i heart jeffrey steingarten

My first food writer favourite was Anthony Bourdain - he's witty, sarcastic and daring and his books, Kitchen Confidential and A Cook's Tour are two of my favourite books.

But then came Jeffrey Steingarten. I picked up The Man Who Ate Everything and now it's the most ratty-looking book on my bookshelf because I've read it so many times! It's everything that I want in a book - funny, sarcastic, witty and since it's a collection of articles, it's perfect for my mouse-sized attention span. The sequel, It Must've Been Something I Ate is just as delicious.


Steingarten doesn't just eat food and write about it, he lives food. When he's curious about Kobe beef, he flies to Japan. He goes to Italy for weeks just to learn about truffles. To figure out how to fry the perfect French Fry, he purchases several deep fryers and more potatoes than my grocery store carries. In other words, he's living the life I wish I could be living right now, living food and getting paid for it.

I just hope Steingarten comes out with another book soon because I don't know if I could read through the first two AGAIN (is 5 times too much?)