From Delmonico's to Sylvia's to Chez Panisse, a daring and original history of dining out in America as told through ten legendary restaurants.
Combining a historian's rigor with a foodie's palate, Ten Restaurants That Changed America reveals how the history of our restaurants reflects nothing less than the history of America itself. Whether charting the rise of our love affair with Chinese food through San Francisco's fabled The Mandarin, evoking the richness of Italian food through Mamma Leone's, or chronicling the rise and fall of French haute cuisine through Henri Soulé's Le Pavillon, food historian Paul Freedman uses each restaurant to tell a wider story of race and class, immigration and assimilation. Freedman also treats us to a scintillating history of the then-revolutionary Schrafft's, a chain of convivial lunch spots that catered to women, and that bygone favorite, Howard Johnson's, which pioneered midcentury, on-the-road dining, only to be swept aside by McDonald's. Lavishly designed with more than 100 photographs and images, including original menus, Ten Restaurants That Changed America is a significant and highly entertaining social history.
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Ten Restaurants That Changed America
From Delmonico's to Sylvia's to Chez Panisse, a daring and original history of dining out in America as told through ten legendary restaurants.
Combining a historian's rigor with a foodie's palate, Ten Restaurants That Changed America reveals how the history of our restaurants reflects nothing less than the history of America itself. Whether charting the rise of our love affair with Chinese food through San Francisco's fabled The Mandarin, evoking the richness of Italian food through Mamma Leone's, or chronicling the rise and fall of French haute cuisine through Henri Soulé's Le Pavillon, food historian Paul Freedman uses each restaurant to tell a wider story of race and class, immigration and assimilation. Freedman also treats us to a scintillating history of the then-revolutionary Schrafft's, a chain of convivial lunch spots that catered to women, and that bygone favorite, Howard Johnson's, which pioneered midcentury, on-the-road dining, only to be swept aside by McDonald's. Lavishly designed with more than 100 photographs and images, including original menus, Ten Restaurants That Changed America is a significant and highly entertaining social history.
From Delmonico's to Sylvia's to Chez Panisse, a daring and original history of dining out in America as told through ten legendary restaurants.
Combining a historian's rigor with a foodie's palate, Ten Restaurants That Changed America reveals how the history of our restaurants reflects nothing less than the history of America itself. Whether charting the rise of our love affair with Chinese food through San Francisco's fabled The Mandarin, evoking the richness of Italian food through Mamma Leone's, or chronicling the rise and fall of French haute cuisine through Henri Soulé's Le Pavillon, food historian Paul Freedman uses each restaurant to tell a wider story of race and class, immigration and assimilation. Freedman also treats us to a scintillating history of the then-revolutionary Schrafft's, a chain of convivial lunch spots that catered to women, and that bygone favorite, Howard Johnson's, which pioneered midcentury, on-the-road dining, only to be swept aside by McDonald's. Lavishly designed with more than 100 photographs and images, including original menus, Ten Restaurants That Changed America is a significant and highly entertaining social history.
Paul Freedman is a history professor at Yale University. The author of the highly acclaimed Ten Restaurants That Changed America, Freedman lives in Pelham, New York.
Table of Contents
List of Illustrations
Introduction Danny Meyer
Ten Restaurants and American Cuisine
Delmonico's: America's First Restaurant
Antoine's: Haute Creole
Schrafft's: Seeking Out the Female Customer
Howard Johnson's: As American as Fried Clams
Mamma Leone's: Italian Entertainment
The Mandarin: "The Best Chinese Food East of the Pacific"
Sylvia's: The Soul of Harlem
Le Pavilion: Midcentury French
The Four Seasons: The Epitome of Modern
Chez Panisse: "The Way We Eat Now"
Epilogue: 1980 to the Present
Appendix: Classic Recipes from the Ten Restaurants That Changed America
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