National Dish (paperback)

Paperback edition.

We all have an idea in our heads about what French food isor Italian, or Japanese, or Mexican, or… But where did those ideas come from? Who decides what makes a national food canon? Recipient of three James Beard awards, Anya von Bremzen has written definitive cookbooks on Russian, Spanish, and Latin American cuisines,as well as her internationally acclaimed memoirMastering the Art of Soviet Cooking. Now inNational Dish, she sets out toinvestigate the truthbehind the eternal clichwe are what we eattraveling to six storied food capitals, going high and low, from world-famous chefs to scholars to strangers in bars, in search of how cuisine became connected to place and identity.

Paris is where the whole idea of food as national heritage was first invented, and so it is where Anya must begin. With an inquisitive eye and unmistakable wit, she ponders the codification of French food and the current tension between locavorism and globalization. From France, shes off to Naples, to probe the myth and reality of pizza, pasta, and Italian-ness. Next up, Tokyo, where Anya and her partner Barry explore ramen, rice, and the distance between Japans future and its past. From there they move to Seville, to search for the community-based essence of Spains tapas traditions, and then Oaxaca, where debates over postcolonial cultural integration find expression in maize and mole. In Istanbul, a traditional Ottoman potluck becomes a lens on how a former multicultural empire defines its food heritage. Finally, they land back in their beloved home in Queens, for a dinner centered on Ukrainian borsch, a meal that has never felt more loaded, or more precious and poignant.

A unique and magical cooks tourof the world,National Dishbrings us to a deep appreciation of how the country makes the food, and the food the country.