For a country as diverse as the United States, trying to distill the history of its cuisine into a single cohesive volume would seem a near-impossible task. Nevertheless, the Smithsonian Institution — the world’s largest museum, education, and research complex — has managed to do just that, with the help of longtime food and culture writer Lisa Kingsley.
The chapters of “Smithsonian American Table: The Foods, People, and Innovations That Feed Us” (Harvest, $40) flow like a tour through a well-curated museum exhibit, with artifact-filled displays arranged along a linear timeline. After a brief introduction to the 177-year-old institution, you enter A Taste of Place. Here you learn the foodways Native peoples formed thousands of years ago and how they evolved after colonizers and immigrants arrived. A section called The United Eats of America showcases iconic dishes representative of each state: boiled peanuts from Georgia, Grape Nuts ice cream from New Hampshire, and so on.
Next stop is The Mark of History, showing how enslavement, war, social movements and politics influenced the way we eat. Food Fads and Trends delves into street foods, cookouts, lunchboxes, fad diets, craft beer, sushi, and more. Innovators and Creators profiles the people whose ideas left a lasting impact on our diets, including George Washington Carver, La Choy co-founder Ilhan New, Tupperware founder Brownie Wise, and microwave inventor Percy Spencer.
The last chapter, Taste Makers, single out the cookbook authors, chefs, and home cooks who have made lasting impacts on our appetites: Fannie Farmer, James Beard, Edna Lewis and Alice Waters to name a few.
Recipes interwoven throughout, updated for today’s cooks, tie these themes together – from classic Collard Greens to Julia Child’s Smoked Salmon and Dill Souffle to the one I tried for Bison and Wild Rice Lettuce Wraps. Its creator, chef Nico Albert of Tulsa, Oklahoma, is a citizen of the Cherokee Nation who seeks to open up conversation about her ancestors’ often painful past with healthy recipes using indigenous ingredients.
As she explains: “It’s so much easier to understand and talk about tribal history over a plate of comforting food.”
Susan Puckett is a cookbook author and former food editor of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Follow her at susanpuckett.com.
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