Cooked: A Natural History of Transformation in Around the World in 80 Books

Apr 30, 2013 Erica rated it liked it

I liked this book more than some of Pollan's other more recent offerings. His meditations on cooking, and his rambles about with cooks and cheese makers were interesting as usual. A few things are holding me back from a better review: Pollan seems to have fallen into a trap of painting fully-human male characters (with flaws, personalities, arcs, etc), yet his female characters (and pretty few of them there are) seem saint-like, somewhat mystical, but all together one-dimensional.

I also thought ...more

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Nov 19, 2023 Vicky rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: audiobooks, food, vicky-life-studies

I was listening to this out of self-assignment, as part of my cooking journey that's been dragged out, on and off, for the past 10 years. It was kinda put on in the background until 30% of the way in when Michael Pollan addresses the trend of Americans not cooking much anymore because "they don't have time." They would rather use that time on something "more productive" like working extra hours at their job, or for me, learning a language or practicing guitar. What actually ends up happening is I was listening to this out of self-assignment, as part of my cooking journey that's been dragged out, on and off, for the past 10 years. It was kinda put on in the background until 30% of the way in when Michael Pollan addresses the trend of Americans not cooking much anymore because "they don't have time." They would rather use that time on something "more productive" like working extra hours at their job, or for me, learning a language or practicing guitar. What actually ends up happening is we spend more time on a screen, and my own worst moments involve switching between apps on my phone for hours trying to figure out what kind of takeout or delivery to order. Similar to Matthew Walker's Why We Sleep, I feel like this book will help me change my behavior toward cooking and eating a little more. Having seen the first episode of Cooked on Netflix, it's definitely better to listen to this audiobook to get more details, too.

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PERCENT NOTE
99.40% Cooking is all about connection
98.60% Creating community, even if only for a night
98.00% Gamechangers: braising, knife skills
97.30% Plus we are in front of screens so much that we don’t use all our senses and we work in such abstraction that it’s so valuable to spend time on something that nourishes us
97.10% Why make your own bread or brew your own beer when it’s just not practical? It’s cheaper to buy. 1) you can give a very personal gift 2) there’s a deeper learning when you do it yourself, it’s no longer abstract or academic but it’s an embodied knowledge. Plus you’re able to better appreciate quality bread and beer when you experience it. You don’t take it for granted.
87.80% Discussion on disgust
65.20% Start of discussion on whole grain vs white bread
49.80% Tartine, book on iconic country loaf bread
31.30% Samin Nosrat
30.80% Cooking as labor or as leisure? What could you do with your time that is NOT cooking. Yep. That’s why I always avoided it until now
30.20% Cooking is preparing a main dish that requires some assembly of ingredients. Heating up a pizza is not cooking.
10.90% Barbecue coming from black slaves who observed indigenous people who called it barba-koa
2.80% The satisfaction of producing something yourself that you would have previously consumed
2.90% The structure of this book in 4 parts coincidentally-accidentally relates to the 4 elements
0.70% More time watching people cook than cooking ourselves. Americans cook the least but time spent on cooking is decreasing overall. ...more

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May 05, 2013 Rachel rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: science, nonfiction, food-nutrition

Meh. Go back to writing about food politics Michael Pollan!! That's what you do so well! Pollan is a fascinating guy and smart as hell, but this book was just boring. I didn't care.

During the part where he's brewing beer, he starts to talk about how intoxication seems linked to a rise in creativity. Not to go further into the fact that so many truly creative people have fought desperate battles against alcoholism and drugs seems to me irresponsible and short sided.

As a caveat: I don't cook. I ...more

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