The United States of Arugula: The Sun Dried, Cold Pressed, Dark Roasted, Extra Virgin Story of the American Food Revolution

One day we woke up and realized that our macaroni had become pasta, that our Wonder Bread had been replaced by organic whole wheat, that sushi was fast food, and thatour tomatoes were heirlooms. How did all this happen, and who made it happen? The United States of Arugula is the rollicking, revealing chronicle of how gourmet eating in America went from obscure topervasive, thanks to the contributions of some outsized, opinionated iconoclasts who couldn't abide the status quo.

Vanity Fair writer David Kamp chronicles this amazingtransformation, from the overcooked vegetables and scary gelatin salads of yore to our current heyday of free-range chickens, extra-virgin olive oil, Iron Chef, Whole Foods, Starbucks, and that breed ofhuman known as the foodie. In deft fashion, Kamp conjures up vivid images of the Big Three, the lodestars who led us out of this culinary wilderness: James Beard, the hulking, bald, flamboyant Oregonian who made the case for American cookery; Julia Child, the towering, warbling giantess who demystified French cuisine for Americans; and Craig Claiborne, the melancholy, sexually confusedMississippian who all but invented food journalism at the New York Times. The story continues onward with candid, provocative commentary from the food figures who prospered in the Big Three'swake: Alice Waters and Jeremiah Tower of Berkeley's Chez Panisse, Wolfgang Puck and his L.A. acolytes, the visionary chefs we know by one name (Emeril, Daniel, Mario, Jean-Georges), theWilliams in Williams-Sonoma, the Niman in Niman Ranch, both Dean and DeLuca, and many others.

A rich, frequently uproarious stew of culinaryinnovation, flavor revelations, balsamic pretensions, taste-making luminaries, food politics, and kitchen confidences, The United States of Arugula is the remarkable history of thecultural success story of our era.

From the Hardcover edition.

An entertaining compilation of essays goes inside the American food revolution to explore the growing interest in gourmet eating, chronicling the evolution of the movement and profiling those responsible for the transformation, including James Beard, Julia Child, Craig Clairborne, Alice Waters, Wolfgang Puck, Emeril Legasse, and others. Reprint. 30,000 first printing.

david kamp has been a writer and editor for Vanity Fair and GQ for more than a decade. He lives in New York.

Introduction: a world without celebrity chefs — America's dysfunctional relationship with good food — Libert