Last Chance to Eat: The Fate of Taste in a Fast Food World

Mallet, Gina

ISBN 10: 1845961234 / ISBN 13: 9781845961237

Published by Mainstream Publishing, 2006

The book has been read, but is in excellent condition. Pages are intact and not marred by notes or highlighting. The spine remains undamaged. Seller Inventory # GOR004393063

Synopsis:

No eggs, no beef, and only an occasional fish. Those were the hungry years after the Second World War in the English countryside, when the sighting of a rogue hen or even a thin pig was a cause for celebration. But that didn’t matter, because the warm stove was still the hub of the house, and a family meal, however scant, was a shared experience. Food still promised pleasure, unstained by guilt or fear. To eat was enough. But how quickly that would change as Gina Mallet journeyed through the darkening foodscape of our times.

It was in the 1990s, when the author was reviewing restaurants, that she came to confront the paradox of contemporary food. There was more and more food, more publicity about food, more cookbooks and cooking shows than ever, but there was less variety and less taste, and some common foods were actually threatened with extinction. Why?

In this provocative and evocative book, Gina Mallet weaves together her own experiences in England and America and her memories of great taste with a grim look at the enemies of good food: the U.N.’s template for universal taste; trade wars; healthism; extreme environmentalists; food scientists; food scares; organic dogma; zero tolerance for flavour-bearing bacteria.

Mallet quotes Elizabeth David when she advises “Shop well” – but do it fast.


From the Hardcover edition.

About the Author: Born in Britain in 1938, Gina Mallet emigrated to America to work for Time Magazine and is now based in Toronto, where she is a food writer and restaurant critic.

Bibliographic Details

Title: Last Chance to Eat: The Fate of Taste in a ...
Publisher: Mainstream Publishing
Publication Date: 2006
Binding: Paperback
Condition: Very Good