Lost Feast, Lenore Newman
Lost Feast, Lenore Newman
List: $19.99 | Sale: $13.99
Club: $9.99

Lost Feast
Culinary Extinction and the Future of Food

Author: Lenore Newman

Narrator: Tanya Eby

Unabridged: 9 hr 8 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Tantor Media

Published: 10/08/2019


Synopsis

A rollicking exploration of the history and future of our favorite foods.

When we humans love foods, we love them a lot. In fact, we have often eaten them into extinction, whether it is the megafauna of the Paleolithic world or the passenger pigeon of the last century. In Lost Feast, food expert Lenore Newman sets out to look at the history of the foods we have loved to death and what that means for the culinary paths we choose for the future. Whether it's chasing down the luscious butter of local Icelandic cattle or looking at the impacts of modern industrialized agriculture on the range of food varieties we can put in our shopping carts, Newman's bright, intelligent gaze finds insight and humor at every turn.

Bracketing the chapters that look at the history of our relationship to specific foods, Lenore enlists her ecologist friend and fellow cook, Dan, in a series of "extinction dinners" designed to recreate meals of the past or to illustrate how we might be eating in the future. Part culinary romp, part environmental wake-up call, Lost Feast makes a critical contribution to our understanding of food security today. You will never look at what's on your plate in quite the same way again.

About Lenore Newman

Lenore Newman is the Canada Research Chair in Food Security and Environment at the University of the Fraser Valley. She is the author of the acclaimed Speaking in Cod Tongues: A Canadian Culinary Journey. She divides her time between Vancouver and Roberts Creek, British Columbia.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Kara on September 02, 2020

The concept of culinary extinction came to my attention late last year, and it was one of those very intriguing, “Oh, yeah, I want to know more abou that” moments. I listened to Lenore Newman on an interview with Quirks & Quarks, and I also added Rob Dunn’s Never Out of Season to my to-read list......more

Goodreads review by Denver Public Library on April 14, 2021

This is a delightful, almost conversational read that lights on a variety of bits of culinary history, ranging from pad thai–stealing gulls to the reinvention of the hamburger to the extinction of passenger pigeons (and the many recipes for serving it before it disappeared). Newman shares many of he......more

Goodreads review by Jessica (bean) on September 02, 2021

It was enjoyable, but I wouldn’t read it again. Felt bogged down at some parts (maybe it’s just the flashbacks to biology class I got…), but, overall, I felt like I learned stuff so that’s good.......more

Goodreads review by Ben on June 24, 2022

This was a fairly basic read to me to be honest. I did find some of it interesting and discovered some good foods, but it just wasn’t anything too spectacular to me. 3.0/5......more

Goodreads review by Tanya on October 03, 2019

Think of a great library of flavours. For the last century we have been recklessly burning all of the books. [loc. 1824[ The author is a professor of culinary geography, a job I had no idea existed: 'combines my love of travel with my love of eating'. Her investigation of species extinction and its i......more