Eat Up!: Food, Appetite and Eating What You Want

by Ruby Tandoh

Overview

In this bestselling tour de force of a culinary manifesto, Great British Bake Off alum and former Guardian columnist Ruby Tandoh will help you fall back in love with food—from a great selection of recipes to straight-talking, sympathetic advice on mental health and body image
 
“I read it greedily.” —Nigella Lawson

Ruby Tandoh implores us to enjoy and appreciate food in all of its many forms. Food is, after all, what nourishes our bodies, helps us commemorate important milestones, cheers us up when we're down, expands our minds, and connects us with the people we love. But too often, it’s a source of anxiety and unhappiness. With Eat Up!, Tandoh celebrates one of life’s greatest pleasures, drawing inspiration from sources as diverse as Julia Child to The Very Hungry Caterpillar, flavor memories to jellied eels. She takes on the wellness industry and fad diets, and rejects the snobbery surrounding “good” and “bad” food, in wide-ranging essays that will reshape the way you think about eating.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780593466810
Publisher:	Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
Publication date:	07/12/2022
Pages:	272
Product dimensions:	5.10(w) x 7.90(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

RUBY TANDOH is an author and journalist who has written for the New Yorker, the Guardian, Vittles and Elle. A finalist on the 2013 Great British Bake Off, she has written Eat Up, a book about the pleasure of eating, as well as three cookery books, Crumb, Flavour and Cook As You Are.

Table of Contents

Introduction 3

The magic 8

Hungry human bodies 29

Digested: Eating with the seasons 58

You are what you eat? 62

Emotional eating 88

Digested: A friendship 113

Sharing plates 116

Home cooking 135

Digested: Food on film 164

Bad taste 168

A good egg 196

Digested: Christmas 221

Resources 225

Bibliography 227

Acknowledgments 245

Index 247

Editorial Reviews

05/02/2022

“Food is, in many ways, more complex and controversial than ever,” asserts former Great British Baking Show finalist Tandoh (Crumb) in this earnest if imperfect culinary manifesto. Contending that society’s relationship with food has been complicated by contradictory messaging around the right and wrong ways to eat, Tandoh writes “the most elemental, easy, joyful thing we can do has become a chore and source of anxiety.” Determined to work against that mentality, she looks at food as a “whole picture,” sharing facts and culinary studies that will uplift readers—from waxing poetic about the liberating joys of baking to citing studies that correlate the pleasure humans derive from food to its nutritional power. Appearing just as often, though, are flimsy claims that lack accompanying evidence; in one such example, she casually references “studies” that purport that “people classed as overweight have... reduced susceptibility of certain diseases,” without further consideration other than the glib pronouncement that “fat bodies are big and perfect, and deserve plates of meatballs.” Still, home cooks will appreciate the handful of recipes sprinkled throughout, such as a sweet potato and smoky butternut squash stew with chickpea dumplings. There are valuable nuggets of insight, but too much sifting is required to get to the good stuff. Agent: Molly Friedrich, Friedrich Agency. (July)

Publishers Weekly

"A simultaneously challenging and forgiving manifesto, one that combines memoir, research and recipes in a call for us all to be skeptical of fads, inviting of others, and gently confident with ourselves and our tastes." —Salon

"A colorful, thoughtful collection that reads like memoir-meets–food science, perfect for foodies and anyone looking to examine their relationship with food and celebrate the joy of eating." —Library Journal (starred review)

“[Tandoh] looks at food as a 'whole picture,' sharing facts and culinary studies that will uplift readers—from waxing poetic about the liberating joys of baking to citing studies that correlate the pleasure humans derive from food to its nutritional power. . . . Home cooks will appreciate the handful of recipes sprinkled throughout, such as a sweet potato and smoky butternut squash stew with chickpea dumplings.” —Publishers Weekly

"Part memoir, occasional cookbook, and mostly manifesto, this book . . . will have those ready to tackle the problems of Western food culture nodding 'Yes!' as Tandoh challenges the status quo." —Booklist

From the Publisher

★ 06/01/2022

Tandoh (Cook as You Are), a finalist on the Great British Bake Off in 2013, offers a series of essays with a personal touch that takes readers on a meditative journey, challenging notions embedded in diet culture and defying the food police. She explores the fine balance between food as a source of physical and emotional pleasure, nourishment, joy, and more. She also takes a critical look at the concept of clean eating, aiming to serve as an antidote to the "confused, disjointed approaches to food" that have taken over the conversation on food. Combining thoughts, experiences, and recipes with insight on food, cooking, and nutrition, Tandoh meditates on the messy business of eating, diet, and people's relationships with food, hunger, and disordered eating. Recipes are interspersed throughout the text, inspired by Tandoh's personal experiences and designed to introduce readers to cooking without pretense. VERDICT A colorful, thoughtful collection that reads like memoir-meets—food science, perfect for foodies and anyone looking to examine their relationship with food and celebrate the joy of eating.—Gricel Dominguez

Library Journal

2022-04-27
A sweeping social justice analysis of the way we eat—and the problematic ways society tells us to eat.

Journalist Tandoh, a Great British Bake Off finalist and author of three cookbooks, begins by comparing current food culture to “a bad boyfriend, dragging you down or holding you for ransom.” Too often, she argues, the modern dialogue about food seems to force us into “a perfect way of eating that will save your soul and send you sailing through your eighties, into your nineties and beyond.” In reality, food has a complex history sullied by everything from colonialism to homophobia. For example, Tandoh writes, “tea with sugar is a blood sport,” recounting how the British East India Company took over the tea trade in tandem with its bid to colonize India. In another chapter, the author takes on body shaming, emphasizing how “bodily scrutiny” is disproportionately applied to queer and trans people. Later, Tandoh uses sugar—a delicacy in Elizabethan England that has since become associated with the sugary drinks consumed by the working poor—as a tool for interrogating classism. Ultimately, the author encourages readers to eat what they want, when they want: “All we can really do is to take the revolution a meal at a time….Be the only person at the table to get a dessert. When it arrives, don’t share it. Fully rejoice in all your appetites—the wise and the unruly alike.” The combination of Tandoh’s earnest, compassionate tone and lyrical prose produces a text that is readable and informative. Her analysis of the intersecting systems of oppression that affect our ability to enjoy our food is trenchant and original yet occasionally overwritten and meandering. Her call for greater freedom in self-care is particularly relevant within a tumultuous global culture still struggling with the pandemic and myriad other concerns.

An engrossing, empathetic critique of modern culinary culture.

Kirkus Reviews

Ruby Tandoh is an established British foodie from the hit reality TV show “The Great British Bake Off” who now writes about food for a variety of international outlets, including the NEW YORK TIMES. Here she narrates her memoir about the art and act of eating. Tandoh is reverential about rituals related to food. We hear her thoughts delivered in tender, almost dulcet, tones. She pushes beyond what we eat into why, where, and even with whom we do so. This is an ode to Tandoh's personal relationship with food, framed by memories of cooking with her grandmother and by her plea to slow down and enjoy the lost art of eating. Fans of her other work will feel they are getting to know her even better here. M.R. © AudioFile 2022, Portland, Maine

SEPTEMBER 2022 - AudioFile

Ruby Tandoh is an established British foodie from the hit reality TV show “The Great British Bake Off” who now writes about food for a variety of international outlets, including the NEW YORK TIMES. Here she narrates her memoir about the art and act of eating. Tandoh is reverential about rituals related to food. We hear her thoughts delivered in tender, almost dulcet, tones. She pushes beyond what we eat into why, where, and even with whom we do so. This is an ode to Tandoh's personal relationship with food, framed by memories of cooking with her grandmother and by her plea to slow down and enjoy the lost art of eating. Fans of her other work will feel they are getting to know her even better here. M.R. © AudioFile 2022, Portland, Maine

SEPTEMBER 2022 - AudioFile