A Food Lover’s Delight: Book Talk with Adam Richman

He describes culinary anthropology as “a history of a people using food as a point of departure…Food, it can just be an awesome kick-ass meal on your plate, but it’s also agriculture, slavery, wars, trade patterns, weather, made manifest on bite size morsels on your plate. So then you move forward into the idea of what food can be in a span of time.” I wouldn’t go as far to say that the Nutrigrain bar I am eating right now is a kick-ass meal, but the idea that the ingredients in it and the idea of it is the culmination of hundreds of years of history makes even our simple snacks into so much more.

“I’ve been keeping a food journal since about 1995,” said Richman about how his love of food began. And like most tales of fame and fortune, it all starts with a break up. “I just had my heart smashed into a million pieces… and I was going for a drive, and sadly this place no longer exists, Virginia’s, but I went there and…I began writing. I was going to try and write some douchey heartbreak college poetry, like ‘the pain leaks from my eyes into the ash tray’.” Instead, Richman began to write down his reactions to the meal he was eating, beginning his climb to fame and winning the hearts of foodies around the country.

What Richman does in America the Edible is more than telling us where to find the best burgers, or entertaining us with anecdotes about attempting to eat a couple dozen chicken wings in a half hour. His book turns something as simple as the history of the bagel into an important piece of our lives. “When I have a bagel, when you have a bagel, you are not only having a kick-ass meal…it’s also part of a larger continuum. And that story doesn’t end when that bagel hits your plate. You are now a part of it.”

Food is not just something we eat when we’re hungry (or in my case, just bored), it is a part of our everyday experiences. “The bagel you have when you’re running to work is not the same bagel you have when you’re sitting in bed sharing the New York Times crossword with someone special, is not the same bagel you had when you had your first bagel.” This man just really gets to me. Someone who can turn a bagel into a pseudo love story basically has the key to my heart.

He continued on to talk about how “the food that we eat at a meal is part of that experience. It’s who we’re with, our mindset…. Is it the beginning of a relationship, the end of one? I mean, it really does make a difference.”

Aside from being a fantastic and engaging speaker, Richman seems to understand what it means to really savor food. All he does in his book is attempt to convey his rightful fascination with what we eat to everyone else. From the man who has completed more food challenges than is imaginable, America the Edible illuminates the history of food and takes the reader on a journey across America, highlighting the best places to enjoy a meal. The book turns the food we consume everyday into a journey through time and shows us that “what you have on your plate is a story, a magical, magical key, a portal into your life, and someone else’s life.”