The Untold History of the Potato

The Untold History of the Potato

Author: John Reader

Publisher: Random House

Published: 2009

Total Pages: 338

ISBN-13: 0099474794

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From the gold potatoes at the Sun Temple in Cuzco, Peru, the muddy ones in Ireland and those grown in China for MacDonalds chips, via Mrs Beeton, Charles Darwin, Lenin and Chairman Mao, to the mapping of the potato genome, the story of the spud is both satisfying and fascinating.


98% Pure Potato

98% Pure Potato

Author: John Griffiths

Publisher: Unbound Publishing

Published: 2016-06-30

Total Pages: 294

ISBN-13: 1783522291

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From the late 1960s, advertising agency account planners helped to develop long-running advertising campaigns that went on to build the well-known household brands we still use today. It was the golden era of advertising, partly because the campaigns seemed to connect with consumers so well. But who were the account planners who helped to develop these campaigns and build these brands? In 98% Pure Potato, the untold history of those real-life men and women is revealed through insights and anecdotes from some of account planning’s most revered pioneers: David Baker, John Bruce, David Cowan, Lee Godden, Christine Gray, Ev Jenkins, John Madell, Jane Newman, Jim Williams, Roderick White, Paul Feldwick, Jan Zajac and many more. Industry experts John Griffiths and Tracey Follows trace the true beginnings, rise and evolution of the discipline that came to be known as ‘advertising account planning’, uncovering how the UK’s most iconic campaigns came to be, and exploring what challenges and opportunities lie ahead. This is the enlightening history of how a fundamental part of advertising practice came out of the UK, as well as an instrumental guide for anyone working or hoping to work in the advertising industry today.


Potato

Potato

Author: John Reader

Publisher:

Published: 2011

Total Pages: 315

ISBN-13: 9780300171457

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Photojournalist Reader (Africa: A Biography of the Continent) traces the humble potato from its roots in the Peruvian Andes to J.R. Simplot's multibillion-dollar-a-year French fry business. Despite its predilection to disease, the potato is a highly adaptable, high-yield, and nutrient-packed foodstuff. While this title focuses primarily on the potato's presence in South America and Europe, it also touches on Papua New Guinea, New Zealand, and China-currently the world's largest producer and consumer of potatoes. Verdict: Curiously little attention is paid to the tuber's contributions to the culinary and beverage landscape; the UK subtitle of this work, "The Potato in World History," provides a more accurate description of the focus of the text.


'We Are Going to Pick Potatoes'

'We Are Going to Pick Potatoes'

Author: Irene Levin Berman

Publisher: Hamilton Books

Published: 2010-03-16

Total Pages: 201

ISBN-13: 0761850120

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Irene Levin Berman was born, raised, and educated in Norway. Her first conscious recollection of life goes back to 1942, when as a young child she escaped to Sweden, a neutral country during World War II, to avoid annihilation. Germany had invaded Norway and the persecution of two thousand Norwegian Jews had begun. Seven members of her father's family were among the seven hundred and seventy-one unfortunate persons who were deported and sent to Auschwitz. In 2005, Irene was forced to examine the label of being a Holocaust survivor. Her strong dual identity as a Norwegian and a Jew led her to explore previously unopened doors in her mind. This is not a narrative of the Holocaust alone, but the remembrance of growing up Jewish in Norway during and after WWII. In addition to the richness of both her Norwegian and Jewish cultures, she ultimately acquired yet another identity as an American.


Eight Flavors

Eight Flavors

Author: Sarah Lohman

Publisher: Simon and Schuster

Published: 2016-12-06

Total Pages: 304

ISBN-13: 1476753954

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This unique culinary history of America offers a fascinating look at our past and uses long-forgotten recipes to explain how eight flavors changed how we eat. The United States boasts a culturally and ethnically diverse population which makes for a continually changing culinary landscape. But a young historical gastronomist named Sarah Lohman discovered that American food is united by eight flavors: black pepper, vanilla, curry powder, chili powder, soy sauce, garlic, MSG, and Sriracha. In Eight Flavors, Lohman sets out to explore how these influential ingredients made their way to the American table. She begins in the archives, searching through economic, scientific, political, religious, and culinary records. She pores over cookbooks and manuscripts, dating back to the eighteenth century, through modern standards like How to Cook Everything by Mark Bittman. Lohman discovers when each of these eight flavors first appear in American kitchens—then she asks why. Eight Flavors introduces the explorers, merchants, botanists, farmers, writers, and chefs whose choices came to define the American palate. Lohman takes you on a journey through the past to tell us something about our present, and our future. We meet John Crowninshield a New England merchant who traveled to Sumatra in the 1790s in search of black pepper. And Edmond Albius, a twelve-year-old slave who lived on an island off the coast of Madagascar, who discovered the technique still used to pollinate vanilla orchids today. Weaving together original research, historical recipes, gorgeous illustrations and Lohman’s own adventures both in the kitchen and in the field, Eight Flavors is a delicious treat—ready to be devoured.


Black Potatoes

Black Potatoes

Author: Susan Campbell Bartoletti

Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

Published: 2014-07-29

Total Pages: 280

ISBN-13: 0547530854

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Sibert Award Winner: This true story of five years of starvation in Ireland is “a fascinating account of a terrible time” (Kirkus Reviews). In 1845, a disaster struck Ireland. Overnight, a mysterious blight attacked the potato crops, turning the potatoes black and destroying the only real food of nearly six million people. Over the next five years, the blight attacked again and again. These years are known today as the Great Irish Famine, a time when one million people died from starvation and disease and two million more fled their homeland. Black Potatoes is the compelling story of men, women, and children who defied landlords and searched empty fields for scraps of harvested vegetables and edible weeds to eat, who walked several miles each day to hard-labor jobs for meager wages and to reach soup kitchens, and who committed crimes just to be sent to jail, where they were assured of a meal. It’s the story of children and adults who suffered from starvation, disease, and the loss of family and friends, as well as those who died. Illustrated with black and white engravings, it’s also the story of the heroes among the Irish people and how they held on to hope. “Bartoletti humanizes the big events by bringing the reader up close to the lives of ordinary people.”—Booklist (starred review)


The Untold History of Ramen

The Untold History of Ramen

Author: George Solt

Publisher: Univ of California Press

Published: 2014-02-22

Total Pages: 241

ISBN-13: 0520958373

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A rich, salty, and steaming bowl of noodle soup, ramen has become an international symbol of the cultural prowess of Japanese cuisine. In this highly original account of geopolitics and industrialization in Japan, George Solt traces the meteoric rise of ramen from humble fuel for the working poor to international icon of Japanese culture. Ramen’s popularity can be attributed to political and economic change on a global scale. Using declassified U.S. government documents and an array of Japanese sources, Solt reveals how the creation of a black market for American wheat imports during the U.S. occupation of Japan (1945–1952), the reindustrialization of Japan’s labor force during the Cold War, and the elevation of working-class foods in redefining national identity during the past two decades of economic stagnation (1990s–2000s), all contributed to the establishment of ramen as a national dish. This book is essential reading for scholars, students of Japanese history and food studies, and anyone interested in gaining greater perspective on how international policy can influence everyday foods around the world.


Dinner with Darwin

Dinner with Darwin

Author: Jonathan Silvertown

Publisher: University of Chicago Press

Published: 2017-09-05

Total Pages: 241

ISBN-13: 022648923X

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A “delectably erudite” study of how natural selection has shaped the foods we eat: “This intricate scientific banquet is a marvelous read: bon appétit.” —Nature What do eggs, flour, and milk have in common? They form the basis of waffles, of course, but these breakfast staples also share an evolutionary function: eggs, seeds (from which we derive flour by grinding), and milk have each evolved to nourish offspring. Indeed, ponder the genesis of your breakfast, lunch, or dinner, and you’ll soon realize that everything we eat and drink has an evolutionary history. Dinner with Darwin is a multicourse meal of evolutionary gastronomy, a tantalizing tour of human taste that helps us understand the origins of our diets and the foods that have been central to them for millennia—from spices to spirits. A delectable concoction of coevolution and cookery, gut microbiomes and microherbs, and both the chicken and its egg, it reveals that our recipe cards and restaurant menus don’t just contain the ingredients for culinary delight. They also tell a fascinating story about natural selection and its influence on our plates—and palates. Digging deeper, Jonathan Silvertown’s repast includes entrées into GMOs and hybrids, and looks at the science of our sensory interactions with foods and cooking—the sights, aromas, and tastes we experience in our kitchens and dining rooms. As is the wont of any true chef, he packs his menu with eclectic components, dishing on everything from Charles Darwin’s intestinal maladies to taste bud anatomy and turducken. Our evolutionary relationship with food and drink stretches from the days of cave dwellers to contemporary crêperies and beyond, and Dinner with Darwin serves up scintillating insight into the entire awesome span. With a wit as dry as a fine pinot noir and a vast cache of evolutionary knowledge, Silvertown whets our appetites—and leaves us hungry for more. “The book left me feeling as if I had attended a dinner party, where foodies, historians, and scientists mingled, sharing vignettes on various food-related topics.” —Science


Feeding the People

Feeding the People

Author: Rebecca Earle

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2020-06-25

Total Pages: 321

ISBN-13: 1108484069

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Almost no one knew what a potato was in 1500. Today they are the world's fourth most important food. How did this happen?


Voyage of Mercy

Voyage of Mercy

Author: Stephen Puleo

Publisher: St. Martin's Press

Published: 2020-03-03

Total Pages: 255

ISBN-13: 1250200482

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“Puleo has found a new way to tell the story with this well-researched and splendidly written chronicle of the Jamestown, its captain, and an Irish priest who ministered to the starving in Cork city...Puleo’s tale, despite the hardship to come, surely is a tribute to the better angels of America’s nature, and in that sense, it couldn’t be more timely.” —The Wall Street Journal The remarkable story of the mission that inspired a nation to donate massive relief to Ireland during the potato famine and began America's tradition of providing humanitarian aid around the world More than 5,000 ships left Ireland during the great potato famine in the late 1840s, transporting the starving and the destitute away from their stricken homeland. The first vessel to sail in the other direction, to help the millions unable to escape, was the USS Jamestown, a converted warship, which left Boston in March 1847 loaded with precious food for Ireland. In an unprecedented move by Congress, the warship had been placed in civilian hands, stripped of its guns, and committed to the peaceful delivery of food, clothing, and supplies in a mission that would launch America’s first full-blown humanitarian relief effort. Captain Robert Bennet Forbes and the crew of the USS Jamestown embarked on a voyage that began a massive eighteen-month demonstration of soaring goodwill against the backdrop of unfathomable despair—one nation’s struggle to survive, and another’s effort to provide a lifeline. The Jamestown mission captured hearts and minds on both sides of the Atlantic, of the wealthy and the hardscrabble poor, of poets and politicians. Forbes’ undertaking inspired a nationwide outpouring of relief that was unprecedented in size and scope, the first instance of an entire nation extending a hand to a foreign neighbor for purely humanitarian reasons. It showed the world that national generosity and brotherhood were not signs of weakness, but displays of quiet strength and moral certitude. In Voyage of Mercy, Stephen Puleo tells the incredible story of the famine, the Jamestown voyage, and the commitment of thousands of ordinary Americans to offer relief to Ireland, a groundswell that provided the collaborative blueprint for future relief efforts, and established the United States as the leader in international aid. The USS Jamestown’s heroic voyage showed how the ramifications of a single decision can be measured not in days, but in decades.