Rowan Jacobsen's 6 favorite books that explore our relationship with food
The award-winning author recommends works by Harold McGee, Kristin Kimball, and more
When you make a purchase using links on our site, The Week may earn a commission. All reviews are written independently by our editorial team.
Rowan Jacobsen is the James Beard Award-winning author of "A Geography of Oysters" and "Truffle Hound." His new book, "Wild Chocolate," tells the stories of the farmers, activists, and chocolatiers laboring to bring ancient cacao back from near extinction.
'Totem Salmon' by Freeman House (1999)
A lot of good books have been written about salmon, but none compares with "Totem Salmon," House's masterpiece about the efforts of his Northern California community to restore king salmon to their watershed. "Ecosystem absences can become a palpable presence," he writes, "a weird stillness moving against the winds of existence." House never wrote a second complete book. He didn't need to. Buy it here.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
'The Botany of Desire' by Michael Pollan (2001)
Pollan's breakthrough book, and still his best, this "plant's-eye view" asks not what apples, tulips, marijuana, and the potato can do for us, but what we have done for them. A delightfully original perspective that has changed the way I see the world on a daily basis. Buy it here.
'On Food and Cooking' by Harold McGee (2004 edition)
The one reference book on this list, and a must for every bookshelf. McGee's nerdy dive helped us all to understand the deep structure underlying gastronomy. Suddenly, it all made sense. Buy it here.
'The Dirty Life' by Kristin Kimball (2010)
Kristin Kimball was a Manhattan journalist when she did a story on a young farmer with some radical ideas. Reader, she married him. Soon, the two of them were launching a wildly experimental community-supported agriculture program in upstate New York that set a new standard for how much food, community, and chaos you can create out of one patch of dirt. Buy it here.
'Agave Spirits' by David Suro Pinera and Gary Paul Nabhan (2023)
Agave is the succulent that gives us mezcal and tequila. It's also a linchpin of desert ecosystems, a touchstone of Mexican culture, and friggin' delicious when made using ancestral methods. This book will have you savoring every sip. Buy it here.
Sign up for Today's Best Articles in your inbox
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
'The Salt Stones' by Helen Whybrow (2025)
In achingly poetic prose, this forthcoming chronicle of life on a Vermont hill farm captures the familial responsibilities of the shepherd — for animals, parents, children, wild things, and the land upon which we walk for such a brief time. Buy it here.
This article was first published in the latest issue of The Week magazine. If you want to read more like it, you can try six risk-free issues of the magazine here.
-
Juror #2: Clint Eastwood's 'cleverly constructed' courtroom drama is 'rock solid'
The Week Recommends Nicholas Hoult stars in 'morally complex' film about a juror on a high-profile murder case
By The Week UK Published
-
Explore a timeless corner of Spain by bike
The Week Recommends Take a 'dawdling route through the back-country' far from the tourism hotspots
By The Week UK Published
-
Saoirse Ronan: how the actress went viral
In the Spotlight The actress dropped a 'chat-icide bomb' on Graham Norton's BBC show
By The Week UK Published
-
Edmund de Waal on this year's Booker Prize shortlist
The Week Recommends The chair of judges details works by Rachel Kushner, Percival Everett and others
By The Week UK Published
-
Griddled salmon and vegetables with miso and melted butter recipe
The Week Recommends Hokkaido comfort food classic with a delicious twist
By The Week UK Published
-
Shattered: Hanif Kureishi's 'inspirational' memoir of accident that left him paralysed
The Week Recommends 'Exhilarating' book is composed of diary entries dictated to his son Carlo
By The Week UK Published
-
Dr. Strangelove: is stage adaptation of iconic film a 'foolish' move?
Talking Point Steve Coogan puts on a dazzling performance in show that falls short of 'the real thing'
By The Week UK Published
-
Small Things Like These: 'stylish' Irish drama 'casts a powerful spell'
The Week Recommends 'Stylish' drama starring Cillian Murphy as a devoted father
By The Week UK Published