I'm obsessed with culinary history, so picking this up was a no-brainer for me. Of course, because I am already familiar with the topic, a lot of the information in this book was stuff I already knew, but still I gleaned some interesting tidbits. I wasn't overly impressed with the writing though, and thought the author's attempts at being witty often fell flat.

I enjoyed this book. It is a book to be savored. There are many interesting facts about different food items that I didn't know before. I would highly recommend this book for people who are interested in food and its origins.

This was an interesting book. Some chapters much more interesting to me then others. I especially enjoyed the chapter on honey and repeated some of it to others. Many interesting facts scattered throughout book. These is a chapter at the end which covers how the FDA and USDA fail us on inspecting foods, unfortunately I knew some of this already. It is worth a read just to learn something new.

This is a surprising, informative, enlightening book filled with food history that blew me away and got me thinking. The author also talks about some superstitions and things that make you go what? The author has an entertaining yet sincere way of discussing food that is easy to read. I found it fascinating to learn the history of pies, where they were originated and where the American’s humble pie saying was originated.

The author brings up some weird food practices, thoughts on food and fears about different types of foods others thought as ok. Learning to use fire to cook food made it easier to chew and changed everything, how we prepared, ate, and shared food. I never gave it much thought.

Some chapter titles are Pie, Progress and Plymouth Rock, Breakfast of Champions, Children of the Corn, Honey Laundering, The Vanilla Society, The Ghosts of Cockaigne past, The Choices of a New Generation Forbidden Berries, The choices of a new generation, Attack of the Killer tomato.

I was fascinated by the talk about cereal and how it came to be. How it became the “breakfast of champions?” the author says, “…it’s a morning staple enjoyed by 93 percent of Americans,…prevalent on grocery lists that it not only gets its own aisle in the supermarket but plays a key role in the psychology… cereal transcends race, social class, age, gender – and even dietary guidelines,…”For many people, it’s the one food that they still eat sitting down, at a table, or with family.”

The evolution of the breakfast cereal was fascinating. Another game changer in the way we eat was how the drive thru was created. The author packs a bunch in this 288 page book that will have you looking at your food in a very different way, especially when you learn about honey and corn.

Disclosure of Material Connection: I have received a complimentary copy of this book by the publisher through NetGalley. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255 “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising”

Nora St. Laurent
TBCN Where Book Fun Begins!
The Book Club Network blog www.bookfun.org

While the title of this states the History of food it does actually narrow down to a hand full of foods, deserts and spice or flavoring such as pies, vanilla, potatoes, tomatoes, cereal, corn, honey and ice cream. In the discussion of pies it starts with discussion of meat pies of the day and from the description they do not sound very tasty, but they do also get into apple pie and was interesting to see how in America we used apples for pie like a desert and in Europe they used it as a vegetable. The apple helped the early settlers probably survive as they had no acquiring skills they were terrible hunters and fisherman. One example was them trying to catch fish with a frying pan. According to the author 93% of Americans eat cereal. It is a good thing some of the cereals have change being that one of the first cereals had the reputation for breaking your teeth and cutting your gums. Amazing that some of the popular cereals of today first came out in the 1920's and as of today there 90% of the cereal is being manufactured by only 4 companies. The list of food items that different societies used or thought were beneficial as aphrodisiacs is long and some are bazaar and frankly disgusting. It was interesting to read the many uses of honey for both food and healing purposes and that there is even hallucinogenic honey and that bees seem to use almost anything to make honey out of. Over all this is an informative read. Thank you to Netgalley and ECCO for an ARC for a fair and honest review.

An interesting and eclectic collection of essays on the history of food. Siegel explores one food item or category in each chapter--cold cereal, honey, apples--and gives fascinating information on the history and social forces around it. Readers who love footnotes will be very happy here. Will appeal to readers who enjoy food writing, microhistories, and generally interesting nonfiction. A little random in its organization, but very readable.

After reading an article from the author that shared some fun facts of food history I was very interested in reading this book. Unfortunately, the book did not meet my expectations and was a struggle to get through. I don't think The Secret History of Food has a clear understanding of what it is or who its for. I found the writing to be very scattered, jumping from one thing to the next, unearthing information from centuries ago and then making a pop culture reference to today. There's not a lot of context or framework around any topic or time period. I felt like I was reading a deck of trivial pursuit flashcards.

There are a lot of food facts and bits of history inside. Some were, indeed, interesting, but that's it. There wasn't a lot of substance given to how our food accessibility, cooking habits, culture, and tastes interact. My overwhelming impression was that quotes and facts with shock value were included above actual interpretation of the information shared. Specifically, there are A TON of footnotes. There were so many numbered and symbol-ed annotations that it was distracting to read the text, and I was surprised to discover that the book was over halfway through and the rest of the pages were bibliography!

The other element that didn't work for me was the humor. It felt like the author was trying too hard. The same references seemed to be repeated (frying pans for fishing for example). And some of his jokes actually felt alienating to the reader. Many of the quotes shared in the book are quite despicable by today's standards in how they address minorities, and a few times I think he tried to point out that these comments were zealous and racist and/or sexist. Yet, the author himself made cracks in the vein of a humorous metaphor, but which was actually demeaning to some readers. It felt like he was trying to say he was "down" by calling some of it out, but also missed the point completely by using such quotations in the first place without worthwhile context and then using the same misguided humor himself at times.

I was lost as to what the author's intent was. He shared so many examples of racist, sexist, and puritanical speeches, citing these historical white men's names and cracking jokes about their over-righteous beliefs. But when it came to describing the agricultural impacts of the Iroquois, he let the momentum drop by saying "no one knows why" they did this - TWICE! He reduced their role to something mythical in nature, which is very stereotyped.

I think the author tried to cover too much in too little space, and that the book lacked sufficient editing and sensitivity readers. I wish there had been less quotations, specifically in the form of bigotry if you're not going to create more context and really dive into the ethics, economics, and race/gender of it all. I wish there'd been less lists (we don't need to read every kind of oreo or ice cream flavor or cereal adaptation, etc.). And I wish the book had offered me more beyond shocking comments and how doomed our diets all are.

Thank you to NetGalley and the pubisher for a review copy in exchange for an honest review.

A happy volume. It is a trivia night unto itself. It is a must for anyone who has a foodie know it all in your midst. It will stop and have you scratching your head,and chuckle at what you’ve been led to believe is true and iconic. It’s a book you will revisit , well worth its price twice over! Just when you think you’ve solved the puzzle of say Olive Oil , you find a new tidbit to file away. It is written in a style I wish more historians would adopt. It celebrates its findings and you will as well.

The Secret History of Food: Strange but True Stories About the Origins of Everything We Eat by Matt Siegel explores many of the common foods of the contemporary American diet. Across 10 chapters, Siegel explores both contemporary understanding of nutrition or psychologically of eating as well as the historic through the work of food historians or paleoanthropologist. Full of factoids, tangents that are informative but feel like they should’ve been reined in as they wander a bit too much. Some sections felt more akin to an article like one would find on Cracked.com.

Or perhaps a better comparison for the weaker chapters would be if Chuck Klosterman (Author of Sex Drugs and CocoPuffs) wrote a book about food. Interesting and occasionally thought provoking, but also verbose and meandering.

Which in some ways is a shame, because sections of some of the chapters are fascinating. Such as in the development of the modern pie or how our parents taste in foods could be an inherited trait.

Parts of this book will certainly appeal to those who look at their pantry or grocery store and wonder how our food got to be this way. A more clearly organized exploration of contemporary foods that keeps much of the snarky humor to the footnotes can be found in The Secret Life of Groceries: The Dark Miracle of the American Supermarket by Benjamin Lorr.

I enjoy reading stories that explain food history and eating habits so this book started out well. There are many interesting facts and stories as well as crazy myths throughout. If you enjoy Alton Brown's Good Eats tv shows or books this will give you some great additional information and humor but I found the repeated cynical remarks about the development of agriculture were distracting from the good stuff. I mean, maybe the Unabomber did have a few good arguments? Really? I skimmed a bit more but could not seem to regain interest. Perhaps a book to read in short stretches.

This was a quirky book I found randomly on NetGalley. It was a short and fun read, with ten chapters covering:

How the history of food/agriculture is intertwined with human history, pie, cereal, corn, honey, vanilla/ice cream, celebrations surrounding food and drink, having too many choices, chili peppers, and how we fall prey to misconceptions about (or willful mislabeling of) the foods we eat.

Some of my favorites were the sweet chapters, like the ones on pie and ice cream. For example, did you know that ice cream’s popularity in the U.S. skyrocketed during prohibition? Apparently, we needed an alternative method of drowning our sorrows. And ice cream became a staple of soldiers’ diets during WWII – good for both fast calories and boosting morale.

The chapter on chili peppers was also entertaining, as it basically points out the craziness of doing things that hurt us. Various kinds of peppers were used in early agricultural days to keep animals out of the crops – by planting them around the perimeter, the would-be pests would encounter the hot peppers first, and turn the other way. And yet, we eat them on purpose. Are we just adrenaline junkies, or do we feel we have something to prove?

The last chapter is a bummer, though, as it gets into how much of our food is mislabeled, not as healthy as it claims, or doesn’t get inspected as much as it should. Specifically, vitamins and seafood are often not what they purport to be.

The book is so meticulously researched, though, that the footnotes take up HALF of the length. So, as I said earlier, it’s a quick romp to get through the ten chapters.

If you, like me, are constantly googling random things as questions come up, you will love The Secret History of Food. It provides more in-depth information than Wikipedia. Luckily, it also goes off in weird tangents and down deep rabbit holes when an intriguing side fact is found.

Here is an example. Why is vanilla slang for something plain and white? Vanilla is blackish-brown and relatively expensive. This leads through the obvious “for rich or royals” origin story of ice cream. Then to Prohibition where breweries and distilleries switched from alcohol to ice cream—setting Americans up for a new addiction. Ice cream impacted both world wars. During the 1950s, Castro was busy smuggling it into Cuba for his own use.

Vanilla is just one of nine food-focused chapters. Pie, honey, cereal, corn, chili peppers, tomatoes, holiday festivals, and fast food are also discussed.

The Secret History of Food is an interesting and unique look into how food impacts both our lives and those of our ancestors. I enjoyed learning new secrets about food. 4 stars!

Thanks to Ecco and NetGalley for a copy in exchange for my honest review.

I enjoyed the stories in this history of food. There's quite a bit of well-researched background on food. I was disappointed there were no illustrations. There are so many wonderful food-oriented vintage ads and images that the book would have really benefitted from their inclusion. It isn't quite as captivating as a Mary Roach book but it will likely be enjoyed by her fans. I could see it being used in a school library for targeted research as well.

Thanks to the author and NetGalley for letting me read an advance reader copy of The Secret History of Food.

The Secret History of Food breaks down a topic that everyone already knows and loves — the stories behind the foods we love and need. Through his research, Matt Siegel shows gives readers context for the foods they love and hate. More broadly, he looks at the hows and whys of the importance of food in every culture, from the real to mythological.

This book is clearly very thorough and well-researched, which I really appreciated. There’s so much research that only about 60% of the book is actual text and the rest is footnotes and sourcing. While it was helpful to have those footnotes available, there were so many superscript footnote markers inserted into the text that it did wind up being a bit distracting, almost as if the book were more an academic paper compiling facts than actual commentary. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, but it might not be for everyone.

Let me begin by saying that Matt Siegel has done an incredible amount of research into the secret history of food. This book was quite an undertaking - he presents very obscure factoids and history about our everyday foods. But let me describe how it feels to read this book - buckle up and put your helmet on because you are in for a frenetic ride through history. The chapters go through so many rabbit holes, I felt I needed bread crumbs to find my way back to the topic. The writing reminded me of that annoying work colleague who always gives you a long-winded, much too detailed (and TMI) answer to your basic question. I also could only read one chapter at a time because I felt like I ate a 5 course meal and needed to digest. I also don't recommend reading this anytime near meal time -- there are many moments where I lost my appetite. I do give the author a lot of credit for all the research - and if you are looking for interesting tidbits about food (with all the caveats above), then I would recommend this book.

For those keen on food and on history, this is a fun book with a lot of strange and fascinating facts about food. Many of the discussions are provoked by a sensational idea, such as the possible link between vampires and a diet overly reliant on corn. The value of this book is that Siegel goes beyond the shocking statement: he explains with relevant facts and historical context. The writing style is conversational, yet the author provides footnotes and relies on reputable sources.
As the title implies, this book was not intended to be a comprehensive history; instead, each chapter has a particular theme (such as vanilla or breakfast cereal), though the discussion of each theme involves other foods and several historical eras. For me, some highlights include the chapter on pies, which describes early versions of pie (with inedible crust) and explains why apple pie is “American,” and the chapter on honey, which goes far beyond standard discussions of health and bees. There are too many good bits to list: every page has something new and fascinating.
I’ve read many, many books about food history, and though I received my copy of The Secret History of Food for free, this is a book I would spend my money on. I’ve already reread several chapters because the ideas are so interesting; when I mention something from this book to friends, they press me for details!
This review is based on an uncorrected proof ARC provided by Net Galley.

WOW I loved this book!! It was such a fun read. The author takes you on a journey of eating worldwide. I learned so much from this one. I know I will be going back to it in the future. There are all types of fun facts and origin stories presented in a colloquial style. I loved the different themes of the chapters. I will remember this one for a while and am so happy I got a chance to read it! I will have to look for more books by this author.

Matt Siegel’s The Secret History of Food is an entertaining and interesting book. It’s a fast read, and is well-written and heavily researched. Not just a history of food, but a history of the way we think and feel about food and how it is processed. It isn’t always pretty, and there are a few things I wish I didn’t now know. I’ll always wonder if my olive oil is really olive oil. and I enjoyed Siegel’s writing style.

I love reading about food history and this book is now one of my favorites.

Thanks to NetGalley and Ecco for the free ARC in exchange for an honest review.

As much as I am a fan of sarcasm, even I have an acceptable limit and this book surpassed that. The constant interjection of comments got in the way of enjoying the interesting information provided. It was overwhelming and distracting. I assume the author thought this added to the telling of the stories but instead it came across as him thinking himself quite clever. Just like an obnoxious guy at the bar, it ruined what could have been a good time. Between the various eye roll inducing comments, however, there was a lot of fascinating information. If only there were an edited version for people who want the secrets without so much sarcasm.

3.5, rounded up because I'll read anything about food. As evidenced by the massive amounts of citations (which encompass almost half the book), this is well-researched and comprehensive in the subjects about which Siegel chooses to write. The chapters are kind of scattered, but the information contained within is interesting and, at times, darkly funny--including a horrifying bit about the USDA and FDA.

It goes quickly (see: half the book being footnotes), so pick this up if you love Gastropod and other shows, movies, and books about food.