The Mighty Gastropolis: Portland: A Journey Through the Center of America’s New Food Revolution

Description

The Mighty Gastropolis: A Journey Through the Center of America's Food Revolution charts the rise of one of the country's most talked about food and dining destinations, Portland, Oregon, a place former Gourmet Editor and food icon Ruth Reichl calls "the crucible of New American cooking." The author goes deep behind the scenes to explore the kitchens, personal lives, and mindsets of Portland's celebrated cooks to chronicle, with humor and panache, a people's army of maverick chefs, artisans, obsessives, farmers, food carters, and plucky pioneers who have created a risk-taking, no rules food town unlike any other: one that is exporting its culinary ethos, innovations, and sensibilities to America's gastronomic power zones in New York, LA, Chicago, and countless other cities that are coming under its spell: a spell and culinary imagination that, according to Bon Appetit Restaurant and Drinks Editor, Andrew Knowlton, emanates from "a city thriving with creativity, passion, and an anything-goes attitude for all things edible." Among Portland chefs whose work, culinary output, and cooking pearls are profiled in this book are those whose rise-to-stardom stories, picture-perfect dishes, and iconoclastic innovations now slather the pages of Bon Appetit, Saveur, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Food and Wine, GQ and The Huffington Post ; as well as the Food Channel. The authors introduce you to Pok Pok's Andy Ricker, a pioneering, chicken wingmeister who gambled all on a Thai chicken shack in his front yard and now rules the roost in New York; and Le Pigeon's Gabriel Rucker, the freewheeling flavor genius (and James Beard Rising Star 2011) who power drills lamb heads in his basement like a hit man in Goodfellas . You'll also encounter the artisanal know-how at Olympic Provisions, whose chefs have spawned their own Slow Salumi movement; and chocolatier David Briggs, whose nationally celebrated Raleigh Bar-he makes them in the storeroom of a cult sandwich shop-has re-imagineered the iconic Snickers bar, catapulting this salted caramel-meets-pecan and chocolate nougat confection into a new galaxy of pleasure, prompting Bon Appetit 's Andrew Knowlton to fawn, "the best chocolate candy I've had." In The Mighty Gastropolis , you will learn, ingredient by ingredient, experiment by experiment, dish by dish, how Portland's culinary cognoscenti have re-imagined and reconfigured restaurant culture for modern times and established a new paradigm for how to succeed in the fiercely competitive, no-chops-barred worlds of both hi- and lo-fi dining. The result, as Thomas Lauderdale, founder of Pink Martini , explains," is a hilarious, heart-warming, punk-rock portrait of a daringly creative Mecca showing the rest of America a better way to eat-and live." This is a landmark contribution to the literature of food. And, perhaps best of all, the book's recipes are roadmaps to rarified states of gastro-nirvana. Review: A must-read exploration into Portland's exciting food scene - It's almost impossible to grasp the non-stop carnival of food in Portland, but Karen Brooks does a marvelous job of capturing the spirit that comes from the personalities behind one of the most exciting--if not THE most exciting--food cities in the USA. This is absolute required reading for anyone into Portland's food scene, and a must-read for anyone living in Portland. If anyone is not aware of what's going on here while they go about their daily lives, this will be an eye-opener. For anyone outside of Portland who has an interest in food, or spends any time watching Bourdain or any of the chef-based Food Network shows, this should cause a flurry of activity on Expedia. (The local travel bureaus should be very thankful for this book.) I have interviewed a few of the subjects profiled in The Mighty Gastropolis. Karen digs deep into the chefs' and the artisans' backgrounds, giving us a new appreciation for the restaurants and shops we visit. These are obsessed talented folks who do what they do incredibly well. And their obsessions are our gain (experiential AND on the scale!) Thanks to Karen for giving us cause to appreciate the bounty -- and the talent -- we have here in Oregon. I'm not a voracious book reader by any means. But this one I consumed in two sittings the day it was released. I will be going back to read it again, and will someday foray into the recipes. As someone who has a small business built around showcasing the people who make up the Portland food scene, many of whom are in this delicious book, I can't recommend The Mighty Gastropolis more emphatically than to say put down your fork and pick up your reader. Don't worry, it'll all still be there when you're done. Review: Great food writing for a great food city - This book features excellent food writing about the emergence of Portland as a culinary mecca. It features many of the chefs and food styles that have made Portland a great food city. While I do not live in Portland, I have visited many, many times, and frequent restaurants of all price levels when I visit. This book does a great job of capturing the eclectic and interesting food vibe that is Portland and includes some excellent recipes by some of Portland's most well known chefs.