Skip to content
Responsive image
Vendor
Fritz Agency
Christian Dittus
Original language
English

LOST FEAST

Lenore Newman

Culinary Extinction and the Future of Food

A rollicking exploration of the history and future of our favorite foods

When we humans love foods, we love them a lot. In fact, we have often eaten them into extinction, whether it is the megafauna of the Paleolithic world or the passenger pigeon of the last century. In Lost Feast, food expert Lenore Newman sets out to look at the history of the foods we have loved to death and what that means for the culinary paths we choose for the future. Whether it's chasing down the luscious butter of local Icelandic cattle or looking at the impacts of modern industrialized agriculture on the range of food varieties we can put in our shopping carts, Newman's bright, intelligent gaze finds insight and humor at every turn.

Bracketing the chapters that look at the history of our relationship to specific foods, Lenore enlists her ecologist friend and fellow cook, Dan, in a series of “extinction dinners” designed to recreate meals of the past or to illustrate how we might be eating in the future. Part culinary romp, part environmental wake-up call, Lost Feast makes a critical contribution to our understanding of food security today. You will never look at what's on your plate in quite the same way again.

Lenore Newman is the Canada Research Chair in Food Security and Environment at the University of the Fraser Valley. She is the author of the acclaimed Speaking in Cod Tongues: A Canadian Culinary Journey.
Available products
Book

Published 2019-10-01 by ECW Press

Comments

Lost Feast is enjoyable reading about a serious topic. (starred review)

Gastropod podcast (on the history and science of food) devoted an ENTIRE EPISODE to Lenore Newman's LOST FEAST Read more...

Food For Thought: When We Love Our Food So Much That It Goes Extinct Read more...

“Newman's jaunts through the animal kingdom alternate with themed meals with her friend Dan as she ponders how historical extinctions are linked to our current food systems, what we can do about it, and how humans must follow the example of the famed New York ‘pizza rat,' and adapt to the food that comes their way.”

Recommended by Margaret Atwood on her Twitter Holiday Book List Read more...