The Best American Food Writing 2021: Essays on Restaurants, Culture, and the Uniting Power of Food

The Best American Food Writing

by Gabrielle Hamilton, Silvia Killingsworth (Editor)

The year’s top food writing, from writers who celebrate the many innovative, comforting, mouthwatering, and culturally rich culinary offerings of our country. Edited by Silvia Killingsworth and renowned chef and author Gabrielle Hamilton.  “A year that stopped our food world in its tracks,” writes Gabrielle Hamilton in her introduction, reflecting on 2020. The stories in this edition of Best American Food Writing create a stunning portrait of a year that shook the food industry, reminding us of how important restaurants, grocery stores, shelters, and those who work in them are in our lives. From the Sikhs who fed thousands during the pandemic, to the writer who was quarantined with her Michelin-starred chef boyfriend, to the restaurants that served $200-per-person tasting menus to the wealthy as the death toll soared, this superb collection captures the underexposed ills of the industry and the unending power of food to unite us, especially when we need it most.   THE BEST AMERICAN FOOD WRITING 2021 INCLUDES  • BILL BUFORD • RUBY TANDOH • PRIYA KRISHNA • LIZA MONROY • NAVNEET ALANG • KELSEY MILLER HELEN ROSNER • LIGAYA MISHAN and others

Genres: Food, Nonfiction, Essays, Food Writing, Anthologies, Culinary, Travel

217 pages, Paperback

First published October 12, 2021

Reviews

[Abby Hartzell]

I read this collection every year, and every year it's an amazing experience. Top articles included the article on gout, the meditation on eating meat, the feature on Ethiopian chicken nationalism, and the artcile about the AIDs crisis recipe/humor publication.

[Sarah McCurdy · Rating 3 out of 5]

I look forward to this anthology every year… and was sorely disappointed with this years collection. Hamiltons introduction was a highlight. Her writing is fierce, precise, and connects you to moments in time that I find deeply satisfying. Within the collection, however, I rarely felt any of those moments. I wish there was a stronger theme that ties the collection together (I.e, diversity, pandemic woes, resilience, creativity). Instead, I was bored by the subjects, didn’t find the food writing particularly compelling, and was disappointed by the lack of source-diversity.

When I’ve finished this collection in the past, I feel like I’ve grown my understanding for what’s actually happening in the food world during the year 20xx. There were moments that I felt connected to different moments of time, but overall felt myself thinking: why was this story essential for 2020?

[Emma · Rating 3 out of 5]

As with any collection of essays, articles, or short stories, this one has some very high highs and some very low lows. The first article about Nina Compton was a strong opener. Other highlights:

Priya Krishna’s “How to Feed Crowds in a Protest or Pandemic? The Sikhs Know”
MacKenzie Chung Fegan’s “All Brandon Jew Wants Is for Chinese Restaurants to Know Their Worth”
Kaitlin Menza’s “What It’s Like to Self-Quarantine with a Michelin-Starred Chef”
Foster Kamer’s “Making Reservations”
Dayna Evans’s “Who Will Save the Food Timeline?”
Eric J. Wallace’s “The Chef Restoring Appalachia’s World-Class Food Culture”

[Melissa · Rating 5 out of 5]

I enjoy reading the various annual anthologies in The Best American series, but for whatever reason, this was my first time partaking of The Best American Food Writing. Absolutely loved this collection of essays! Because the 2021 edition encompasses work that was published in 2020, these selections focused heavily on the uncertain early months of the pandemic, understandably so. Climate change and sustainability are also predominant themes. Written by diverse authors, these essays also span the globe and introduce the reader to new cultures and, of course, new cuisines and foods.

Almost every essay was an insightful and thought-provoking read. My favorites included the following (listed in the order they appear in the book):

A New Orleans Chef Navigates Disaster by Helen Rosner (The New Yorker) - excellent profile of chef Nina Compton and how she dealt with the early days of COVID

How a Cheese Goes Extinct by Ruby Tandoh (The New Yorker) - the death of Mary Holbrook, a legendary cheesemaker, and the challenges of cheesemaking in the pandemic

Good Bread by Bill Buford (The New Yorker) - heartbreaking story of Buford's apprenticeship with Bob, a French breadbaker beloved by his village

How to Feed Crowds in a Protest or Pandemic? The Sikhs Know by Priya Krishna (The New York Times) - astonishing and inspiring story of a gurdwara (place of worship for Sikhs) in Queens Village where a group of 30 people cook massive quantities of food for anyone, free of charge. During the pandemic, they made and served more than 145,000 meals in 10 weeks.

Once the Disease of Gluttonous Aristocrats, Gout is Now Tormenting the Masses by Ligaya Mishan (T: The New York Times Style Magazine) - I honestly did not know much about gout until reading this essay.

This Is the Dumbest Foodie Battle of Our Time by Rebecca Onion (Slate) - the ongoing battle of people disliking long narratives preceding recipes on food blogs and websites.

SF Restaurants $200 Per Person Dome is America’s Problems in a Plastic Nutshell by Soleil Ho (The San Francisco Chronicle) - comparing the igloo-domed tables on pricy restaurant's patios and city streets to homeless tent cities.

All Brandon Jew Wants is for Chinese Restaurants to Know Their Worth by Mackenzie Chung Fegan (Resy) - one chef's pride in his family's heritage and food

Close to the Bone by Amy Irvine (Orion) - this might be one of the most gruesome essays about eating meat that I've ever read but I was absolutely riveted because of Irvine's fantastic writing. That says something.

Incubated Futures by Britt H. Young (n+1) - Kentucky Fried Chicken plans to open in Ethiopia, despite the unpopularity of chicken in the country.

Soli/dairy/ty by Liza Monroy (Longreads) - a new mother goes vegan and learns about the dairy industry's practice of removing calves from their lactating mothers.

Get Fat, Don't Die by Jonathan Kauffman (Hazlitt) - this essay takes one back to the AIDS epidemic through "Get Fat, Don't Die!" a cooking column in Diseased Pariah News, a zine for AIDS patients.

What It's Like to Self-Quarantine with a Michelin-Starred Chef by Kaitlin Menza (Grub Street) - self-explanatory title

Making Reservations by Foster Kamer (Gossamer) - an insider's look at exclusive restaurants' reservation practices

The Nazi Origins of Your Favorite Natural Wine by Leah Rosenzweig (GEN) - an Austrian wine with a namesake's problematic history.

The Queer Legacy of Elka Gilmore by Mayukh Sen (Eater) - the lasting influence of a queer chef

Who Will Save the Food Timeline? by Dayna Evans (Eater) - The Food Timeline is an extensive online resource of food history, loving compiled and maintained by Lynne Olver. Now deceased, the question is what will become of her life's work, a reference for chefs and everyday cooks alike.

[A.M. Arthur · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm not usually much for reading nonfiction essays, but I decided to read this because some of the chosen articles were about what the restaurant industry/food world went through and how it changed because of 2020. I found most of the choices fascinating, some slightly boring, and a handful of outstanding pieces.

[AliceC09 · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed this volume. 3.5 stars, rounded down to 3. The mix of articles was good, from a wide range of publications and authors. Given that the 2021 volume features the best writing from 2020, I am glad that the volume covered the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, but did not dwell on it in every article. As with any collection like this, I liked some articles (much) more than others. While there were many good pieces in this edition, I think my favorites were "Good Bread" by Bill Buford and by "Get Fat Don't Die" by Jonathan Kauffman, which is about the AIDS epidemic and wasting syndrome.

[Nikki · Rating 2 out of 5]

Unfortunately, one of the weaker collections of this anthology of the 2018, 2019, and now 2021 that I've read. I think I need to go back and do 2020, though I suspect that may be a bit depressing and was part of the reason I skipped ahead to 2021. I think this suffered from poor editing and essay selection - not enough variety in length, topic, or writing style. I look forward to this collection every year and was sorely disappointed to find so few standout essays here. Not my year, I suppose!

[Jamie Gergen · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very good collection. Deals with the impact of Covid-19 on the food and service industries without overpowering the other themes of the essays that were written in 2020 during the height of the pandemic.

[Kate · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well, the first essay almost undid me. I'm not ready for pandemic reading -- and layering Hurricane Katrina in there was just too much. I almost gave up the book right then and there. I'm so glad I didn't. "Good Bread" and "Get Fat Don't Die" were all by themselves worth it. Just fantastic. And I learned so much. Literally all of the rest of them were so informative and educational both about food and about the food world. Just fantastic and fabulous, and well worth the readd even if it did get off to a rough start.

[Emily Braaten · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was surprised how quickly this book hooked me! It reminded me of my Nutritional Ecology course in grad school which operated under the thesis that food is connected to everything. You certainly see that among these pages, with topics touching on wealth disparity, veganism and feminism, lost cheeses, social isolation, the AIDS epidemic, Appalachian food culture and more.

[Lauryn · Rating 4 out of 5]

A solid start to the year! Normally I don’t like reading things about the pandemic while it is still happening, but the stories in here offer a necessary perspective and it’s kind of an odd feeling to read things from the early days of the pandemic this far into it. But there are also just some very well written pieces in here and I really enjoyed them. This was my first best food writing read and now I really want to read the previous editions! Here’s to reading lots more food writing this year!!

[Emily · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really love this series. I look forward to it every October and picked up my copy on a leaf-peeping New England excursion. This volume evokes many emotions- longing for my Appalachian background, deep empathy for the dairy cow, wanderlust to many domestic and exotic locations, scoffing at high-end restaurants I’ll never be rich enough to set foot in, and, most of all, hunger. Hunger for food, yes, and for the brilliant food writing that make this series what it is. I’m already looking forward to the 2022 edition.

[Melissa · Rating 3 out of 5]

I think with this book I've made my way through all of the 'Best American' books on food writing. Having started with the 2022 version, and then enjoying it so much I backtracked through the others, I'll say that this one was probably my least favorite, but still held quite a few stories that were well worth reading.

While there were a few highlights in this book (have you heard of a water sommelier before?). There were also stories that didn't really resonate with me all too well. I think because everything kind of ran into each other. Which can be attributed to the pandemic, and the changes the industry needed to make to adapt. But as a result these stories felt less about food and more about those social dynamics. Which don't get me wrong, I think a lot of these stories are important, and it's good to know the producers of your food and the cultural or sociological impacts of food. It's just that that was the majority and at some point I found myself just wishing for a story that would make me crave something.

Still not a bad anthology, and I greatly enjoyed Hamilton's book when I read it years ago, but maybe not my favorite of the group.

Review by M. Reynard 2023

[Steph Annie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Gabrielle Hamilton made a strong selection covering a variety of stories. I was worried that the majority of the pieces would concentrate heavily around Covid, but only a few did and were still great reads.

Some of my favorites from this collection include:

“Close to the Bone” by Amy Irvine
“Soli/dairy/ty” by Liza Monroe
(It’s not lost on me that both of these pieces were included and were close together. What wonderfully contrasting pieces.)

“What a 1944 Starvation Experiment Reveals About 2020 Food Insecurity” by Kelsey Miller (I’ve read what feels like a million pieces about this study but still enjoyed how this author found useful connections to the zeitgeist outside of just eating disorders.)

“Stewed Awakening” by Navneet Alang (Must read!)

“Who Will Save the Food Timeline?” By Dayna Evans

[Emily Ack · Rating 2 out of 5]

Unclear if it's editor's choices or the selection of 2021, but the essays were primarily biographies of chefs (I don't care) or about restaurant industry (also don't care).

I'd say my general favorites are personal memoir-styles or informative/educational. Bonus point for exploring regional, cultural, political, and historical aspects.

Good features:
-"How a Cheese goes Extinct" (which included biographical elements, but those were NOT the focus)
-"Good Bread" (memoir-style, regional bread, also present in Best American Travel Writing 2021)
-"Incubated Futures" (exploring regional/cultural/political efforts of promoting chicken in Ethiopia)
-"Making Reservations" (a humorous micro-memoir of a restaurant hostess)
-"What it's like to quarantine with a Michelin-starred chef" (takes the large topic of quarantine and personalizes it)

Otherwise, I simply did not care about the expensive restaurants or what their chefs were doing.

[Marjorie · Rating 3 out of 5]

There are many articles in this book that makes one think and there is lots to discuss, The topics are far reaching, from how the Sikhs fed thousands at no cost to the needy to others paying $200 a plate to suffer abuse from the chef, which pales compared to those paying many thousands of dollars for a seat at the right table. Articles on, the taste of water, to those not feeling included, to taking part in a study about starvation and the surprising results, the meat eaters and the vegans and an article about returning to the old methods of gardening. An enjoyable and thought provoking read.

[Lucien · Rating 1 out of 5]

Easy to see the nepotism at work in this anthology - the overall series editor just happened to work at the magazine where about 4/5 of the first five articles were published... coincidence?

Deeply disappointed in the overwhelming percentage of authors/topics that are either California- or New York-based. Disappointed in the token nods to "diversifying" the anthology (one Colorado article, one Appalachian article, one Chinese American article, etc). Disappointed in the tone-insensitive number of articles on ultra-fancy and ultra-privileged chefs, restaurants, and dining experiences.

Who is this anthology for? Not really for anyone but the wealthy white coastal elite, I guess.

[Natalie · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book has a wide variety of pieces about food: food insecurity, restaurants during the pandemic, ethnic restaurants, water connoisseurs, cheese farms, and bread bakers. Some of the pieces were artfully written, such as the one about eating in Mongolia (though the foods she ate sounded disgusting), or the one about public dislike of head notes in blog recipes. Some seemed a bit tedious but I liked the range and variety of subjects and writing styles. A nice nonfiction book to read between fantasy and sci fi books.

[Katie · Rating 3 out of 5]

3 1/2*

Some of these were absolutely fascinating!

There were 8 I rated 5/5* :
- How a Cheese Goes Extinct ( Ruby Tandoh )
- Good Bread ( Bill Buford )
- How to Feed a Crowd in a Protest or Pandemic? ( Priya Krishna )
- Once the Disease of Gluttonous Aristocrats, Gout is Now Tormenting the Masses ( Ligaya Mishan )
- SF Restaurants $200 Per Person Dome is America’s Problems in a Plastic Nutshell ( Soleil Ho )
- All Brandon Jew Wants is for Chinese Restaurants to Know Their Worth ( Mackenzie Chung Fegan )
- Soli/dairy/ty ( Liza Monroy )
- Who Will Save the Food Timeline ( Dayna Evans )

[Bryan Myers · Rating 5 out of 5]

This really is America's best food-writing, a lot of food-related stories from all over.

Notable reads this year include:
- Good Bread by Bill Buford (convinced me to buy Buford's Dirt)
- Soli/Dairy/Ty by Liza Monroy (made me re-evaluate my relationship with dairy)
- Who Will save the food timeline? by Dayna Evans (introduced me to the Food Timeline)
- Close to the Bone by Amy Irvine (an argument for eating locally rather than vegan/vegetarian through the scope of transportation of food).
- Soleil Ho's piece on plastic dining bubbles
- Incubated Futures was good too.

[Jill · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this collection of previously published food articles. The variety of subjects kept it interesting and included many references to the pandemic, climate change, food insecurity, food trends, agriculture, and other subjects related to food in tangential ways. I found myself Googling to learn more about the authors and their subjects. I even watched a Netflix Chef’s Table episode about the Gaggan Anand, top Asian chef in Asia, the subject of one of the articles. This is the best kind of writing - when I’m still thinking about it long afterwards and expanding my awareness.

[Heather Peske · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting essays (some I liked much better than others) and big fan of the editor, Gabrielle Hamilton (please write another book!). Sometimes food writing is way too insider-ish, though several of the essays speak to exactly that problem: the exclusive, white-dominated chef and restaurant world and the brave and strong chefs who are turning that on its head, at well as the brave pioneers who led the way. Some of my favorite essays are the shortest (ex: Fegan) and many are decidedly frozen in pandemic time (eg, quarantining with a Michelin star chef). Still, a fun collection to sink into.

[Zachary Little · Rating 3 out of 5]

I impulse ordered this book one evening because I wanted to read stories of resilience in the face of the early pandemic. And I got some of that! But I mostly got gut-wrenching dispatches from the vanguard of the climate crisis. An absolutely harrowing read. But some really sweet, personal gems in there, too. These collections are always so good. I re-read Foster Kamer's essay "Making Reservations" (which is here: https://www.gossamer.co/articles/maki...) three times because I enjoyed it so much.

[HB · Rating 4 out of 5]

TL;DR: Gabrielle Hamilton was absolutely the person to choose the essays for this edition.

Some of these were a little long and detailed for my taste, but then I was reading this by a pool in the Caribbean, so that's mostly on me.

Favorite lines:

A New Orleans Chef Navigates Disaster, page 4: "Everybody was trying to act normal, but they all looked like they stole a pack of gum from the convenience store and somebody saw them do it."

Good Bread, page 41: "Only in France would 'flavor' and 'value' have the same moral weight."

[Allison · Rating 4 out of 5]

Standouts for me were “How a Cheese Goes Extinct”, “Good Bread”, “How to Feed Crowds in a Protest or Pandemic”, “Close to the Bone”, “Celia Chiang”, “Get Fat Don’t Die”, “The Nazi Origins of Your Favorite Natural Wine”, “What a 1944 Starvation Experiment Reveals About 2020 Food Insecurity,” and my favorite “Who Will Save the Food Timeline”.

I really enjoyed this collection of essays though there was a sense of loss in many. That is just where we were in 2020-2021 and it still rings true in 2025.

[Mona · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5: I liked this collection less than the 2024 Food & Travel Writing collection (which I gave 4 stars; it contained a lot more pieces I learned from or found insightful). However, there were still some great, well-researched/reported/written, and insightful essays in here, such as:
- "How to Feed Crowds in a Protest or Pandemic? The Sikhs Know", Priya Krishna
- "Incubated Futures", Britt H. Young
- "Get Fat, Don't Die", Jonathan Kauffman
- "Stewed Awakening", Navneet Alang

However, many were a bit disappointing, boring, or just dry / not that interesting.

[Beth · Rating 4 out of 5]

What I love about this new-ish series is that it's so consistent. I like nearly all of the pieces, unlike other Best of compilations. My favorites were A New Orleans Chef Navigates Disaster (lots of COVID-themed essays this year, obviously), Good Bread, This Is the Dumbest Foodie Battle of Our Time, and Get Fat, Don't Die. I also liked the ones about gout, the food timeline (shout out to librarians), Appalachian food, and water tastings.

[Lene Kretschz · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars. A varied collection of essays featuring a few really strong entries (by Bill Buford, Amy Irvine, Helen Rosner, and Dayna Evans), a few very good ones (Ruby Tandoh, Mayukh Sen, Eric J. Wallace, Navneet Alang, Jonathan Kauffman), some filler, and a couple whose inclusion in a "best of" volume I honestly can't comprehend. So, standard for this series. If you've liked previous editions, you'll surely like this year too.

[Jennifer Puccini · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 stars 🌟

I stumbled upon this series the year before and decided to buy the Food writing edition on a whim. Now, I eagerly await the publications of the next edition every year. My favorites in the 2021 collection include:
● How a Cheese Goes Extinct
● Soli/dairy/ty
● Get Fat, Don't Die
● What a 1994 Starvation Experiment Reveals About 2020 Food Insecurity
● Who Will Save the Food Timeline?
● What it's Like to Self-Quarentine with a Michelin-Starred Chef

[Nicole · Rating 4 out of 5]

favorite essays — Navneet Alangs’s essay on who gets to introduce ethnic ingredients to the mass market, Bill Buford’s eat/pray/love but it’s bread and his guru is a stoic French baker named Bob, and Jonathan Kauffman on historical food writing by AIDS activists who see humor in it till the end. Love Gabrielle Hamilton, who has such a distinct voice and is fiercely protective yet correctly critical of the industry, and her intro was one of the strongest bits of the whole book.