In Cooked, Michael Pollan discovers the enduring power of the four classical elements - fire, water, air, and earth - to transform the stuff of nature into delicious things to eat and drink. Apprenticing himself to a succession of culinary masters, Pollan learns how to grill with fire, cook with liquid, bake bread, and ferment everything from cheese to beer - and finds that reclaiming cooking as an act of enjoyment and self-reliance opens the door...

"Cooking is thinking! The spatter of sauce in a pan, a cook's subtle deviation from a recipe, the careful labour of cooking for loved ones: these are not often the subjects of critical enquiry. Cooking, we are told, has nothing to do with serious thought; the path to intellectual fulfilment leads directly out of the kitchen. In this electrifying, innovative memoir, Rebecca May Johnson rewrites the kitchen as a vital source of knowledge and revelation....

"New Yorker writer Dana Goodyear combines the style of Mary Roach with the on-the-ground food savvy of Anthony Bourdain in a rollicking narrative look at the shocking extremes of the contemporary American food world. A new American cuisine is forming. Animals never before considered or long since forgotten are emerging as delicacies. Parts that used to be for scrap are centerpieces. Ash and hay are fashionable ingredients, and you pay handsomely to...

"Equal parts documentary, manifesto, and cookbook, this book celebrates the transformative power of food and the story of an idiosyncratic pop-up space (The Depanneur) that has featured hundreds of cooks, served thousands of eclectic meals, and paid out more than half a million dollars to local food entrepreneurs. Through recipes from cooks representing over 80 nationalities, the book will be a unique look at both the diversity and universality of...