The Table Comes First

Never before have we cared so much about food. With inimitable charm and learning, Adam Gopnik charts America's recent and rapid evolution from commendably aware eaters to manic, compulsive gastronomes. It is a journey that begins in eighteenth-century France and carries us to the kitchens of the White House, the molecular meccas of Barcelona, and beyond. Throughout, Gopnik reminds us of a time-honored truth: What goes on the table has never mattered as much to our lives as what goes on around the table--the scene of families, friends, lovers coming together, or breaking apart; conversation across the simplest or grandest board. This, ultimately, is who we are. 

Gathering people and places drawn from a quarter century's reporting in North America and…