To Live and Dine in L.A.: Menus And The Making of the Modern City / from the Collection of the Los Angeles Public Library

by Josh Kun, Roy Choi (Foreword)

How did Los Angeles become the modern city the world watches? We know some of the answers all too well. Sunshine. Railroads. Hollywood. Freeways. But there's another often overlooked but especially delicious and revealing factor: food.

Think veggie tacos and designer pizzas, hot dogs on sticks and burgers from golden arches, Cobb Salads and chocolate-topped ice cream sundaes, not to mention the healthiest dishes on the planet. Ask anyone who has eaten in L.A.--the city shapes the tastes that predict how America eats. And it always has.

In its fourth book collaboration with the Los Angeles Public Library and the Library Foundation of Los Angeles, Angel City Press releases To Live and Dine in L.A.: Menus and the Making of the Modern City by Josh Kun. With more than 200 menus--some dating back to the nineteenth century--culled from thousands in the Menu Collection of the Los Angeles Public Library, TO LIVE AND DINE IN L.A. is a visual feast of a book.

Genres: Food

224 pages, Hardcover

First published June 1, 2015

Reviews

[Susan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent book on the history of restaurants in Los Angeles, as told through the menus. I loved reading about restaurants now gone but frequented by my parents and grandparents (Don the Beachcomber, Perino’s, Ship’s) and some of the ones that are still around ( the Pantry, Phillips’s). It’s a great book for Angelenos but also for others interested in the birth of certain foods begun by Los Angeles restaurants from the French dip sandwich to nachos to the Cobb salad to Korean BBQ burritos.

[Aloud LA]

ALOUD will present To Live and Dine in L.A.: L.A. Menus and the Making of the Modern CityJune 14, 2015.

This program is currently on Full/ Standby status. To Lean more visit www.lfla.org.

Can a city’s history be told through restaurant menus? In a second installment of a special collaboration with the Library Foundation to rediscover the Los Angeles Public Library’s vast archive, USC professor Josh Kun uses the Library’s menu collection to explore the shaping of Los Angeles, from the city’s first restaurants in the 1850s up through the most recent food revolutions. Join him for a multimedia tour of the L.A. menu paired with a conversation on L.A. food past and present with chefs: Joachim Splichal (Patina Group), Cynthia Hawkins (Hawkins House of Burgers), and Ricardo Diaz (Colonia Publica).

[Mike · Rating 4 out of 5]

Tracks the culinary history of Los Angeles from its agricultural roots to its current status as multicultural-multiethnic culinary paradise. From its self conscious east coast wannabe French phase to its embrace of the automobile drive thru, the selection of menus is diverse. It’s essays put it all into context and gives adequate historical context. Would have liked to have seen a bit more on the modern day dining scene post internet age.

[Malcolm · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a coffee table book. Interesting, and it brings back some memories, but better to be able to return it to the library than to have to store it.

[Piper Mount · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a good coffee table book, but not a good story.

Although this book is beautiful, it's ultimately mediocre because menus are kinda boring. There are definitely nuggets of interesting information in here. But even with a personal passion for cooking and food culture, I found the countless lists of menu items to be dull. I learned very little new information other than names of restaurants that no longer exist. The author makes a lot of big promises about what menus tell us about society, culture, people, and more, but he doesn't really show us the connections. I think a book written on LA culture or history, as told through menus, would be a better read than this book on menus with its cultural asides.

[Sheri]

Loved it. It's a beautifully produced book, with engagingly written essays. What a brilliant idea - to show how the multicultural history of this unique city is reflected through its menus and dining habits. I had a peek at the actual exhibition (plan to return), but I suspect this catalogue demonstrates the history better than the exhibition itself. The exhibition features 80 menus, but the essays are able to address more thoroughly the 9,000+ menus in the library's collection.

[Karen Pickard-Four · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great gift book! Holidays coming up.

[David · Rating 5 out of 5]

Recently awarded a MacArthur Genius, Josh Kun’s To Live and Dine in LA is a prime example of the cross-cultural, social and political work that he so deftly mines to produce new historic narratives. Ambitious and beautiful, eye-popping and eye-opening, TLADILA is the perfect book for your foodie friend who thinks they know all there is to know about the history and evolution of LA as a food lovers paradise.