Why Food Matters

  • Author Paul Freedman
  • Narrator Jack de Golia
  • Publisher Blackstone Publishing
  • Run Time 5 hours and 30 minutes
  • Format Audio
  • Genre Diets and dieting, nutrition.
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What to expect

An award-winning historian makes the case for food’s cultural importance, stressing its crucial role throughout human historyWhy does food matter? Historically, food has not always been considered a serious subject on par with, for instance, a performance art like opera or a humanities discipline like philosophy. Necessity, ubiquity, and repetition contribute to the apparent banality of food, but these attributes don’t capture food’s emotional and cultural range, from the quotidian to the exquisite. In this short, passionate audiobook, Paul Freedman makes the case for food’s vital importance, stressing its crucial role in the evolution of human identity and human civilizations. Freedman presents a highly readable and illuminating account of food’s unique role in our lives, a way of expressing community and celebration, but also divisive with regard to race, cultural difference, gender, and geography. This wide-ranging book will be a must-read for food lovers and all those interested in how cultures and identities are formed and maintained.

Critics Review

  • “Freedman is a master historian. Methodical and dexterous, he laces historical accounts with analysis and storytelling that informs and delights.”

    Dan Barber, chef and co-owner of Blue Hill; New York Times bestselling author

  • “A rich and fascinating narrative that reaches deep into the historical and cultural larder of societal experience, powerfully illustrating the myriad ways that food matters as an essential condiment for humanity.”

    Danny Meyer, founder of Union Square Hospitality Group and Shake Shack; New York Times bestselling author

  • “With wit, erudition, and urgency, Paul Freedman casts a wide net across history and global cultures to show how we are defined by the food we eat—and ignore it at our peril.”

    Andrew Coe, New York Times bestselling author

  • “Highly entertaining and critically astute, Why Food Matters is a serious look at the evolution of the language of food. We have to turn to history to understand how we want food to look like in the future. Paul Freedman’s brilliant telling of historical and contemporary foodways—their successes and failures—provides many laugh-out-loud, shaking head, lightbulb, and aha! moments.”

    Elizabeth Falkner, chef and creative director, ChEF Productions

  • “Wide-ranging, surprising, and deliciously readable. Paul Freedman conveys his deep knowledge and passion for the history of food in lively, lucid prose, revealing the myriad ways we define ourselves through what we eat.”

    Irina Dumitrescu, University of Bonn

  • “Paul Freedman combines scholarship and readability in the best possible ways.”

    Barbara Ketcham Wheaton, author of Savoring the Past

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