The United States of Arugula

Now out in paperback, David Kamp’s The United States of Arugula is a fun, fact-filled romp through a century of American eating-from canned crap and Kraft to baby greens gently weaned from their mizuna mom’s teat. Kamp wisely focuses on the fascinating cast of characters behind 50 years of American food trends, and what a group it is. Included is the man who coined the phrase “taste memory,” James Beard, as wells as Alice Waters, who, as a dissatisfied sorority sister, ditched an un-happening UCSB to go to Berkeley and eventually launch a California food revolution at Chez Panisse. Kamp’s book is a foodie wordfest feast.