Rating: 
Summary: Delicious collection from a gourmet geek....
Review: IT MUST'VE BEEN SOMETHING I ATE was my introduction to Jeffrey Steingarten; I found it to be a zesty tome of tasty morsels.
Steingarten's essays (collected from VOGUE magazine) recount his forays into the world of haute cuisine. Despite moving in the upper echelon of the culinary world, Steingarten comes across as a giddy uber-gourmand-geek, travelling the world, the country, and every street in New York City, in search of the best (as he defines it) of everything when it comes to food.
From his trek across the Big Apple with his high-tech spot-thermometer to measure pizza-oven temperatures, to his southern tour of Lousiana in search of the origins of "turducken", Steingarten writes in a sly "don't you wish you were here" style. He often pokes fun at his near-maniacal enterprises to prepare (seemingly) things like a cup of espresso or a loaf of bread, but he never (well, hardly ever) pokes fun at the food -- at least not the idea of food. Good food. Really, REALLY good food.
Like a grand multiple course meal, Steingarten is best taken in small amounts -- an essay here, another there -- so that one doesn't get too full too quickly nor become overwhelmed at the sheer richness and complexity of each individual dish. Indeed, taken in moderate proportions, IT MUST'VE BEEN SOMETHING I ATE leaves one well-sated and wanting more.
Rating: 
Summary: Making food fun
Review: Jeffrey Steingarten is an extremely funny, dedicated writer who tends to dive whole-heartedly into his project du jour, whether it's trying to achieve 900 degree temperatures on his Weber grill to cook pizza, tracking down the code numbers on wheels of cheese to find the perfect Parmesan, or undergoing a MRI to determine whether his love of food is ethereal or caused by a lesion on his brain. There isn't another food writer working today who can better make your mouth water and have you gasping in laughter.
Rating:
Summary: The best food critic since M.F.K. Fisher
Review: Mr. Steingarten continues to amaze us with his erudition, humor,passion, and meticulous research. No one looms above him in the field. His is the yeast of genius that allows this book to rise to unprecedented heights. Bravo!
Rating:
Summary: The best food critic since M.F.K. Fisher
Review: Mr. Steingarten continues to amaze us with his erudition, humor,passion, and meticulous research. No one looms above him in the field. His is the yeast of genius that allows this book to rise to unprecedented heights. Bravo!
Rating: 
Summary: Condescending and inaccurate
Review: Steingarten's writing comes off as very arrogant and condescending. He does minimal research which he often interprets incorrectly. I could barely get through the introduction.
Rating:
Summary: Just as good as "The Man Who Ate Everything"
Review: These two books should be considered as a pair - they are both of the same structure (small articles), same style (witty yet informative), same approach to knowledge (always trying to instill some) and goal (entertaining to the extreme). The only problem is that they tend to overlap in my mind....For example, which one had the hilarious French Eatathon, which one had the article on ripening fruit, where was the essay about cheese? Regarless, both of these are just excellent works for quick reads. Unlike MFK Fisher, whose ouevre reads like novels, Steingarten seems to have found his gait as the food reviewer in Vogue. The articles seem somehow "Magazinish" and this is not necessarily a bad thing. He takes a fresh approach to food and eating in general - not reverent but certainly serious.
Rating:
Summary: Written by the love child of Bill Bryson and Alton Brown
Review: This is a wonderful book, as was the first. Encompassing, more or less at random: travel and food, history and food, science and food, technology and food and a healthy helping of the sociology of eating, it was a fast and funny read. There are books devoted to each of these topics which does a more rigorous job at it, but no one else rolls them all into so fun and informative a package. And, as opposed to a book which deals strictly with, say, the science of food and cooking, you can use this one to learn the names of the best French cooks and the names of their and countless other worthy restaurants.
I haven't previously found anyone willing to discuss the merits of caviar AND cricket tacos within the same volume.
I'd recommend the purchase of this at the same time as "The Man who ate Everything" - you won't be able to read only one.
Rating:
Summary: Written by the love child of Bill Bryson and Alton Brown
Review: This is a wonderful book, as was the first. Encompassing, more or less at random: travel and food, history and food, science and food, technology and food and a healthy helping of the sociology of eating, it was a fast and funny read. There are books devoted to each of these topics which does a more rigorous job at it, but no one else rolls them all into so fun and informative a package. And, as opposed to a book which deals strictly with, say, the science of food and cooking, you can use this one to learn the names of the best French cooks and the names of their and countless other worthy restaurants.
I haven't previously found anyone willing to discuss the merits of caviar AND cricket tacos within the same volume.
I'd recommend the purchase of this at the same time as "The Man who ate Everything" - you won't be able to read only one.
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