The wickedly entertaining, hunger-inducing, behind-the-scenesstory of the revolution in American food that has made exoticingredients, celebrity chefs, rarefied cooking tools, anddestination restaurants familiar aspects of our everydaylives. Amazingly enough, just twenty years ago eating sushi was a daringnovelty and many Americans had never even heard of salsa. Today, wedon't bat an eye at a construction worker dipping a croissant intorobust specialty coffee, city dwellers buying just-picked farmstandproduce, or suburbanites stocking up on artisanal cheeses and extravirgin oils at supermarkets. The United States of Arugula is arollicking, revealing stew of culinary innovation, food politics,and kitchen confidences chronicling how gourmet eating in Americawent from obscure to pervasive—and became the cultural successstory of our era.
From the legendary editor who helped shape modern cookbookpublishing-one of the food world's most admired figures-comes thisevocative and inspiring memoir. Living in Paris after World War II, Jones broke free of blandAmerican food and reveled in everyday French culinary delights. Onreturning to the States she published Julia Child's Mastering theArt of French Cooking. The rest is publishing and gastronomichistory. A new world now opened up to Jones as she discovered, withher husband Evan, the delights of American food, publishing some ofthe premier culinary luminaries of the twentieth century: fromJulia Child, James Beard, and M.F.K. Fisher to Claudia Roden, EdnaLewis, and Lidia Bastianich. Here also are fifty of Jones'sfavorite recipes collected over a lifetime of cooking-each with itsown story and special tips. The Tenth Muse is an absolutelycharming memoir by a woman who was present at the creation of theAmerican food revolution and played a pivotal role in shapingit.
