Urban Appetites: Food and Culture in Nineteenth-Century New York

by Cindy R. Lobel

Glossy magazines write about them, celebrities give their names to them, and you’d better believe there’s an app (or ten) committed to finding you the right one. They are New York City restaurants and food shops. And their journey to international notoriety is a captivating one. The now-booming food capital was once a small seaport city, home to a mere six municipal food markets that were stocked by farmers, fishermen, and hunters who lived in the area. By 1890, however, the city’s population had grown to more than one million, and residents could dine in thousands of restaurants with a greater abundance and variety of options than any other place in the United States.

Historians, sociologists, and foodies alike will devour the story of the origins of New York City’s food industry in  Urban Appetites . Cindy R. Lobel focuses on the rise of New York as both a metropolis and a food capital, opening a new window onto the intersection of the cultural, social, political, and economic transformations of the nineteenth century. She offers wonderfully detailed accounts of public markets and private food shops; basement restaurants and immigrant diners serving favorites from the old country; cake and coffee shops; and high-end, French-inspired eating houses made for being seen in society as much as for dining.  But as the food and the population became increasingly cosmopolitan, corruption, contamination, and undeniably inequitable conditions escalated.  Urban Appetites  serves up a complete picture of the evolution of the city, its politics, and its foodways.

Genres: History, Food, Nonfiction

288 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2014

About the author

An urban historian who did research on the economic and social elements of life in 19th-century New York through the lens of food and eating.

She died on Oct. 2, 2018 in Manhattan at the age of 48.

Reviews

[Morgan · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is so fascinating. Lobel writes about NYC's food scene, and how it is intertwined with all sorts of issues: the law, industrialization, technology, economic and political decisions, gender, class, race, immigration, and more. She writes in a way that is academic yet clear; this is a history book that is definitely "readable," particularly for non-historians like me. So much of this book will be familiar to people involved in the locavore movement and other pushes for sustainable, cooperative, and other food initiatives, but one of her main points is that these issues have been around for centuries and that the American food system is so tied into all these other issues that they must be addressed first.

[Ar · Rating 3 out of 5]

There are a couple of strange inconsistencies in this book that is otherwise very readable and enlightening. About halfway through, while exploring 19th Century kitchen appliances, cook stoves are introduced and contrasted to open hearth cooking. Prior to that, the methods of cooking had never even been mentioned. The focus had been on how New Yorkers shopped for food and the market systems. That was rather jolting as it would have stood to reason that there would have been some reference to how New Yorkers had cooked the food that they bought prior to midway through the book. In addition, when discussing ethnic food restaurants in the latter 19th century, the Dairy restaurant came up and the author describes the foods served there beginning with "cured meats." The dairy restaurant generally catered to Jewish immigrants and no meat was served in these establishments as far as I understand. Otherwise, it was an enjoyable read about New York foodways.

[Annie White · Rating 3 out of 5]

Subject matter 4 stars, execution 3

[Wendy · Rating 3 out of 5]

a true history book. not the easiest to read, although, some of the information was fascinating.