Cinotto, S.(2013). The Italian American Table: Food, Family, and Community in New York City. Champaign: University of Illinois Press. Retrieved May 3, 2017, from Project MUSE database.

This text was instrumental to my project on Italian food culture and gender relationships. It is a detailed exploration of the Italian-American food culture that developed throughout the 20th century, and one with deep resonances in our discussions of the evolution of racism and immigration in and to the United States.

 

Coetzee, J. M., Gutmann, A., Garber, M. B., Singer, P., Doniger, W., & Smuts, B. B. (2016). The lives of animals. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.

 

Craughwell, T. J. (2012).Thomas Jefferson’s crème brûlée: how a Founding Father and his slave James Hemings introduced French cuisine to America. Philadelphia: Quirk Books.

This was the most used and most referenced book in my studies. It was both a fascinating biography of one of America’s most contested and complicated political figures and a culinary and cultural exploration of food. It challenges the reader to look beyond first assumptions about individuals such as Jefferson or members of the French monarchy, and instead picture them as people just like us, not removed by history, enjoying their favorite roast chickens and custard desserts.

 

DeWitt, D. (2010). The founding foodies: how Washington, Jefferson, and Franklin revolutionized American cuisine. Naperville, IL: Sourcebooks, Inc.

Similar to the above text, this book explored the relationship between various “Founding Fathers” of America and food. It goes into detail about the early American colonists and how American cuisine developed as a blend of familiar European foods and first foods of indigenous people whose land was stolen by those colonists. It tracks the movement of the American food canon and diet almost through present day, with numerous recipes and asides on various ingredients.

 

Eleven, B. (2015, October 09). Pavlova research reveals dessert’s shock origins. Retrieved May 03, 2017, from http://www.goodfood.com.au/eat-out/news/pavlova-research-reveals-desserts-shock-origins-20151010-gk5yv9

 

Le, S. (2016). One hundred million years of food: what our ancestors ate and why it matters today. New York: Picador.

 

Nealon, T. (2017). Food Fights & Culture Wars: A Secret History of Taste(1st ed.). The Overlook Press.

This was one of my favorite books to read. With many copies of primary source advertisements and recipes, it engaged the reader to explore not just the flavor of history, but its very potent aesthetics. It was from this book that I got my “plague lemonade” recipe, and it gave earlier historical context to the other books I read focused on the American colonial period.

 

O’Connell, L. H. (2015). The American plate: a culinary history in 100 bites. Naperville, IL: Sourcebooks, Inc.

 

Petrini, C. (2013). Slow food nation: why our food should be good, clean, and fair. New York, NY: Rizzoli Ex Libris.

 

Shiva, V. (2016). Who Really Feeds the World?London: Zed Books.

 

Smart-Grosvenor, V. (1970). Vibration cooking: or, The travel notes of a Geechee girl. Garden City, NY: Doubleday.