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Best Food Writing 2017
"Browse, read a bit, browse some more, and then head for the kitchen."-- Hudson Valley News
From small-town bakeries to big city restaurants, Best Food Writing offers a bounty of everything in one place. For eighteen years, Holly Hughes has scoured both the online and print world to serve up the finest collection of food writing. This year, Best food Writing delves into the intersection of fine dining and food justice, culture and ownership, tradition and modernity; as well as profiles on some of the most fascinating people in the culinary world today. Once again, these standout essays--compelling, hilarious, poignant, illuminating--speak to the core of our hearts and fill our bellies. Whether you're a fan of Michel Richard or Guy Fieri--or both--there's something for everyone here. Take a seat and dig in.
From small-town bakeries to big city restaurants, Best Food Writing offers a bounty of everything in one place. For eighteen years, Holly Hughes has scoured both the online and print world to serve up the finest collection of food writing. This year, Best food Writing delves into the intersection of fine dining and food justice, culture and ownership, tradition and modernity; as well as profiles on some of the most fascinating people in the culinary world today. Once again, these standout essays--compelling, hilarious, poignant, illuminating--speak to the core of our hearts and fill our bellies. Whether you're a fan of Michel Richard or Guy Fieri--or both--there's something for everyone here. Take a seat and dig in.
368 pages, Paperback
First published October 17, 2017
41 people are currently reading
107 people want to read
About the author
Holly Hughes
53 books8 followersHolly Hughes has edited the annual Best Food Writing series since its inception in 2000. The author of Frommer's 500 Places for Food and Wine Lovers, she lives in New York City.
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Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews
December 20, 2017
I would imagine the difficulty in producing an annual collection like this lies in quality and content. An editor is limited to what essays were submitted during the course of the year, however well they may have been written, and the topics upon which the zeitgeist spun. It should surprise very few of us to find the issue at the forefront of 2017's culinary ruminations is that of cultural appropriation. Whose food is it? Who gets to make it? How does privilege factor in to opportunities for employment, creative fulfillment and, above all, profit? What is the ethical obligation of those who choose to capitalize on deeply-rooted, traditional flavor profiles and time-honored preparations in an effort to launch into the stratosphere of culinary renown?
It should also surprise very few of us - especially those who spend any time at all on the Internet - that society as a whole is very new to this conversation and, at the moment, very bad at it. The depth, complexity and pain involved in merely setting the matter on the table...well, it's simply not going to penetrate that meme mentality the tech giants have worked so hard to perpetuate. There's a lot of short-circuiting going on, which leads to anger, confusion, and expressions of opinion that tend to shut down communication rather than propel it to a place of insight and productive negotiation. A great portion of this book fell victim to that. There's no one to fault here. It is, I think, simply a matter of owning where we are.
There came, however, three essays at the rear of the work that impressed the heck out of me. The first, Brett Martin's The Chef Loses It, is a profile of Charleston chef Sean Brock and his struggle to re-invent his flagship restaurant while undergoing the debilitating effects of myasthenia gravis. The second piece is titled La Serenata, written by poet/novelist Floyd Skloot, about an Italian café that took him into its embrace at age eleven...in the wake of his father's critical injury from a car accident. The third essay is actually an excerpt from Elissa Altman's memoir, Treyf: My Life as an Unorthodox Outlaw. Family, food, and profound frustration. An exceptional voice.
These accounts of life, it should be mentioned, are also matters of owning where we are.
It should also surprise very few of us - especially those who spend any time at all on the Internet - that society as a whole is very new to this conversation and, at the moment, very bad at it. The depth, complexity and pain involved in merely setting the matter on the table...well, it's simply not going to penetrate that meme mentality the tech giants have worked so hard to perpetuate. There's a lot of short-circuiting going on, which leads to anger, confusion, and expressions of opinion that tend to shut down communication rather than propel it to a place of insight and productive negotiation. A great portion of this book fell victim to that. There's no one to fault here. It is, I think, simply a matter of owning where we are.
There came, however, three essays at the rear of the work that impressed the heck out of me. The first, Brett Martin's The Chef Loses It, is a profile of Charleston chef Sean Brock and his struggle to re-invent his flagship restaurant while undergoing the debilitating effects of myasthenia gravis. The second piece is titled La Serenata, written by poet/novelist Floyd Skloot, about an Italian café that took him into its embrace at age eleven...in the wake of his father's critical injury from a car accident. The third essay is actually an excerpt from Elissa Altman's memoir, Treyf: My Life as an Unorthodox Outlaw. Family, food, and profound frustration. An exceptional voice.
These accounts of life, it should be mentioned, are also matters of owning where we are.
March 13, 2019
Best Food Writing 2017 Paperback – by Holly Hughes (2017), Da Capo Lifelong Books
I don’t normally make a habit of reviewing “best of” anthologies where there are general food articles. Not that these cannot be great fun and wonderful reads sure to pass the time of your commute or a lazy Sunday. Up until now, I had not read one that made me sit up and take notice. In many cases they had been filled with articles from food magazines that I had already read and was not too overly jazzed about to read more than once.
There was a section of the anthology that I wanted to speak of the most as it had what I believe to be the greatest impact on me and that was the section titled “Whose food is it anyway?” This section had several articles by various authors on the topic of Culinary Cultural appropriation, and they were all outstanding and worth looking at. (In fact, I think you should.)
While I loved many of the articles that were included in this anthology, I really sat up and took notice of the articles that were in the “WFIIA?” portion of the work. I found that these articles gave me the most to think about and had stayed with me well after I had put the anthology down.
These six articles in this portion of the anthology are part of a growing debate with many opinions that are being debated through media. (Twitter, Facebook, blogs, etc.) Culinary cultural appropriation is part of the media debate centering on when privileged white cooks are taking credit when exploiting various culinary types of cooking from cultures not their own. You may have seen numerous examples of this in recent media articles, but the act has been happening for over a century and it’s not exactly news. (Especially when the “cooks” are attempting to use not just a cultures cuisine, but the secret techniques used by a specific cook.)
Most notably was the article co authored by John T. Edge and Tunde Wey. This two-part article titled “Who owns Southern Food” (Link below) was a standout in its frankness and honesty. I liked that this was a “No holds barred” article that hoped to tell it like it is and did just that. Edge wrote “if I acknowledged the inequities and subjugations on which much of Southern cuisine was built, Tunde asked—was I willing to cede what whites have gained at the expense of blacks? Am I willing, now, to cede what I have gained? We settled on a scheme in which I cede half of my column for this issue. Tunde addresses the controversy and concludes with a question for me. I respond. And we split the pay.” The Question that Wey ultimately asks Edge is “what will you willingly give up ensuring the Southern food narrative services properly and fully the contributions of black Southerners?” I’ll allow you to read Edge’s response so as not to spoil the article for you further.
Laura Shunks excellent article “Who Has the Right to Capitalize on a Culture’s Cuisine?” (Also listed below) In this article Shunks poses the question “Who has the right to capitalize on a particular culture’s cuisine? Who has the right to cook it, and who can write about it?” She goes on to include excerpts from other articles and her situation as an American Food writer in China. Of this question, Shunks answers that “It’s on me to be a better journalist. It’s on all of media to elevate voices of diverse backgrounds to add to our collective understanding of the complex cultural and racial history that we’re a part of in America. And it’s on all of us to consider the context of our actions, to seek perspective that might differ from our own, to engage in breaking down walls, to listen to each other, and to understand that America is really a patchwork of contributions from a multitude of backgrounds, and culture is always a work in progress.”
Michael Twitty article “Writing About Food at the Intersection of Gayness, Blackness & Faith” (Link below) Twitty is a food historian and living food archivist who tackles the question of how queerness fits into his brand and the story I'm trying to tell about both the past and the present. Twitty discusses the dialogue in the world of food about homophobia in the food industry and how gayness, Blackness intersect in his life. Twitty writes “it's not just the social justice activism that comes into the kitchen with me: It's a pride in how the food should taste, look, feel, and what it communicates. Gay men have been culturally written out of history because we are often branded as individuals who will not contribute to the reproductive flow of the generations and therefore have little or no investment in normative tradition.” And “In the same spirit, I want to honor the food past and ensure it is part of the cultural inheritance of everyone who loves the food of the African Diaspora and the American South. I embrace the idea that honing certain gay sensibilities helps me to appreciate the aesthetics of the Southern meal.”
Likewise, the articles by Luke Tsai “Cooking Other People's Food: How Chefs Appropriate Bay Area 'Ethnic' Cuisine” (Link below) and Gustavo Arrellanos article “IN DEFENSE OF THE MEXICAN-AMERICAN CHEF, OR: NO ONE HATES ON MEXICANS LIKE MEXICANS” (Link below) were both excellent and continue the same theme of Culinary appropriation and should be read to understand the topic in depth.
The other chapters include “The Way we Eat Now”, “Foodways”, “How my City Eats”, “Updating the Classics”, “Someone’s in the Kitchen”, “They Also Serve”, “Down the Hatch”, and “Personal Tastes”
In the chapter “The Way we Eat Now” has an article that is very interesting called “Japan’s cult food drama The Lonely Gourmet is essentially pornography.” By Matthew Amster Burton. This is a fascinating tale of a families bonding over following the trend of eating in restaurants featured in the Mukbang TV show Kodoku no Gurume or “Lonely Gourmet” a TV show featuring a lonely businessman eating in various restaurants.
From the section “Personal Tastes” was a great article “Wheat Exile” from the book “In Memory of Bread” written by Paul Graham about the authors diagnosis of Celiac disease and his inability to eat foods containing gluten. Also, in this section is the excellent “My father the YouTube star” by Kevin Pang. This article is about the author (a food writer) who’s bonds with his father over a mutual love of food, and the fathers becoming a YouTube star with a channel featuring Shanghainese food.
This anthology covers a lot of topics and Instead of listing them all I will instead offer my encouragement to explore this volume and continue to explore the others, and I hope that encourages you to explore some of the writers here who have produced other great works as well. I myself am excited by my discoveries in this Anthology, and I am looking forward to seeing what some of these authors produce next.
• Holly Hughes is the author of Frommer's 500 Places for Food and Wine Lovers. You can find out about her and her work on her website at http://www.hollyahughes.net/
• John T Edge is a writer who is an authority on the American South. The Penguin Press published his latest book, The Potlikker Papers: A Food History of the Modern South, named a best book of 2017 by NPR, Publisher ‘s Weekly, and a host of others. You can learn more about Mr. Edge at http://johntedge.com/ His article “Who owns southern food?” can be viewed at https://www.oxfordamerican.org/magazi...
• Laura Shunk is a food and travel writer who was Westword's restaurant critic from 2010 to 2012; she's also been food editor at the Village Voice and a dining columnist in Beijing. Her article Who Has the Right to Capitalize on a Culture’s Cuisine? Can be found at
https://food52.com/blog/17587-who-has...
• Michael Twitty is an African American-Jewish culinary historian and educator. He is the author of The Cooking Gene, published by HarperCollins/Amistad, which won the 2018 James Beard Foundation Book Award for Book of the Year. His article full article “Writing About Food at the Intersection of Gayness, Blackness & Faith” can be found at
https://food52.com/blog/17071-writing...
• Tunde Wey is an artist, chef and writer who lives in New Orleans. Mr. Wey uses food and dining spaces to (as he says in on his website) “interrogate structures of power.” Wey has been featured in The New York Times, NPR, GQ, The Washington Post, VOGUE, Black Enterprise, Food and Wine, and his writing has appeared in the Oxford American, Boston Globe, and San Francisco Chronicle. http://www.fromlagos.com/
• Luke Tsai the former food editor of San Francisco Magazine, and former restaurant critic for East Bay Express. His article “Cooking Other People's Food: How Chefs Appropriate Bay Area 'Ethnic' Cuisine” can be seen at the following link
https://www.eastbayexpress.com/oaklan...
• Gustavo Arrellano is the former publisher and editor of Orange County's alternative weekly OC Weekly, and the author of the column ¡Ask a Mexican! which is syndicated nationally. Arrellano is a features writer for the Los Angeles Times. https://tinyletter.com/gustavoarellan...
His article “IN DEFENSE OF THE MEXICAN-AMERICAN CHEF, OR: NO ONE HATES ON MEXICANS LIKE MEXICANS.” Can be found at https://ocweekly.com/in-defense-of-th...
I don’t normally make a habit of reviewing “best of” anthologies where there are general food articles. Not that these cannot be great fun and wonderful reads sure to pass the time of your commute or a lazy Sunday. Up until now, I had not read one that made me sit up and take notice. In many cases they had been filled with articles from food magazines that I had already read and was not too overly jazzed about to read more than once.
There was a section of the anthology that I wanted to speak of the most as it had what I believe to be the greatest impact on me and that was the section titled “Whose food is it anyway?” This section had several articles by various authors on the topic of Culinary Cultural appropriation, and they were all outstanding and worth looking at. (In fact, I think you should.)
While I loved many of the articles that were included in this anthology, I really sat up and took notice of the articles that were in the “WFIIA?” portion of the work. I found that these articles gave me the most to think about and had stayed with me well after I had put the anthology down.
These six articles in this portion of the anthology are part of a growing debate with many opinions that are being debated through media. (Twitter, Facebook, blogs, etc.) Culinary cultural appropriation is part of the media debate centering on when privileged white cooks are taking credit when exploiting various culinary types of cooking from cultures not their own. You may have seen numerous examples of this in recent media articles, but the act has been happening for over a century and it’s not exactly news. (Especially when the “cooks” are attempting to use not just a cultures cuisine, but the secret techniques used by a specific cook.)
Most notably was the article co authored by John T. Edge and Tunde Wey. This two-part article titled “Who owns Southern Food” (Link below) was a standout in its frankness and honesty. I liked that this was a “No holds barred” article that hoped to tell it like it is and did just that. Edge wrote “if I acknowledged the inequities and subjugations on which much of Southern cuisine was built, Tunde asked—was I willing to cede what whites have gained at the expense of blacks? Am I willing, now, to cede what I have gained? We settled on a scheme in which I cede half of my column for this issue. Tunde addresses the controversy and concludes with a question for me. I respond. And we split the pay.” The Question that Wey ultimately asks Edge is “what will you willingly give up ensuring the Southern food narrative services properly and fully the contributions of black Southerners?” I’ll allow you to read Edge’s response so as not to spoil the article for you further.
Laura Shunks excellent article “Who Has the Right to Capitalize on a Culture’s Cuisine?” (Also listed below) In this article Shunks poses the question “Who has the right to capitalize on a particular culture’s cuisine? Who has the right to cook it, and who can write about it?” She goes on to include excerpts from other articles and her situation as an American Food writer in China. Of this question, Shunks answers that “It’s on me to be a better journalist. It’s on all of media to elevate voices of diverse backgrounds to add to our collective understanding of the complex cultural and racial history that we’re a part of in America. And it’s on all of us to consider the context of our actions, to seek perspective that might differ from our own, to engage in breaking down walls, to listen to each other, and to understand that America is really a patchwork of contributions from a multitude of backgrounds, and culture is always a work in progress.”
Michael Twitty article “Writing About Food at the Intersection of Gayness, Blackness & Faith” (Link below) Twitty is a food historian and living food archivist who tackles the question of how queerness fits into his brand and the story I'm trying to tell about both the past and the present. Twitty discusses the dialogue in the world of food about homophobia in the food industry and how gayness, Blackness intersect in his life. Twitty writes “it's not just the social justice activism that comes into the kitchen with me: It's a pride in how the food should taste, look, feel, and what it communicates. Gay men have been culturally written out of history because we are often branded as individuals who will not contribute to the reproductive flow of the generations and therefore have little or no investment in normative tradition.” And “In the same spirit, I want to honor the food past and ensure it is part of the cultural inheritance of everyone who loves the food of the African Diaspora and the American South. I embrace the idea that honing certain gay sensibilities helps me to appreciate the aesthetics of the Southern meal.”
Likewise, the articles by Luke Tsai “Cooking Other People's Food: How Chefs Appropriate Bay Area 'Ethnic' Cuisine” (Link below) and Gustavo Arrellanos article “IN DEFENSE OF THE MEXICAN-AMERICAN CHEF, OR: NO ONE HATES ON MEXICANS LIKE MEXICANS” (Link below) were both excellent and continue the same theme of Culinary appropriation and should be read to understand the topic in depth.
The other chapters include “The Way we Eat Now”, “Foodways”, “How my City Eats”, “Updating the Classics”, “Someone’s in the Kitchen”, “They Also Serve”, “Down the Hatch”, and “Personal Tastes”
In the chapter “The Way we Eat Now” has an article that is very interesting called “Japan’s cult food drama The Lonely Gourmet is essentially pornography.” By Matthew Amster Burton. This is a fascinating tale of a families bonding over following the trend of eating in restaurants featured in the Mukbang TV show Kodoku no Gurume or “Lonely Gourmet” a TV show featuring a lonely businessman eating in various restaurants.
From the section “Personal Tastes” was a great article “Wheat Exile” from the book “In Memory of Bread” written by Paul Graham about the authors diagnosis of Celiac disease and his inability to eat foods containing gluten. Also, in this section is the excellent “My father the YouTube star” by Kevin Pang. This article is about the author (a food writer) who’s bonds with his father over a mutual love of food, and the fathers becoming a YouTube star with a channel featuring Shanghainese food.
This anthology covers a lot of topics and Instead of listing them all I will instead offer my encouragement to explore this volume and continue to explore the others, and I hope that encourages you to explore some of the writers here who have produced other great works as well. I myself am excited by my discoveries in this Anthology, and I am looking forward to seeing what some of these authors produce next.
• Holly Hughes is the author of Frommer's 500 Places for Food and Wine Lovers. You can find out about her and her work on her website at http://www.hollyahughes.net/
• John T Edge is a writer who is an authority on the American South. The Penguin Press published his latest book, The Potlikker Papers: A Food History of the Modern South, named a best book of 2017 by NPR, Publisher ‘s Weekly, and a host of others. You can learn more about Mr. Edge at http://johntedge.com/ His article “Who owns southern food?” can be viewed at https://www.oxfordamerican.org/magazi...
• Laura Shunk is a food and travel writer who was Westword's restaurant critic from 2010 to 2012; she's also been food editor at the Village Voice and a dining columnist in Beijing. Her article Who Has the Right to Capitalize on a Culture’s Cuisine? Can be found at
https://food52.com/blog/17587-who-has...
• Michael Twitty is an African American-Jewish culinary historian and educator. He is the author of The Cooking Gene, published by HarperCollins/Amistad, which won the 2018 James Beard Foundation Book Award for Book of the Year. His article full article “Writing About Food at the Intersection of Gayness, Blackness & Faith” can be found at
https://food52.com/blog/17071-writing...
• Tunde Wey is an artist, chef and writer who lives in New Orleans. Mr. Wey uses food and dining spaces to (as he says in on his website) “interrogate structures of power.” Wey has been featured in The New York Times, NPR, GQ, The Washington Post, VOGUE, Black Enterprise, Food and Wine, and his writing has appeared in the Oxford American, Boston Globe, and San Francisco Chronicle. http://www.fromlagos.com/
• Luke Tsai the former food editor of San Francisco Magazine, and former restaurant critic for East Bay Express. His article “Cooking Other People's Food: How Chefs Appropriate Bay Area 'Ethnic' Cuisine” can be seen at the following link
https://www.eastbayexpress.com/oaklan...
• Gustavo Arrellano is the former publisher and editor of Orange County's alternative weekly OC Weekly, and the author of the column ¡Ask a Mexican! which is syndicated nationally. Arrellano is a features writer for the Los Angeles Times. https://tinyletter.com/gustavoarellan...
His article “IN DEFENSE OF THE MEXICAN-AMERICAN CHEF, OR: NO ONE HATES ON MEXICANS LIKE MEXICANS.” Can be found at https://ocweekly.com/in-defense-of-th...
April 7, 2018
So, Teriyaki chicken is a 'Seattle thing.' I'm from Seattle so how did I miss that? Just one of the cool and interesting tidbits I picked up from this collection of food related essays.
This is the first time i've read one of the "Best of..." for food writing series, but right off the bat, i liked the editor's keen assessment on food and current trends. I enjoyed the essays that touched on our obsessions with food...we're no longer just writing about food...we're writing about writing about food too! Crazy. But interesting. Some other favourites are those that make you personally reflect on your own relationship with food (especially the Sydney one). I also enjoyed the Baby Foodie way more than I thought I was going to when I just got into it. Loved the one where the kid eats in the same Italian joint every night while his dad is in the hospital. It's not perfect (what is!?) - there are a few phrases that smack of food self satisfaction one-uppery. I can't even remember exactly which points made me feel like that, but there were one or two that made me think "Oh, shut up and get over yourself!" But that's normal...there are dozens of essays here and I think that speaks more to me than to the collection. (I'm just cranky.... )
This is a great compilation for those, like me, like everyone, who can't find time to read all the stuff in all the sources - luckily someone else has done all the sorting to pull out the some of the best highlights in last years food writing. I'll be cracking into 2016's Best Of soon....
This is the first time i've read one of the "Best of..." for food writing series, but right off the bat, i liked the editor's keen assessment on food and current trends. I enjoyed the essays that touched on our obsessions with food...we're no longer just writing about food...we're writing about writing about food too! Crazy. But interesting. Some other favourites are those that make you personally reflect on your own relationship with food (especially the Sydney one). I also enjoyed the Baby Foodie way more than I thought I was going to when I just got into it. Loved the one where the kid eats in the same Italian joint every night while his dad is in the hospital. It's not perfect (what is!?) - there are a few phrases that smack of food self satisfaction one-uppery. I can't even remember exactly which points made me feel like that, but there were one or two that made me think "Oh, shut up and get over yourself!" But that's normal...there are dozens of essays here and I think that speaks more to me than to the collection. (I'm just cranky.... )
This is a great compilation for those, like me, like everyone, who can't find time to read all the stuff in all the sources - luckily someone else has done all the sorting to pull out the some of the best highlights in last years food writing. I'll be cracking into 2016's Best Of soon....
January 3, 2018
Last book of 2017. It's a nice collection of essays about the culture and meaning of food as well as some very tasty-looking descriptions of dishes.
Possibly my favorite essay was about Jill Mott and wine pairing. Does the wine you serve make you happy? If it grows together it goes together. Strong flavor matches to tannin. Rose can be very forgiving.
I also really liked the essay on eating crabs in Maryland. I could identify with it. And now I have to read Matt Bondurant's fiction and Harold McGee on food and cooking
Possibly my favorite essay was about Jill Mott and wine pairing. Does the wine you serve make you happy? If it grows together it goes together. Strong flavor matches to tannin. Rose can be very forgiving.
I also really liked the essay on eating crabs in Maryland. I could identify with it. And now I have to read Matt Bondurant's fiction and Harold McGee on food and cooking
November 10, 2018
This year's collection was surprisingly poignant and topical. Overall, many more wins that loses packed into 300 pages.
There were a few articles I strongly disliked. For example Jason Diamond's article about Guy Fieri's genius, which while charming, completely ignores the allegations about his hatred of gays and Jews, and his underlying misogyny towards female chefs. Arguably, this article very well could've been written before those claims, but including it in the collection seems irresponsible.
The only other fail is Julia Moskin's Chicken Pot Pie for the Modern Cook which honestly makes the author, as well as New York Times, seem completely fractured from reality. Making the claim that chicken pot pie is a disgusting mess, and that this author has finally found the trick to making it delicious is incredibly hilarious. My mother has been making chicken pot pie the way Moskin essentially claims to have discovered for at least 15 years. Adding thyme to your pot pie and making your filling from a roux is not an original idea. It just means Moskin has been eating shitty, milky pot pies by herself her entire life.
All that aside, here are my favorite articles from this year's edition:
The Curious Appeal of "Bad" Food by Irina Dumitrescu
"Culinary preferences signal one's class, ethical stance, or outlook on the world. The foods we eat, and especially the ones we talk about eating, tell others how we understand our bodies: sensitive or resilient, hardworking or overflowing, rebellious or disciplined. In short, food offers ways of telling stories about who we are and where we come from. And bad food does this better than good."
"I recently asked my friends about the meals they eat when nobody's looking... The vast majoyity of responses were connected to childhood memories. Most interesting, and most varied, were foods that people associated with the places they came from. I do not know if fried bologna and ketchup sandwiches are really a "Buffalo NY thing," as one woman insisted, or if Hormel Vienna Sausages on white bread with mustard are typical to Mississippi. What struck me was that people held on to the memory of these simple sandwiches as a marker of home."
Japan's Cult Food Drama 'The Lonely Gourmet' is Essentially Pornography by Matthew Amster-Burton
Writing About Food at the Intersection of Gayness, Blackness & Faith by Michael Twitty
In Defense of Mexican-American Chefs by Gustavo Arellano
Salt of the Eart by Ronni Lundy
"Whenever a stretch of more than two days off came up, we'd make the four-hour winding drive to 'see the folks.' We spent every summer vacation of my growing up in those hills. The steeper and more winding the road became, the easier my father seemed to sit in his skin, to smile from someplace deep."
What's True About Pho by Rachel Khong
The City That Knows How to Eat by Besha Rodell
"I'm not sure on which planet I belong. Otherness is such a part of my identity that if I were to return to Australia now, I don't know who I'd be. The dominant narrative when it comes to immigrant stories is the struggles faced upon arriving in a new land, and the confusion of trying to survive while looking and speaking and thinking differently. In those regard my experience can't begin to compare to people leaving their homes in China or South America or Africa or even Europe. I'm white. I speak the language; I look the part. But the thing I share with immigrants and expats of all stripes is the intense feeling of otherness that comes with missing home, the belonging to different earth, different air, a different ocean. Leaving is the key event of your life -- you spend all the time after trying to reconcile the person you were with the person you've become. It's this very condition that pushes people to re-create a taste of home in their new lives. It's the exact dynamic that created so much of the food culture I've spent my life longing for."
The Chef Loses It by Brett Martin
The Real Thing by Matt Condurant
My Father, the YouTube Star by Kevin Pang
"I had zero experience, but I did have one advantage: I was Cantonese. We Cantonese have a love of eating that borders on mania. Our people eat every part of almost every animal; we were the original snout-to-tail diners, long before hipsters highjacked the term. Hong Kong, where I lived until age 6, is a place where instead of asking 'How are you?' we greet one another with 'Have you eaten yet?'"
La Serenata by Floyd Skloot
There were a few articles I strongly disliked. For example Jason Diamond's article about Guy Fieri's genius, which while charming, completely ignores the allegations about his hatred of gays and Jews, and his underlying misogyny towards female chefs. Arguably, this article very well could've been written before those claims, but including it in the collection seems irresponsible.
The only other fail is Julia Moskin's Chicken Pot Pie for the Modern Cook which honestly makes the author, as well as New York Times, seem completely fractured from reality. Making the claim that chicken pot pie is a disgusting mess, and that this author has finally found the trick to making it delicious is incredibly hilarious. My mother has been making chicken pot pie the way Moskin essentially claims to have discovered for at least 15 years. Adding thyme to your pot pie and making your filling from a roux is not an original idea. It just means Moskin has been eating shitty, milky pot pies by herself her entire life.
All that aside, here are my favorite articles from this year's edition:
The Curious Appeal of "Bad" Food by Irina Dumitrescu
"Culinary preferences signal one's class, ethical stance, or outlook on the world. The foods we eat, and especially the ones we talk about eating, tell others how we understand our bodies: sensitive or resilient, hardworking or overflowing, rebellious or disciplined. In short, food offers ways of telling stories about who we are and where we come from. And bad food does this better than good."
"I recently asked my friends about the meals they eat when nobody's looking... The vast majoyity of responses were connected to childhood memories. Most interesting, and most varied, were foods that people associated with the places they came from. I do not know if fried bologna and ketchup sandwiches are really a "Buffalo NY thing," as one woman insisted, or if Hormel Vienna Sausages on white bread with mustard are typical to Mississippi. What struck me was that people held on to the memory of these simple sandwiches as a marker of home."
Japan's Cult Food Drama 'The Lonely Gourmet' is Essentially Pornography by Matthew Amster-Burton
Writing About Food at the Intersection of Gayness, Blackness & Faith by Michael Twitty
In Defense of Mexican-American Chefs by Gustavo Arellano
Salt of the Eart by Ronni Lundy
"Whenever a stretch of more than two days off came up, we'd make the four-hour winding drive to 'see the folks.' We spent every summer vacation of my growing up in those hills. The steeper and more winding the road became, the easier my father seemed to sit in his skin, to smile from someplace deep."
What's True About Pho by Rachel Khong
The City That Knows How to Eat by Besha Rodell
"I'm not sure on which planet I belong. Otherness is such a part of my identity that if I were to return to Australia now, I don't know who I'd be. The dominant narrative when it comes to immigrant stories is the struggles faced upon arriving in a new land, and the confusion of trying to survive while looking and speaking and thinking differently. In those regard my experience can't begin to compare to people leaving their homes in China or South America or Africa or even Europe. I'm white. I speak the language; I look the part. But the thing I share with immigrants and expats of all stripes is the intense feeling of otherness that comes with missing home, the belonging to different earth, different air, a different ocean. Leaving is the key event of your life -- you spend all the time after trying to reconcile the person you were with the person you've become. It's this very condition that pushes people to re-create a taste of home in their new lives. It's the exact dynamic that created so much of the food culture I've spent my life longing for."
The Chef Loses It by Brett Martin
The Real Thing by Matt Condurant
My Father, the YouTube Star by Kevin Pang
"I had zero experience, but I did have one advantage: I was Cantonese. We Cantonese have a love of eating that borders on mania. Our people eat every part of almost every animal; we were the original snout-to-tail diners, long before hipsters highjacked the term. Hong Kong, where I lived until age 6, is a place where instead of asking 'How are you?' we greet one another with 'Have you eaten yet?'"
La Serenata by Floyd Skloot
July 24, 2021
Usually, this series is one I turn to when I need a guaranteed "win." I don't think I've ever actually rated a "Best Food Writing" title anywhere under a four before... maybe even a five. Because of their nature - as collections, for starters, but also as containing a myriad of styles and points of view, genre and direction - they typically make for at least one or two parcels of new information, new authors to look out for, new styles to fall in love with, new trends to watch.
Unfortunately, this title broke that chain. It was chaotic and disorganized, contained almost comically pretentious writing, and even had articles contained within that actively stood against each other... but placed in completely separate parts of the compendium, so there was seemingly no merit to the idea that they might have contrasted. The ideas that served as basis for various forms of writing were varied, ranging from the great (the aesthetic / Instagrammable value of food versus home cooking; an old-fashioned Boudin-collecting hog kill as a means of preserving Louisiana tradition) to the absolutely terrible.
The worst, for me, came as a product of the publication year serving as a quasi-time capsule of its cultural conversations: discussions over who "owns" food or culturally significant styles of cooking - whether the culinary realm should grapple with dialogue of cultural appropriation, racism, sexism, and more - were fumbled, and never seemed to take a clear stance. I wasn't looking for moral, but I was at least looking for direction or purpose, and they lacked it.
This title was the last in the series edited by Holly Hughes, who seems to have disappeared off of the face of the Internet afterwards. Her social media and author website haven't been updated since 2017, when this book was published, but I can't see any news of her potential passing. Unclear as to why this book was her last to be published, but I can't help but think it's a bit of a bummer to end a career on.
Unfortunately, this title broke that chain. It was chaotic and disorganized, contained almost comically pretentious writing, and even had articles contained within that actively stood against each other... but placed in completely separate parts of the compendium, so there was seemingly no merit to the idea that they might have contrasted. The ideas that served as basis for various forms of writing were varied, ranging from the great (the aesthetic / Instagrammable value of food versus home cooking; an old-fashioned Boudin-collecting hog kill as a means of preserving Louisiana tradition) to the absolutely terrible.
The worst, for me, came as a product of the publication year serving as a quasi-time capsule of its cultural conversations: discussions over who "owns" food or culturally significant styles of cooking - whether the culinary realm should grapple with dialogue of cultural appropriation, racism, sexism, and more - were fumbled, and never seemed to take a clear stance. I wasn't looking for moral, but I was at least looking for direction or purpose, and they lacked it.
This title was the last in the series edited by Holly Hughes, who seems to have disappeared off of the face of the Internet afterwards. Her social media and author website haven't been updated since 2017, when this book was published, but I can't see any news of her potential passing. Unclear as to why this book was her last to be published, but I can't help but think it's a bit of a bummer to end a career on.
April 5, 2018
I was disappointed in both the Best American Essays for this year, and the Best American Science and Nature Writing. I think both anthologies are too hit or miss, depending on the ego and taste of their guest editor.
Best Food Writing, however has been a consistent joy and I think it's due in no small part to having the same editor for so long, one who has nothing to prove, but showcasing the best writing about food she finds.
And she finds some great ones. We encounter the legacy and the future of food, the stories of chefs and restaurants, food science, and above all, a passion for food. From the first essay "The Benefit of Eating Without a Map"--finding food not based on your foodie friends' recs, to "La Serenata"--an elegy to the kind of childhood restaurant experience most of us can relate to, passion ties all of these together, whether it be for getting the best brew of beer, a passion for bread and baking, or even a good vegetarian burger. You learn, you laugh, and sometimes, you tear up. It's been a lovely journey and I look forward to what Hughes has to share with us next year!
Best Food Writing, however has been a consistent joy and I think it's due in no small part to having the same editor for so long, one who has nothing to prove, but showcasing the best writing about food she finds.
And she finds some great ones. We encounter the legacy and the future of food, the stories of chefs and restaurants, food science, and above all, a passion for food. From the first essay "The Benefit of Eating Without a Map"--finding food not based on your foodie friends' recs, to "La Serenata"--an elegy to the kind of childhood restaurant experience most of us can relate to, passion ties all of these together, whether it be for getting the best brew of beer, a passion for bread and baking, or even a good vegetarian burger. You learn, you laugh, and sometimes, you tear up. It's been a lovely journey and I look forward to what Hughes has to share with us next year!
June 15, 2019
Books of collected essays are hard to review because not every essay is a 10 in your mind and that's kind of the point. They're for looking at the breadth of writing, in this case food writing, for a given year.
That being said, Best Food Writing 2017 is a pretty good collection and it was interesting to see how Hughes divided the essays into sections "Down the Hatch," which is about alcoholic beverages, and "Whose Food is it anyway" about cultural/culinary appropriation. The book captures the discussions happening in the food world, many of which are ongoing, but is also sprinkled with levity and personal essays.
"Seaweed Dreaming" by Rowan Jacobson was definitely my favorite and it comes early in the collection (it's the fourth essay), so the rest of the essays suffer a little by being compared to it.
That being said, Best Food Writing 2017 is a pretty good collection and it was interesting to see how Hughes divided the essays into sections "Down the Hatch," which is about alcoholic beverages, and "Whose Food is it anyway" about cultural/culinary appropriation. The book captures the discussions happening in the food world, many of which are ongoing, but is also sprinkled with levity and personal essays.
"Seaweed Dreaming" by Rowan Jacobson was definitely my favorite and it comes early in the collection (it's the fourth essay), so the rest of the essays suffer a little by being compared to it.
February 19, 2019
I can't wait to read more food writing now!
I will admit that these articles are the best food writing in English. And I now really wish I can read other languages well enough to dive into other food writings.
But Holly Hughes has successfully taken writings from all areas to create more than just a compilation, but depiction of 2017 through food.
Stories talk about politics, race, joy and sadness. Some are long, some are short. Authors come from all across the world, with all different perspectives.
And the best part is that you can read whenever, for none are continuous.
I will admit that these articles are the best food writing in English. And I now really wish I can read other languages well enough to dive into other food writings.
But Holly Hughes has successfully taken writings from all areas to create more than just a compilation, but depiction of 2017 through food.
Stories talk about politics, race, joy and sadness. Some are long, some are short. Authors come from all across the world, with all different perspectives.
And the best part is that you can read whenever, for none are continuous.
June 21, 2019
Very interesting. Articles written about every aspect of food. Articles about the authenticity of restaurants if the cuisine is one ethnicity, yet the cooks are not that same ethnicity. Does that make them authentic? Should old time recipes be changed or should you leave them as is? Other articles from what makes a great dishwasher to what tastes can a baby not born yet taste? Although it was very interesting, It was not a book that I could just sit and read through. I enjoyed it over time, and when I wanted to read just a few pages on the topic at a time.
October 31, 2018
3.75 stars
There should be something in this anthology for anyone with an interest in food and eating. The collection ranges from the earnest (sustainable agriculture, cultural misappropriation of ethnic food) to the humorous to the poignant.
Personal favorites: the interviews with the chef and dishwasher at a restaurant who had been working together for 20 years, and a sweet and funny short piece on an Asian food writer's parents doing You Tube videos on Asian cooking.
There should be something in this anthology for anyone with an interest in food and eating. The collection ranges from the earnest (sustainable agriculture, cultural misappropriation of ethnic food) to the humorous to the poignant.
Personal favorites: the interviews with the chef and dishwasher at a restaurant who had been working together for 20 years, and a sweet and funny short piece on an Asian food writer's parents doing You Tube videos on Asian cooking.
September 26, 2018
More interesting than I expected. It covered heritage, cultural appropriation of food, nostalgia, and how long to avoid restaurants if they started from a racist owner.
I'm not sure if I can read many volumes of this, but I liked getting this glimpse into the food writing world.
I'm not sure if I can read many volumes of this, but I liked getting this glimpse into the food writing world.
September 6, 2020
Surprisingly not that good of a collection! Aah! What was it about this year? This is the last Holly Hughes collection, and I don't have that many notes. I'm excited to move onto more recent food writing, but this was helpful and had some good pieces - just nothing compared to 2014, duh.
January 2, 2018
Very entertaining and an excellent read from food writers I would normally not have access tol
March 16, 2018
I read this collection every year for a decade, but it had been a few years... Safe to say I'm back in the groove.
January 1, 2019
Finally finished the last essay that we didn't talk about in Food Writing this year
April 15, 2021
The entries are short enough to conclude before the sandman hits; otherwise, proof positive that food writing is still the space of bloggers and part-timers
July 31, 2022
Holly Hughes is an excellent editor and this anthology, her last, kept up the standards we have all come to love.
July 19, 2025
Earlier years had better essays
Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews