is a priest tormented by mosquitos and a mulatta cook who prepares a last meal for a murderer, Fidel Agosto Santiago, and the meal is the tough carcass of the fabled fighting cock, El Jaguaracito, donated by its owner, the Syrian. It's all there -- drama, rich characterization and food so wonderful it will make you weep.

I love to read and I love to cook. It's hard to imagine a single book that combines those two pleasures more perfectly than this one does. This book will hold a place of pride and joy in my cookbook collection. Now -- I wonder if I can find a blackjack on eBay?

Just wanted to give a positive review for this book. Honestly the book isn't that pretty inside (black and white photos). The cover of the book looks wonderful however and shows some of the great recipes the book has to offer.

My son is very picky in what he eats. Being picky combined with food allergies does not mix well because he can only eat certain foods. Well this book does an amazing job at making snacks and meals that my son loves.

Just wanted to give thanks to the author. Its hard for a parent to cope with these allergies in their child. I am thankful that books like this are out there. It is informative and helps ensure my child is not eating something he shouldn't.

I was furious when I found out what they were using in the McDonalds Fries, My son ate those on multiple occasions because I thought they were safe. Who could have known??? Im sure your son is very happy with all the food he gets to test :-)

Leave it to a devoted mother of a child with food allergies to bring a helpful tool like this book to other parents!

Penny does a great job offering tasty, creative meals. "Little Buddy's Shake" is sure to be a favorite among all!

What a wonderful book of hope and help!
It has been tremendous to have a resource available when I've entertained friends with allergies. Recently I was blown away by the gratitude I received from a Mom who brought her son (who has several allergies) to my daughters birthday party. The entire menu was dairy, nut and egg free and on top of that was "yummy" and fun for everyone! The Mom was able to relax and enjoy herself. I feel like I was able to encourage someone, but I couldn't have done it without "Allergy Free For All Ages"

Being the parent of a food allergic child, I truly appreciate what Ms. Webster was trying to do in preparing this cookbook. However, I have not used this cookbook once in the past 7 months that I have owned it. Why not? Because I either did not need a recipe to make the food (such as Garlic Butter, Strawberry Topping for Waffles, Pancakes & Sorbets, Tempting Tacos, etc.) or could find a similar recipe in any all-purpose/non-allergy cookbook (Fresh Salsa, Guacamole, Oven Fries, Apple Pie, etc.).

If a food allergic person/parent did not know anything about cooking or own any cookbooks, perhaps this cookbook would be satisfactory. Even then, I believe that money would be better spent on a good all-purpose cookbook making obvious substitutions (safe margarine for margarine/butter, alternative milk for cow's milk, etc.) If truly looking for an allergy cookbook for some of the more challenging allergy baking, I would reccommend The Whole Foods Allergy Cookbook by Cybele Pascal or What's to Eat? by Linda Cross.

What a waste of money! If you already know how to cook...you have most likely already discovered these recipes on your own. Come on! How to make garlic butter, BLT's, and strawberry topping for pancakes? Making a chocolate shake by blending together chocolate syrup, milk subsitute and soy ice cream sandwiches? I think not. This cookbook should be revised with picture directions and marketed as a children's allergy-free cookbook. I would have done better searching for allergy-free recipes with a good internet search engine. Try the recipe collections from Theresa Kingma (www.tkkingma@netzero.net) or What's to Eat by Linda Marienhoff Coss for more useful material to feed your family. Don't waste your money on this one.