ALL CONSUMING: Why We Eat the Way We Eat Now, by Ruby Tandoh
It’s a bit risky to categorize anything Ruby Tandoh writes as a “romp.”
In 2018’s “Eat Up!” she described a cuppa with sugar as “colonialism brewed strong with the labor of other people, in other places.” More famously, she called out the misogynistic culture of “The Great British Bake Off,” on which she competed in 2013 while a philosophy student. The internet attacked her for crying, accused her of flirting with the judge Paul Hollywood, of doing everything but simply having baked well enough to make the finals.
Her spirited response to critics launched her writing career. She was given a column in The Guardian but quit, frustrated by a food scene she described as laced with aspirational elitism.
Her four cookbooks have delivered delicious, workable recipes simmered in the sensibilities of a young, queer woman of color who has pushed against traditional food media, even as it has embraced her. But cookbooks, she writes in her new work, “All Consuming,” are no longer relevant, save as marketing exercises and anthropological guides to moments in the zeitgeist.
Instead, in a series of extended essays, Tandoh wades through the chaotic food world of the 2020s armed with delightful snark and historical analysis in equal measure. A romp, in short.
Why, she asks, are we compelled to stand in lines so long they’ve become social media stars themselves? How did the “recipe economy” morph into a crispy, sticky, creamy, cheesy miso-coated thirst trap dusted in turmeric?
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The post A Tart, Spicy Take on Our Ridiculous Foodie Culture appeared first on New York Times.
