Great writing allows us to immerse ourselves in a world that is and is not our own. We're partners with the writer as we explore a book. In 'Cooked: A Natural History of Transformation,' Michel Pollan takes us deep into his own life as he explores in depth four basic types of cooking. It's his most personal and personable book, rich in experience, place and character. Let yourself go and the world you create reading is quite likely to change the one you return to afterward.
'Cooked' is quite simply and logically organized, perhaps a bit to its own detriment. It's easy to read the superb essay that prefaces the book and acts as an introduction and think you've got it. But 'Cooked,' like the techniques it explores, is filled with richness that requires both time and attention. It's beautiful and easy to read. It must certainly hold some sort of record for a cookbook, in that over the 400-plus pages you get basically just four recipes. But recipes and prescriptions and advice are not the point here. Immersing yourself in the world of cooking is the point; as cooking transforms food, so too does reading transform the reader.
Pollan touches on a number of flammable topics in his introduction (and follows up elswhere), but the important bit is this: he's divided cooking into what one might think of as four Platonic ideals; fire, water, air, and earth, which correspond in the cooking world to roasting meat (fire), braising and stewing (water), baking bread (air) and fermenting, picking and brewing (earth). In the book, Pollan goes on to apprentice himself to a master chef in each form, and learn, in depth, how it is done.
Of course, this only scratches the surface of 'Cooked.' As we follow Pollan into the world of each form of cooking, he gives us an array of exciting characters, stories and facts. He'll take a moment to experiment with microwaving frozen food, then linger in kitchen of a former student who is now a chef. He'll meet with an anthropologist who speculates that cooking made us human, then he's back to the BBQ pit master. 'Cooked' is chock-a-block with fascinating stories that ride the edge of controversy, but the controversy is simply part of the world he is creating. Cooking can be an easy or complicated, entertaining way to pass time and improve the quality of your life.
'Cooked' is Pollan's most personal book to date; it's clear the writer was transformed by this work. His prose is crisp and exciting to read and he manages to evoke the poignancy that is usually reserved for the smell of foods we loved in our childhood. Immerse yourself in Pollan's world and you just might come out thinking that your most valuable asset — time — is well spent in the kitchen.
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Agony Column Podcast News Report : A 2015 Interview with William T. Vollman : "...a lot of long words that in our language are sentences..."
09-05-15: Commentary : Susan Casey Listens to 'Voices in the Ocean' : Science, Empathy and Self
Agony Column Podcast News Report : A 2015 Interview with Susan Casey : "...the reporting for this book was emotionally difficult at times..."
08-21-15: Agony Column Podcast News Report : Senator Claire McCaskill is 'Plenty Ladylike' : Internalizing Determination to Overcome Sexism [Incudes Time to Read EP 211: Claire McCaskill, Plenty Ladylike, plus A 2015 Interview with Senator Claire McCaskill]
Agony Column Podcast News Report : Emily Schultz Unleashes 'The Blondes' : A Cure by Color [Incudes Time to Read EP 210: Emily Schultz, The Blondes, plus A 2015 Interview with Emily Schultz]
07-05-15: Commentary : Dr. Michael Gazzaniga Tells Tales from Both Sides of the Brain : A Life in Neuroscience Reveals the Life of Science
Agony Column Podcast News Report : A 2015 Interview with Michael Gazzaniga : "We made the first observation and BAM there was the disconnection effect..."
04-21-15: Commentary : Kazuo Ishiguro Unearths 'The Buried Giant' : The Mist of Myth and Memory
Agony Column Podcast News Report : A 2015 Interview with Kazuo Ishiguro : ".... by the time I was writing this novel, the lines between what was fantasy and what was real had blurred for me..."
Agony Column Podcast News Report : A 2015 Interview with Marc Goodman : "...every physical object around us is being transformed, one way or another, into an information technology..."
Agony Column Podcast News Report UPDATE: Time to Read Episode 199: Marc Goodman : Future Crimes: Everything Is Connected, Everyone Is Vulnerable and What We Can Do About It
