Book Review: The Tastemakers

The Tastemakers why we're crazy for cupcakes but fed up with fondue.
By David Sax

In the last few years the books I've read have all been non-fiction and most have some relevance to food.  So, it was no surprise that I wanted to read the new book The Tastemakers by David Sax.

Why are I writing a book review?

Several reasons actually.

1.  It's about food trends which is interesting not only from a food/culinary perspective but from a social, psychological, and economic perspective as well.
2.  David Sax is Canadian.  His intro referenced Toronto so I was already liking it and it's great to see some Canadian content.  (I ended up looking for the Red Prince apple.)
3.  The phenomenon of cupcakes made me think of all the episodes of Cupcake Wars that I watched but seldom made cupcakes and even surprisingly, only bought cupcakes once in Taipei (but have eaten ones bought or made by others in Toronto).

I did a brief review on Goodreads which you can find here.  But I wanted to make some additional notes.

Highlights

If you want a good summary about the cupcake trend, you'll definitely find it here and then some.  It was really interesting to read and Sax speaks to a number of people that hypothesize how it started/and why it's still popular after more than a decade!  Yes, it's been that long and some might say it's hitting two decades!  Some believe cupcakes and "cupcakeries" are here to stay because there's nothing to take it's place...yet.  This is quite true, cupcakes are not at it's peak right now but they still seem to be popular.

Aside from cupcakes, there were two sections I really enjoyed, the agriculture chapter and the baconomics chapter.  The agriculture chapter focuses on "China Black" rice and Glenn Roberts' (founder of Anson Mills) devotion to bringing back the Carolina Rice Kitchen (you'll read more about it).  Black rice is actually not that new as I've seen it regularly at Asian markets and often in Korean restaurants ("purple rice").  But what I liked about the chapter was how Sax captures the perseverance of these agricultural tastemakers that strive to make a difference, strive to maintain strains of crops that would otherwise go extinct or create new varietals.

The baconomics chapter had a lot of interesting info about the bacon craze and ties a lot of information together (it's near the end of the book).  The chapter gives us a little history on bacon, the rise with the Atkins diet trend, and the current love now bestowed.  More importantly it does highlight one of the top reasons food trends exist...MONEY.  This section was interesting to me personally because of the sheer amount of craziness that bacon has generated in the States.

Notable mention would be the section on the Fancy Food Show in the States.  If you're in the food industry you're probably already aware of such an event. In Canada we have similar industry events but smaller in scale.  Again, it's following the story of some of the attendees and he also talks with some of the tastemakers, notably the Whole Foods buyer.  Sax makes reference to Whole Foods as the place you want to be if you want an item to take off as it bridges the gap between health food or speciality store and supermarkets.  I never really thought about it in that way.  Right now two words come to mind when I think of Whole Foods:  expensive and organic.  For some, they would replace the word "expensive" with "premium" but for someone on a budget like me...expensive is the word.  That said, I do however think perusing the aisles of Whole Foods is interesting and hard to find ingredients can be found there so in a few months when a Whole Foods store is opening at Yonge and Sheppard, I'll likely be checking it out.


Not So Fond Of...

There wasn't any particular chapter I didn't like, only small sections that were a little slow or data heavy.  The section on forecasting trends using data analysis was one (no surprise there).  But it's really hard to make data analysis "sexy" so it's easy to be forgiving.  However, the part that was most interesting or useful was a few theories behind food trends were mentioned (i.e. "cocooning") so still worth reading.

The chapter on Health Trends was interesting but for some reason it wasn't a page turner for me.  I have a background in nutrition so maybe the info wasn't as fresh for me?  Sax focuses on superfoods and chia seeds but also reinforces the recommendation to eat foods in moderation which is great.  The notion that superfoods are really just a marketing tool is reiterated several times.  I recognize many people start eating one thing in excess because they hear it's healthy but, if it gets people to eat more variety of foods that is a positive outcome.  I do think that highlighting foods that are more nutritionally dense is important because often than not people are not meeting their daily requirements of vegetables, fruits, and fibre.


Page Turner?

Some chapters were more alive and made me want to read more like the above mentioned sections while some sections were a little slow and had too much data pushed in or repeated things.  But overall what made it an easy read was the personal stories woven into the data.  It's well researched and also spawned an interest in specific areas that have led me to read other books which is a total bonus!  I'd recommend it for those interested in food culture and in some ways, food psychology; definitely a good reference book.