Publisher's Weekly

Whether readers make a living studying culinary traditions or just enjoy eating, they’ll find this book a marvel. A trove of in-depth information on every aspect of American food and drink-such as holiday food traditions, the Slow Food movement and vegetarianism-the book strives to place its subject into historical and cultural context and succeeds brilliantly. Smith, who teaches culinary history at the New School University, compiles 800 articles and 400 illustrations in a colossal package, resembling Schott’s Food & Drink Miscellany in the same way that the kitchen at the Four Seasons resembles the galley of a Manhattan apartment. Under “C,” we find “Chickpeas,” “Child, Julia,” “Clambake,” “Cola Wars,” “Community-Supported Agriculture” and “Cooperatives”; while “T” offers entries on “Taco Bell,” “Tea,” “Thanksgiving,” “Transportation of Food” and “Tupperware.” Readers will be hooked upon opening either volume (the entire work is split in two) and flipping to any page. Among the offerings are a Nation article from 1879 that delights in fathers who’d mortify their daughters in social situations by joking about the “frivolousness of napkins”; an entry on the french dip sandwich crediting a Los Angeles sandwich shop owner with inventing the item in 1918 (he accidentally dropped a roll into the roast drippings as he prepared a beef sandwich for a customer); a piece on Rastus, the fictional chef whose image has appeared on Cream of Wheat packages since 1896; and a fascinating exploration of Southern regional cookery. For food lovers of all stripes, this work inspires, enlightens and entertains. B&w illus.(Nov.)
 Forecast: With the right media coverage, this could see booming bookstore, library and cooking school sales. Oxford kicked things off with a symposium and reception at the Institute of Culinary Education in October.

The Saratogian

Books For Cooks 
by Annette Nielsen

If there's a food enthusiast on your list, this is the perfect present. 'The Oxford Encyclopedia of Food and Drink in America' edited by Andrew F. Smith (Oxford University Press, $195 until Jan. 31, 2005, $250 thereafter) is a stunning compilation of 770 thoroughly researched articles that discusses events, inventions and social movements throughout America's history and their affect on the way we eat. From airplane food to the whiskey sour, from the evolution of cookbooks to food transportation, the two volumes cover a broad range of topics like ethnic and regional foods, food advertising, specific food brands, microbreweries, fast food and the Slow Food movement. Included in this extensive look at American food and drink in a historical and cultural context are appendixes on food-related museums, events, organizations, library collections and periodicals. The encyclopedia draws on the expertise of more than a dozen food historians and food writers. They include Cara De Silva, Karen Hess, David Karp and Editor in Chief Andrew F. Smith -- an impressive group of experts and scholars that look at one of life's essentials and its role in shaping American society. 

Chicago Tribune
Knowledgable Nosh

Yes, it's a reference book. But for foodies, The Oxford Encyclopedia of Food and Drink in America is like going to a tapas bar: You can't stop nibbling. (Come to think of it, given the heft of this two-volume work, it could do double duty as a tapas bar.)
Compiled by Andrew F. Smith and written by food historians, writers and other experts (including Tribune food editor Carol Mighton Haddix--see "Cookbooks After 1970," p. 304), the Oxford Encyclopedia contains more than 800 articles and 300 illustrations that chart an exhaustive, exhilarating journey through the nation's foodways. There are entries on specific foods, of course, but so much more: topics related to cooking (the Dutch oven, the history of recipes); passages on trends (fast food)--as opposed to fads (seasoned-tomato flavored Jell-O); biographies of people (19th Century dietary-reform advocate Sylvester Graham, better known for the cracker that bears his name) and companies (Tupperware); and larger themes as well (Indian-American food, home economics, Prohibition). Oh, the discoveries that await! (Manhattan clam chowder was probably invented in New England; Willard Scott was the first Ronald McDonald.)

 Birmingham News

Oxford Offers Food Encyclopedia
By Jo Ellen O’Hara

It’s never too early to make up a Christmas wish list, and if you might yearn for what’s about to be suggested, you may be behind already. The gift that promises to thrill anyone who loves (not likes) food and most everything about it is: “The Oxford Encyclopedia of Food & Drink in America” (Oxford University Press, New York).

Sound like a gift that is easily obtained for the food friend in your life? It is, if you have $195 to shell out before Jan. 1, to take advantage of the special price. After, the price jumps to $250.  

 According to the publisher, the encyclopedia is the “first work to take American food and drink seriously.  

The Oregonian

Booklist 

Following The Oxford Companion to Food (1999) and The Oxford Companion to Wine (1999), here is another reference title to feed our fascination with the things we eat and drink. The goal is to pull together "the best scholarship on the history of American food" and make it available to a wider audience. General editor Smith teaches culinary history at the New School University and has written several food-related books. In addition to academicians, the nearly 200 contributors include chefs, cookbook authors, and food writers.  In 770 A-Z entries, readers will find discussions of particular foods and drinks, such as Brandy, Club sandwich, Orange juice, and Potatoes; more general food categories, such as Airplane food and Cocktails; and brands, such as Jell-o, Snapple, and Twinkles. There are also entries for people (Clarence Birdseye, Julia Child |with her 2004 death date noted], Wolfgang Puck); appliances and gadgets (Bread machines, Frying baskets, Pot holders); businesses and companies (Dairy industry, Delicatessens, Nabisco, Pizza Hut); and iconic marketing images such as the Pillsbury Doughboy and the Quaker Oats Man. Entries such as Southeast Asian American food and Southwestern regional cooking treat the contributions of ethnic groups or geographic areas. The long article Historical overview offers a detailed chronological survey from the colonial period to the present. Finally, a host of entries address food-related scientific, social, and cultural issues: Celebrity chefs, Chemical additives, Food stamps, Etiquette books, Jewish dietary laws, Temperance, and more. Entries on particular foods or gadgets are generally just two or three paragraphs long, but some entries cover many pages. Native American foods and its subentries, for example, extend for almost 40 pages and include numerous sidebars, quotes from primary sources, a chart detailing foods of the Columbian exchange, and a recipe for Navajo fry bread. Most entries conclude with a bibliography, and separate general bibliographies for food and drink follow the A-Z portion of the text. Also appended are a list of food periodicals; an extensive list of food Web sites; directories of major food-related library collections, museums, organizations, and festivals; and a topical list of entries. Navigation is aided by a detailed index and ample cross-referencing. The 350 black-and-white illustrations add to the set's appeal. 

The encyclopedia is not intended to be comprehensive, and readers are bound to find omissions-no entries for the Food Network and Weight Watchers, for example, although the index points to entries in which they are discussed. There is some overlap with The Oxford Companion to Food and The Oxford Companion to Wine, though these titles have a more technical slant. The Encyclopedia of Food and Culture (Scribner, 2002) shares The Oxford Encyclopedia's historical and cultural context, but Scribner's 600 entries are stretched across the globe. The Oxford Encyclopedia of Food and Drink in America is highly recommended for all academic and large public libraries and any smaller public libraries that can afford it. -Mary Ellen Quinn

 The Washington Post

Give Big 

By Candy Sagon,

Why It's a Keeper: Fascinating, informative, these two volumes are a wealth of information on every aspect of American food and drink. Organized alphabetically, they contain 800 articles from more than 200 contributors. Entries cover the ingredients, people, publications, historical events, trends and advertising that comprise American gastronomical history. Open Volume 1 to the B section and you'll find the history of the bialy as well as explanations of bubble tea and binge eating. The W section in Volume 2 contains entries on wine, wraps, Wonder Bread and Harvey Wiley, an early pioneer of food safety laws. Want to learn about early American cookbooks? Betty Crocker? The fad diets of the 19th century? The inventor of Dr Pepper? It's all here. There's even a useful listing of food-related Web sites, organizations and festivals at the end of Volume 2. Truly an invaluable resource.  

 What We Learned: In 1843, an American, Nancy M. Johnson, revolutionized ice cream making. She invented (and patented) an ice cream freezer with a crank ouside the tub. Johnson's invention involved less work and made better ice cream. Best of all, "it democratized ice cream, since it allowed even those who lacked servants and helpers to make it."  

 Whom to Buy It for: Food professionals, students, scholars, historians or anyone who loves culinary trivia.
 

Associated Press 

In Depth or at Basic Level, Food and Drink Fill the Pages

By Joan Burnskill 

People with a hunger for knowledge about food, drink and cooking are in luck: They're sure to find it in books---at whatever level, in whatever style, from whatever perspective they desire. Here are some distinctive examples of what's available, leaders in their categories, among recent publications packed with information.

The Oxford Encyclopedia of Food and Drink in America (Oxford, 2004, $195), edited by Andrew F. Smith, comes in two hefty volumes. Their 1,550 pages, with 800 articles by a distinguished team of writers, take readers alphabetically through past and present, history and culture.

Either volume could give an answer to a specific food or drink question, or provide an escape route to endless sessions of entertaining browsing --tracing the origins of french fries, for instance, or the evolution of tailgate picnics.

The first volume starts with A for additives and adulterations, and reaches J for juicers. In between are drinking songs, and the Jolly Green Giant, among other topics. The second, equally information-packed volume picks up the trail with kale, and ends with wraps, yeast, and zombie. The last is a rum-based cocktail that was a big hit in 1930s Hollywood. En route, you can check out the basics on microbreweries, pickles, Ronald McDonald, and Tupperware. If you don't find answers to your questions here, at the back of Volume 2 there are food and drink bibliographies, and listings of periodicals and Web sites. Black and white illustrations are sprinkled throughout both volumes.

Boston Globe

 Latest Trend In Top Cookbooks: 
Good Food Takes Time To Make


 By T. Susan Chang 

It's official: America's cooks are peeling the plastic off their six-burner stoves and settling in for some long, slow hours of culinary dedication. After what seemed like an unbeatable streak of make-it-easy, make-it-simple, make-it-quick trends in cookbook publishing, this year's volumes show signs of a new relationship with time, one that savors every moment spent preparing, serving, eating -- even reading -- about food.

 To that end, nothing will satisfy the foodie more than the two volumes of The Oxford Encyclopedia of Food and Drink in America (Oxford University Press, $195 until Jan. 31, then $250), which takes the reader from Anadama bread, which originated on Boston's North Shore, to an 1845 dinner at the White House, after which Mrs. J. E. Dixon wrote, ''Sit! I guess we did sit -- for four mortal hours." Everything was French, she writes, and she didn't arrive back home until 10 p.m."

Scripps Howard
 News Service

Cookbooks Make Great Gifts; Wish List Fits Any Cook, from the Rookie to the Self-proclaimed ‘Foodie’”  

By Lynne Rossetto Kasper,

Dear Lynne: With the slew of cooks and wannabes on my gift list, it would be great to know your cookbook picks for 2004. I have beginners, readers but not cooks, and old hands looking for new thrills and chills. -- Book Babe in Norfolk.

 Dear Book Babe: It is tricky bringing down 2004's deluge of volumes to a handful. I've dubbed this "The Year of the Reference Book" on the shoulders of two important publications. For the rest, these books sparked my imagination, made me hungry and/or tickled my curiosity. .  "The Oxford Encyclopedia of Food and Drink in America," Andrew F. Smith, editor in chief (Oxford University Press, 2004). Two weighty volumes and 800 entries, from Adulteration to Zombies, add up to the most well-researched look at our food and culture to date. Lots of "ah-ha!" moments await.

Add this essential work to your bookshelf now.