The Tastemakers

A New York Times Editors' Choice pick Named a Best Book of the Year by NPR, Los Angeles Times, Vogue, Wall Street Journal, Food Network, KCRW, WBUR Here & Now, Emma Straub, and Globe and Mail One of the Millions's Most Anticipated Books of 2021 America’s modern culinary history told through the lives of seven pathbreaking chefs and food writers. Who’s really behind America’s appetite for foods from around the globe? This group biography from an electric new voice in food writing honors seven extraordinary women, all immigrants, who left an indelible mark on the way Americans eat today. Taste Makers stretches from World War II to the present, with absorbing and deeply researched portraits of figures including Mexican-born Elena Zelayeta, a blind chef; Marcella Hazan, the deity of Italian cuisine; and Norma Shirley, a champion of Jamaican dishes. In imaginative, lively prose, Mayukh Sen—a queer, brown child of immigrants—reconstructs the lives of these women in vivid and empathetic detail, daring to ask why some were famous in their own time, but not in ours, and why others shine brightly even today. Weaving together histories of food, immigration, and gender, Taste Makers will challenge the way readers look at what’s on their plate—and the women whose labor, overlooked for so long, makes those meals possible.

An examination of the development, role, and influence of the British decorative art dealers who invented an Anglo-Gallic style for elite interiors. In this volume Diana Davis demonstrates how London dealers invented a new and visually splendid decorative style that combined the contrasting tastes of two nations. Departing from the conventional narrative that depicts dealers as purveyors of antiquarianism, Davis repositions them as innovators who were key to transforming old art objects from ancien régime France into cherished “antiques” and, equally, as creators of new and modified French-inspired furniture, bronze work, and porcelain. The resulting old, new, and reconfigured objects merged aristocratic French eighteenth-century taste with nineteenth-century British preference, and they were prized by collectors, who displayed them side by side in palatial interiors of the period. The Tastemakers analyzes dealer-made furnishings from the nineteenth-century patron’s perspective and in the context of the interiors for which they were created, contending that early dealers deliberately formulated a new aesthetic with its own objects, language, and value. Davis examines a wide variety of documents to piece together the shadowy world of these dealers, who emerge center stage as a traders, makers, and tastemakers.

Tastemaker, n. Anyone with the power to make you eat quinoa. Kale. Spicy sriracha sauce. Honeycrisp apples. Cupcakes. These days, it seems we are constantly discovering a new food that will make us healthier, happier, or even somehow cooler. Chia seeds, after a brief life as a novelty houseplant and I Love the ’80s punchline, are suddenly a superfood. Not long ago, that same distinction was held by pomegranate seeds, açai berries, and the fermented drink known as kombucha. So what happened? Did these foods suddenly cease to be healthy a few years ago? And by the way, what exactly is a “superfood” again? In this eye-opening, witty work of reportage, David Sax uncovers the world of food trends: Where they come from, how they grow, and where they end up. Traveling from the South Carolina rice plot of America’s premier grain guru to Chicago’s gluttonous Baconfest, Sax reveals a world of influence, money, and activism that helps decide what goes on your plate. On his journey, he meets entrepreneurs, chefs, and even data analysts who have made food trends a mission and a business. The Tastemakers is full of entertaining stories and surprising truths about what we eat, how we eat it, and why.

James Beard Award Winner: A cultural history and culinary travelogue from “the M.F.K. Fisher of pickled meats” (A. J. Jacobs). These days there are very few places you can get authentic hot pastrami sandwiches, delicious matzo ball soup, and chewy, crusty rye. In this travelogue, die-hard delicatessen lover David Sax searches out the best Jewish delis around the United States—and the world—and digs deep into the history of the deli: its characters, greatest triumphs, spectacular failures, and uncertain future. Going far beyond New York landmarks, past and present, like Katz’s, the Carnegie Deli, and the Second Avenue Deli, to Chicago, Florida, LA, Montreal, Toronto, Paris, and beyond, Save the Deli is the story of diaspora, and of one man’s quest to save a defining element of the culture—and the food—he loves. It even includes a glossary of food and Yiddish terms, for the goyim or the woefully assimilated. Just don’t read it on an empty stomach. “An epic journey, akin to The Odyssey but with Rolaids.” —Roger Bennett, author of Bar Mitzvah Disco

Tastemakers and Tastemaking develops a new approach to analyzing violence in Mexican films and television by examining the curation of violence in relation to three key moments: the decade-long centennial commemoration of the Mexican Revolution launched in 2010; the assaults and murders of women in Northern Mexico since the late 1990s; and the havoc wreaked by the illegal drug trade since the early 2000s. Niamh Thornton considers how violence is created, mediated, selected, or categorized by tastemakers, through the strategic choices made by institutions, filmmakers, actors, and critics. Challenging assumptions about whose and what kind of work merit attention and traversing normative boundaries between "good" and "bad" taste, Thornton draws attention to the role of tastemaking in both "high" and "low" media, including film cycles and festivals, adaptations of Mariano Azuela's 1915 novel, Los de Abajo, Amat Escalante's hyperrealist art films, and female stars of recent genre films and the telenovela, La reina del sur. Making extensive use of videographic criticism, Thornton pays particularly close attention to the gendered dimensions of violence, both on and off screen.

Pierre Sauvage invites us into the homes of twenty influential tastemakers, offering inspiration from living and dining room interiors to table settings, floral arrangements, and recipes. The most welcoming homes reflect the personality of the host and beckon guests to sit down and stay for a while among friends. Pierre Sauvage, owner and creative director of the Parisian design firm Casa Lopez, invites the reader to visit some of the world's most talented hosts, who hail from the beauty, fashion, interior design, and art worlds--tastemakers such as Martina Mondadori, Aerin Lauder, Carolina Irving, Jacques Garcia, Linda Pinto, Christian Louboutin, Chahan Minassian, Patrick Perrin, Terry de Gunzburg, Jamie Creel, and Robert Couturier. Signature details from their chic and stylish interiors are brought into focus in a richly detailed volume featuring photographs of gorgeous art-filled dining rooms, sumptuous floral arrangements, unique furniture, fine tableware, festive tablescapes, and playful garden picnics. With flair and sophistication, exquisite table settings provide the backdrop for favorite recipes selected by each host, including arugula and crab salad, chicken with morel mushrooms, lemon tiramisu, and peach sorbet. The perfect book for anyone who loves to entertain, Be My Guest will provide endless sources of inspiration and delight.

Following Remote places to stay, REMOTE EXPERIENCES will celebrate the experiences off the beaten path, which helps the visitor to relax, calm down and get to know various countries and the people living and shaping them. The book will show a selection of pictures accompanied by project related texts, which will both inspire the reader to explore the world. The reader will venture deep into one of the last wild corners of the world in Papua New Guinea, goes on safari through the untamed Okavango delta in Botswana, or camp on the frozen Atlantic Ocean near Baffin Island.

Twenty-five world-class designers invite us inside their private French residences, providing intimate access to their creative universe and rich inspiration for home style. Stepping inside the private residences of France's leading tastemakers provides unrivaled inspiration for interiors with a personal flair. From a modernist retreat to an urban-pop apartment, and from an eclectic cabinet of curiosities to an eighteenth-century hôtel particulier, each ambiance demonstrates a perfect mastery of associations between color, pattern, volume, material, and decorative genius. Pierre Yovanovitch's elegant, purist sensitivity infuses his seventeenth-century château in Provence. Pierre Passebon, owner of the famous Galerie du Passage in Paris, has furnished his carefully curated home with a brilliant mix of tribal art, Wiener Werkstätte masterpieces, and design from the 1930s. Jewelry designer Lorenz Bäumer's own interior creations complement the resolutely contemporary pieces by modern masters such as Ingo Maurer, Ettore Sottsass, and Verner Panton in his light-filled, constantly evolving apartment. Fashion designer Gilles Dufour's eclectic collections include nineteenth-century history paintings, classical sculptures, and Christian Bérard drawings, displayed alongside a menagerie of sculptures by Claude and François-Xavier Lalanne. These private residences, each created by a world-class aesthete with a discerning eye, offer up a rich palette of inspired ideas for the home.