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Cooked: A Natural History of Transformation Audiobook
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Publisher Description
Michael Pollan, the bestselling author of The Omnivore's Dilemma, Food Rules, and How to Change Your Mind, explores the previously uncharted territory of his own kitchen in Cooked. Cooked is now a Netflix docuseries based on the book that focuses on the four kinds of "transformations" that occur in cooking. Directed by Oscar-winning filmmaker Alex Gibney and starring Michael Pollan, Cooked teases out the links between science, culture and the flavors we love. In Cooked, Pollan discovers the enduring power of the four classical elements—fire, water, air, and earth—to transform the stuff of nature into delicious things to eat and drink. Apprenticing himself to a succession of culinary masters, Pollan learns how to grill with fire, cook with liquid, bake bread, and ferment everything from cheese to beer. Each section of Cooked tracks Pollan’s effort to master a single classic recipe using one of the four elements. A North Carolina barbecue pit master tutors him in the primal magic of fire; a Chez Panisse–trained cook schools him in the art of braising; a celebrated baker teaches him how air transforms grain and water into a fragrant loaf of bread; and finally, several mad-genius “fermentos” (a tribe that includes brewers, cheese makers, and all kinds of picklers) reveal how fungi and bacteria can perform the most amazing alchemies of all. The reader learns alongside Pollan, but the lessons move beyond the practical to become an investigation of how cooking involves us in a web of social and ecological relationships. Cooking, above all, connects us. The effects of not cooking are similarly far reaching. Relying upon corporations to process our food means we consume large quantities of fat, sugar, and salt; disrupt an essential link to the natural world; and weaken our relationships with family and friends. In fact, Cooked argues, taking back control of cooking may be the single most important step anyone can take to help make the American food system healthier and more sustainable. Reclaiming cooking as an act of enjoyment and self-reliance, learning to perform the magic of these everyday transformations, opens the door to a more nourishing life.
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“A powerful argument for a return tohome cooking of the sort that doesn’t begin with an attempt to find theperforated opening. Pollan is not the first person to issue this clarioncall…But perhaps only Pollan can so effectively pick up the threads of so manyfood movements, philosophies, and research papers and knit them into acompelling narrative with a crystal-clear message…because of the power of hisprose and his reasoning.”
— Washington Post
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“The book’s surplus of fascinating tidbits—about everything from barbecue (which Pollan connects to ritual animal sacrifice) to the mysterious workings of bread yeast—makes it a feast for intellectual omnivores.”
— Entertainment Weekly -
“Pollan takes what seems to be a subject close at hand (or even at mouth) and makes it fascinating in ways we never suspected.”
— Barnes & Noble, editorial review -
“You can’t help but appreciate Pollan’s genius for conveying the elemental appeal of making a meal.”
— Amazon.com, editorial review -
“Important, possibly life-altering, reading for every living, breathing human being.”
— Boston Globe -
“Pollan narrates his book in a conversational style filled with conviction and eagerness that drive the listener to join his evolutionary quest. He enthusiastically explores the culinary power of harnessing fire, water, air, and earth…Society, he warns, needs nourishment to be found not in corporate food preparation but in what connects us—meal creation together. Winner of an AudioFile Earphones Award.”
— AudioFile -
“[Cooked] makes for engaging and enlightening reading.”
— Publishers Weekly (starred review) -
“A delightful chronicle of the education of a cook who steps back frequently to extol the scientific and philosophical basis of this deeply satisfying human activity.”
— Kirkus Reviews (starred review) -
“Pollan’s latest is not to be missed.”
— Library Journal (starred review) -
“Pollan’s newest treatise on how food reaches the world’s tables delves into the history of how humankind turns raw ingredients into palatable and nutritious food. To bring some sense of order to this vast subject, he resurrects classical categories of fire, water, air, and earth.”
— Booklist (starred review)
Awards
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An Amazon Best Book of the Month, April 2013
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A New York Times bestseller
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A USA Today bestseller
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An AudioFile Editors’ Pick in May 2013
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Winner of an AudioFile Earphones Award
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A Wall Street Journal bestseller
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An Amazon Top 100 Book of 2013
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About Michael Pollan
Michael Pollan is the author of twelve books, several of which were New York Times bestsellers. In Defense of Food and How to Change Your Mind made the #1 spot on the New York Times bestsellers list. A long-time contributor to the New York Times Magazine, he teaches writing at Harvard University and the University of California, Berkeley. In 2010, Time magazine named him one of the one hundred most influential people in the world