TRIBEZA

BOOK REVIEW | American Artisanal

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Story by Christopher Carbone

Have you ever wandered through Whole Foods or Central Market and found yourself curious about the genesis of certain items? Perhaps it was the olive oil, with its label proclaiming a California origin, or the Guatemalan coffee that caught your eye. For better or worse, we live in a time of food hypersensitivity. Consumers—armed with knowledge gained from the Internet and fortified by best sellers offering advice (Michael Pollan springs to mind)—want to know exactly where their salmon came from, whether it was wild or farm-raised, and what sort of business (mom-and-pop vs. corporate) brought it to the market. This type of critical analysis has extended beyond salmon, of course, to almost everything we eat and drink.

If you think all this is stressful, you’re not alone. Leading food writer and cookbook author Rebecca Gray has explored all the nooks and crannies of America’s artisanal food movement to find the best products for your plate. American Artisanal is a user-friendly guidebook to the best that American artisans and producers have to offer, from Michigan’s Blueberry Hill Farm and California’s Santa Barbara Olive Company to Long Wind Farm’s tomatoes and the Barrington Coffee Roasting Company’s perfect brews.

Every artisan gets a chapter: their stories are told in Gray’s plainspoken, matter-of-fact style with just the right details sprinkled throughout to make for an intriguing tale. Gray also provides a recipe that utilizes whatever item was previously discussed, along with information on where to order each product. The book is a food lover’s delight, and although everyone has a unique story, several themes emerge: returning to the fundamentals of local, small-scale food; hewing to organic and sustainable practices wherever possible; paying close attention to quality control, which is sometimes lost at larger companies; knowing and emphasizing the engaging (and often surprising) history of our food, or what Gray refers to as its terroir, the “sense of place, the range of local influences—water, air, soil, weather, geography—that transmit to a food and create its character and goodness.” Gray’s well-chosen details of geography and family draw the reader in while also confirming that all the food we consume does indeed have a story to tell.

A chronicle of artisanal food that doesn’t delve into the pleasures of the eating experience would be like a history of pop music that excludes Michael Jackson. Fortunately for us, Gray is clearly someone who loves every aspect of her job—finding the hidden truths, sampling the goods, and frequently getting her interviewees to open up about the obstacles they face as small-business owners. Gray writes that the foods she included “used that most powerful and magical of tricks: they evoked or, better yet, created a memory.” Discerning omnivores couldn’t ask for more. Chock-full of heartwarming anecdotes, with lots of grit as well as only-in-America ingenuity, American Artisanal is an inspiring and informative read for foodies and novices alike. So join Gray on her cross-country journey. You won’t regret it.

American Artisanal: Finding the Country’s Best Real Food, from Cheese to Chocolate, by Rebecca Gray. Rizzoli. 258 pp., $26.95.

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