something to food about: Exploring Creativity with Innovative Chefs

by Questlove, Ben Greenman, Kyoko Hamada (Photographer), Anthony Bourdain (Foreword by)

Overview

In somethingtofoodabout, drummer, producer, musical director, culinary entrepreneur, and New York Times bestselling author, Questlove, applies his boundless curiosity to the world of food.

In conversations with ten innovative chefs in America, Questlove explores what makes their creativity tick, how they see the world through their cooking and how their cooking teaches them to see the world. The conversations begin with food but they end wherever food takes them.

Food is fuel. Food is culture. Food is history. And food is food for thought. 

Featuring conversations with: Nathan Myhrvold, Modernist Cuisine Lab, Seattle;  Daniel Humm, Eleven Madison Park, and NoMad, NYC;  Michael Solomonov, Zahav, Philadelphia; Ludo Lefebvre, Trois Mec, L.A.; Dave Beran, Next, Chicago; Donald Link, Cochon, New Orleans;  Dominque Crenn, Atelier Crenn, San Francisco;  Daniel Patterson, Coi and Loco'l, San Francisco; Jesse Griffiths, Dai Due, Austin; and Ryan Roadhouse, Nodoguro, Portland

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780553459425
Publisher:	Clarkson Potter/Ten Speed
Publication date:	04/12/2016
Pages:	240
Sales rank:	398,374
Product dimensions:	8.20(w) x 10.60(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

QUESTLOVE, co-founder of hip-hop superstars The Roots and bandleader for Jimmy Fallon’s The Tonight Show, is one of our great cultural commentators—a wide-ranging mind whose interests span from music to politics to race to design and now, food. Somethingtofoodabout is a book about art, craft, creativity, and deliciousness: essays and conversations with ten inspiring chefs on what makes their creative clocks tick.

BEN GREENMAN is a staff writer at The New Yorker and a New York Times bestselling author who has written both fiction (The Slippage, Superbad) and nonfiction. He was Questlove's collaborator on the acclaimed hip-hop memoir Mo Meta Blues, and most recently coauthored George Clinton's memoir, Brothas Be, Yo Like George Ain't That Funkin' Kinda Hard on You. He lives in Brooklyn and rarely leaves. 

KYOKO HAMADA was born in Tokyo and grew up in Chiba, Japan. Hamada came to New York City to study, graduating from the Pratt Institute studying photography and painting. Her subject matter has often been ordinary people and objects stylized and staged into subtle quiet moments. She has been working as a commercial photographer for the last ten years and her work appears several magazines, including The New Yorker, Atlantic magazine, and Wall Street Journal Magazine.

Editorial Reviews

It’s a fresh ride.”—New York Times
 
“With somethingtofoodabout, Quest (aka Philadelphia's Ahmir Thompson) dives head first into the topics that get chefs talking: What is creativity? How are art and food related? What does the future hold for food and cooking? Questlove sits down with some of the most exceptional chefs in America, including Daniel Humm (Eleven Madison Park), Dominique Crenn (Atelier Crenn), Michael Solomonov (Zahav), and Daniel Patterson (Coi). Questlove himself plays an equal part in getting the answers, providing examples and references to his own life as a musician and creator as he talks with food luminaries about the thorny questions surrounding creativity.”—Eater
 
“Somethingtofoodabout is really a passion project. For Questlove, it’s not about the food business, but rather the ideas, the concepts, and the imaginations behind the chefs who feed him. There are no recipes and no how-tos. For Questlove, the only how-to you need to know is how to appreciate and understand the taste, the process, and the journey of the idea.”—Vogue
 
“An enjoyable, frequently surprising exploration of creativity.”—Kirkus Reviews

From the Publisher

02/15/2016
Musician, DJ, and record producer Questlove is also a food enthusiast, frequently documenting his eating experiences on Instagram as he travels the world. Here he compiles a series of conversations with some of the most innovative chefs across America, from New York to San Francisco, Philadelphia, Austin, Portland, and Chicago. Most of the chefs featured are from high-end restaurants, such as Chicago's Next or New York's Eleven Madison Park, although a few head more casual establishments. Each culinary artist talks about his or her creative process, training, philosophy, inspiration, and how they balance innovation and tradition. Perhaps the most intriguing chapter is the description of the author's 13-course meal at the Modernist Cuisine lab in Seattle. VERDICT The author frequently tries to relate experiences with food and cooking to his encounters with music, which may be distracting to those who aren't big music fans, but Questlove's enthusiasm for his subject and the thoughtful discussions with each chef will appeal to foodies interested in the inventive process of cooking. Short chapters and artistic photography will allow readers to enjoy in small bites. [See "Editors' Spring Picks," p. 33]—Melissa Stoeger, Deerfield P.L., IL

Library Journal

2015-12-21
A musician talks to renowned chefs about work, inspiration, and tastes. Instrumentalist, DJ, and music journalist Thompson, aka Questlove (Mo Meta Blues: The World According to Questlove, 2013), indulges his love of food in this exuberant, eclectic volume of conversations with chefs that reveals as much about the author's passionate engagement with music as the chefs do about their art. Talking about recipes with Nathan Myhrvold, who runs Modernist Cuisine, "a massive food-related publishing and research project," the two men agree that instructions, "whether they are sheet music or recipes, don't always pan out." Dominique Crenn, of Atelier Crenn, calls cookbooks "quite one-dimensional." They interest her only when she can "feel the people that are behind them." Experience and inspiration matter, as does training: Ludo Lefebvre, whose flagship restaurant, Trois Mec, is a modest place in a Los Angeles strip mall, talks about his long apprenticeship before he was ready to come up with his own ideas. Just as the author tells students that the path to becoming a professional musician involves "years of continuous practice," Lefebvre spent years perfecting his techniques. "Now people say they are chefs at twenty," he remarks incredulously. Donald Link, of the New Orleans restaurant Cochon, finds his dishes simplifying as he gets older. The elaborate constructions of some young chefs, Link says, seem "too ego-driven. These days, if I cook fish, I want to taste the fish." "Early on you want to prove yourself," says Daniel Humm of New York's Eleven Madison Park. "You want to show five techniques in one dish." Dave Beran, of the innovative Next in Chicago, which changes its identity every three months, likens creating a menu to putting together an album: "you can think of it as a collection of greatest hits or a series of dishes that tell a story." Abundant illustrations include a deer being butchered, a theme menu, and elegant raw okra. An enjoyable, frequently surprising exploration of creativity.

Kirkus Reviews