The Food Life: Inside the World of Food with the Grocer Extraordinaire at Fairway by Steven Jenkins

And so it is revealed...my sick obsession with reading books about food. Seriously, put anything in front of me. Books about food, books about restaurants, books about culinary schools, even straight up cookbooks. I will read cookbooks from cover to cover even if I have zero intention of ever making any of the recipes. I spend a lot of time reading cookbooks (baking cookbooks specifically) but will not review them on this blog...as I understand that the obsession that envelops my life doesn't necessarily reach the lives of others (but if you want to know the names of a few good cookbooks let me know).

So. The Food Life. You might think that this is my sneaky way of getting a cookbook onto the blog, and you'd be right. This book does in fact contain recipes, but they are more footnotes than they are the actual subject matter of the book...and so I will indulge myself.

The book centers around the grocery store chain called Fairway Market in New York City. Fairway started with one location in Harlem and has expanded to four locations all across New York. Maybe I'm alone here, but it fascinates me to read about specialty food stores. I just realized with that sentence that it may be a very long time before I find another boyfriend.

Anyway, the book is about the development of Fairway from one location to the next, and the development of the idea of "specialty food" grocery stores in general. The reason I found this book to be so interesting - and so useful - is that Jenkins explains the entire culture and reasoning behind specialty food stores. He explains the heightened quality of goods available in this type of market. He broke down the Fairway Market structure to clearly show the reader that "specialty" does not necessarily have to mean "more expensive," and in doing so, identified the characteristics he looks for in quality items from olive oils to different types of cheese, educating the reader on what to look for in their own cities and local food stores.

This book came with multiple side effects:

1. Lessened hatred/fear of New York City - I assure you that I have a very mature and thorough understanding of the city, but I maintain that NYC is not as great as everyone claims...mostly because it is loud and smelly. Anyway, as I consume food book after food book, I have come to realize that they all have a common theme...aside from The French Laundry in California, most if not all of the country's great restaurants/food outlets are in New York City. This makes a little part of me die. This book, though, is the first that made me actually consider giving up my stand against NYC and joining its fold...until I realized that I would be moving across country to live near a supermarket (please reference above statement re: not finding a boyfriend for a long time).
2. Heightened desire to remain in my apartment reading instead of socializing with other members of my species
3. Sudden intense disdain for all food in my apartment/supermarket/city/state/time zone.

In short - the book is like pornography for foodies. If you love food, you'll love the book. Otherwise, you'll probably just think I'm insane.

Other good food books you should check out:

Service Included: Four-Star Secrets of an Eavesdropping Waiter by Phoebe Damrosch

ANYTHING BY RUTH REICHL. I tore through Tender at the Bone, Garlic and Sapphires, and Comfort me with Apples. Ruth Reichl is the first author who has ever caused me to be ANGRY with her for not writing more books after I finished her last.

Heat: An Amateur's Adventures as Kitchen Slave, Line Cook, Pasta-Maker, and Apprentice to a Dante-Quoting Butcher in Tuscany (Vintage) by Bill Buford (centering around Mario Batali's restaurant Babbo in NYC)

The Seasoning of a Chef: My Journey from Diner to Ducasse and Beyond by Doug Psaltis and Michael Psaltis

More to come.