Vegetables

May 15, 2012

It's a tall order to discuss ten vegetables in ten brief chapters with panache, history, and cultural and scientific insight. Readers will be delighted that Bloch-Dano (Madame Proust: A Biography) delivers with this thoroughly refreshing view of ten veggies that everyone will recognize from the produce aisle of the grocery store. The book begins with a discussion of taste and a section on food and eating--both of which lay the groundwork for the following chapters on the individual vegetables. The book was inspired by a friend of Bloch-Dano, who challenged the author to produce "biographies" for multiple vegetables. These short pieces were then presented to the participants of a program that taught individuals how to garden. That friend's challenge was more than met by these charming sketches, which, through Fagan's translation, are now available for all English speakers to enjoy. VERDICT Recommended for readers interested in the history and culture surrounding food and cooking.--Michael D. Cramer, Schwarz BioSciences, RTP, NC

Copyright 2012 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

March 1, 2012
Lovely as a display of vegetables at the local supermarket may appear, few shoppers have any idea of the unique histories behind each of those leaves, tubers, or roots. Bloch-Dano surveys ten vegetables common within Europe. Some, such as the pea and the tomato, are all too familiar; others, such as the cardoon, strike a chord only for a serious foodie. Tracing the origins of vegetable names from classical times forward, Bloch-Dano displays her erudite command of culinary history with both literary and historical anecdotes. For example, today's familiar orange carrot was outnumbered in Renaissance times by white, yellow, and even purple exemplars. Jerusalem artichokes, or sunchokes, appeared on many tables. A few simple recipes from early cookbooks appear throughout the text. Digesting the contents of this little book yields a trove of trivia with which to impress shoppers and vendors alike at the farmers' market. Translated from the French.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2012, American Library Association.)