Thirty-eight outrageous, deliciously provocative pieces from Vogue's indomitable food critic-the man who eats everything, dreams perpetually of the ultimate food experience, and compulsively searches out the truth about how, why, and what we eat. Each section of his new book is a savory course of a splendid feast: For starters, in "Who Is Having All the Fun?," join Steingarten as he dons costly fishing gear and sets out on an epic hunt for bluefin tuna (whose raw belly meat is one of the most delicious things on earth), or read about how he was assaulted by toxic airline food (and be glad you didn't taste that little green leaf). Then, in "A Deep and Blinding Insight," partake of his investigative pursuits as he takes on salt chic (salt is salt, after all-isn't it?), assaults the FDA for banning succulent whole-milk cheeses in the name of hygienic sterility, and starts cooking dinners of braised short ribs for his dog when he can no longer withstand the baleful looks from his golden retriever confronted with desiccated dog-food pellets while his master sizzles sausages for himself. "There Is a God in Heaven," you'll find, be it in "Chocolate Dreams," "Caviar Emptor," or in the luscious taste of a superb boysenberry from the Chinos' farm. But for every reward, there is first "An Intense Hunt for the Facts": knowing the lobster includes understanding its sex life, the secret to supergoose is brining, and you have to aim a Raynger ST-8 at your baking stone in order to determine the heat for the perfect pizza. This is only a sampling of the gloriously entertaining menus that The Man Who Ate Everything dishes up this time around. You'll even find tucked under the plate some special recipes that he has climbed every mountain to obtain. Lucky for his audience that Jeffrey Steingarten is insatiable. Fast becoming a star among contemporary food writers, Steingarten returns with another compilation of his columns from Vogue. Steingarten's breakneck tour through the world of unlimited consumption takes him aboard a tuna boat to find the source of his favorite sushi selection, raw fatty bluefin. The reader benefits from Steingarten's thorough research into the murky history and spreading popularity of sushi. In another personal encounter, Steingarten takes issue with a government ban on a popular diet drug that had helped him maintain his gluttonous intake volume and still lose weight. He debunks current outrageous claims for the superiority of tony, expensive sea salts over the everyday blue-box variety. Steingarten watches a pig butchered in France and explores the origins of the outrageously complex Cajun dish, turducken. Ever on the lookout to skewer others' pretentious food allergy claims, he calls into doubt claims of MSG sensitivities. Despite his silly New York disdain for the Midwestern heartland, Steingarten casts useful illumination on many hitherto dim areas of our fascination with food. Mark Knoblauch Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved “Armed with a sense of adventure, a spymaster’s array of fancy gadgets, and a mind that finds it natural to introduce Boccaccio into a discussion of Parmesan cheese, he turns out little thrillers on the riddles of salt and the making of perfect pizza, salutes to chocolate and goose. Steingarten asserts that eaters ask modern cooking to be ‘stunning, original, precise, provocative, and very delicious,’ and his best prose displays those very qualities.”– Entertainment Weekly “Like the best food, nourishes and delights.”– Boston Globe “Endlessly entertaining and thought-provoking . . . Steingarten moves with boundless authority and wit between the search for a perfect espresso and investigations into why the Chinese don’t have all have MSG-induced headaches and whether different types of salt have different flavours. This is food-writing at its succulent best.”– The Sunday Times (London) “Erudition, sense of humour, graceful prose, fanatical gluttony–[Steingarten]’s got it all.”– The Guardian “The tireless culinary connoisseur is back in full force. . . . And somehow, during all his pursuits, he manages to remain an entirely likeable food snob–mainly because he’s funny, even self-deprecating.”– Time Out New York “A witty, humorous culinary road trip, even for those with a lesser interest in food. For serious gourmets and gourmands, it is a road trip not to be missed. Read it with a food you love.”– Fort Worth Star Telegram “Steingarten may be our most original investigative food writer.”–William Rice, Chicago Tribune outrageous, deliciously provocative pieces from Vogue's indomitable food critic-the man who eats everything, dreams perpetually of the ultimate food experience, and compulsively searches out the truth about how, why, and what we eat. Each section of his new book is a savory course of a splendid feast: For starters, in "Who Is Having All the Fun?," join Steingarten as he dons costly fishing gear and sets out on