OP: The Taste of America

Grossman Publishers, 1977. Hardcover. Near Fine in a Very Good jacket. First printing.    

John and Karen Hess, husband and wife, spent their professional lives swimming against the current. A brilliant and thorny couple, they established themselves as the arbiters of what was good and—more frequently—what was bad about American food in the twentieth century. 

John (1917–2005) was an accomplished journalist with many years at The New York Times, although he served only a few tumultuous months as food critic of that paper. Karen (1918–2007) was a food writer and became, in time, one of the leading figures in the emerging field of culinary history. 

Rigorous in their attention to detail in every sector of the food world—from the way crops are grown to the culture of restaurants—the Hesses repeatedly asserted that the country’s great culinary breakthroughs in the post-WWII era degraded the way we eat rather than enhanced it. In a number of articles written in the 1970s, culminating in this book published in 1977, they deplored the loss of traditional American foodways and their replacement with new movements and overbearing trendiness.

This abrasive and controversial book was a sensation when first published. Its disparagement of the new world of hyper-sophisticated and pretentious ingredients and preparation methods is accompanied by an assault on the “cult of recipes” and on those who spread the doctrine of gourmet food—even such icons as Craig Claiborne and Julia Child. 

There have been many changes since The Taste of America was published, but this iconoclastic and totally startling book continues to be read and appreciated as a classic of American food literature.

We are happy to offer a Near Fine first printing in a Very Good jacket, which bears a crease to the front flap and an old price sticker to the front.