Status
Available
Call number
Collection
Publication
Penguin Books (2015), Edition: Reprint, 496 pages
Description
"Renowned chef Dan Barber introduces a new kind of cuisine that represents the future of American dining in THE THIRD PLATE. Barber explores the evolution of American food from the "first plate," or industrially-produced, meat-heavy dishes, to the "second plate" of grass-fed meat and organic greens, and says that both of these approaches are ultimately neither sustainable nor healthy. Instead, Barber proposes Americans should move to the "third plate," a cuisine rooted in seasonal productivity, natural livestock rhythms, whole-grains, and small portions of free-range meat. Barber's book charts a bright path for eaters and chefs alike towards a healthy and sustainable future for American cuisine"--
User reviews
LibraryThing member dele2451
Move over Alice W and Michael P, it's time to make room at the table for Dan Barber. Highly recommend! Should be mandatory reading at every culinary institute and food science program in America.
LibraryThing member jbarr5
The Third Plate: Future of Food
Enjoyed hearing the connection of the Olympic Games Rings to the growing concept and John Muir's quotes.
Fertilizers used and other natural disasters occur.
Educational to learn of what crops will put nutrients back into the soil and the cows get an extra energy boost
Loved the very descriptive details of the land.
I received this book from National Library Service for my BARD (Braille Audio Reading Device).
Enjoyed hearing the connection of the Olympic Games Rings to the growing concept and John Muir's quotes.
Fertilizers used and other natural disasters occur.
Educational to learn of what crops will put nutrients back into the soil and the cows get an extra energy boost
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from the crop.Loved the very descriptive details of the land.
I received this book from National Library Service for my BARD (Braille Audio Reading Device).
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LibraryThing member Sharon.Flesher
This week, my newsfeed had a trailer for a documentary that apparently blasts some of the leading environmental organizations for failure to rail against hamburgers. Several other headlines informed me that eating beef results in more greenhouse emissions than driving a car, apparently
Never in human history have we been presented with such an an abundance of food choices as at the average U.S. supermarket, and never before have we seen so much hand-wringing about what to eat. As Dan Barber reminds us in The Third Plate, only a few generations ago, human diets were largely restricted to what the local region produced. Cuisine and culture were intrinsically linked to place.
In recent years, the farm-to-table movement featuring prominent chefs such as Mr. Barber, has sought to reacquaint diners with the sources of their food. Farmers' markets have proliferated and the term"locavore" is in the dictionary. In my small town, several restaurants proudly list the nearby farms and producers contributing to their menus.
Yet the resulting "second plate" of farm-to-table goodness still closely resembles the "first plate" it aimed to replace, which at the American table is meat-centric and flanked by a limited supporting cast. Mr. Barber envisions a "third plate" representing a sort of nose-to-tail for the whole farm, incorporating and starring crops that currently may not be beloved, or even known, to diners but are important to the ecology of the land. Chefs, he says, can use their skills to create demand for these oft-discarded goodies, from the bycatch of tuna nets to the cover crops of wheat fields.
Few chefs are better positioned to expound on this than Mr. Barber, who incorporates a farm and educational center as part of his flagship restaurant north of New York City. Nearly all of his journeys to investigate spectacular foodstuffs result in an experimental planting or livestock introduction at the farm, and the mouth-watering prose in which he describes these experiments may have some readers vowing to never again cook polenta until they, too, can get their hands on some Eight Row Flint corn.
If this planet is to support 9 billion humans by mid-century without absolutely devastating every other species, we must get over our predilection to "eat high on the hog." Unfortunately, so many previous calls to mend our dietary ways -- whether the motive is to improve health, environment, economy or even mood -- have led many to equate virtuous eating with limitation. Mr. Barber, thankfully, is an immensely talented chef who refuses to sacrifice flavor for virtue, and he makes a convincing case (one I wish I could taste for myself at his restaurant) that such a compromise is unnecessary.
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extrapolating from a study recently published in the journal Climatic Change. And Elizabeth Kolbert writes in the New Yorker of her week-long experiment with the trendy paleo diet and laments the damage so much meat eating could have on the climate.Never in human history have we been presented with such an an abundance of food choices as at the average U.S. supermarket, and never before have we seen so much hand-wringing about what to eat. As Dan Barber reminds us in The Third Plate, only a few generations ago, human diets were largely restricted to what the local region produced. Cuisine and culture were intrinsically linked to place.
In recent years, the farm-to-table movement featuring prominent chefs such as Mr. Barber, has sought to reacquaint diners with the sources of their food. Farmers' markets have proliferated and the term"locavore" is in the dictionary. In my small town, several restaurants proudly list the nearby farms and producers contributing to their menus.
Yet the resulting "second plate" of farm-to-table goodness still closely resembles the "first plate" it aimed to replace, which at the American table is meat-centric and flanked by a limited supporting cast. Mr. Barber envisions a "third plate" representing a sort of nose-to-tail for the whole farm, incorporating and starring crops that currently may not be beloved, or even known, to diners but are important to the ecology of the land. Chefs, he says, can use their skills to create demand for these oft-discarded goodies, from the bycatch of tuna nets to the cover crops of wheat fields.
Few chefs are better positioned to expound on this than Mr. Barber, who incorporates a farm and educational center as part of his flagship restaurant north of New York City. Nearly all of his journeys to investigate spectacular foodstuffs result in an experimental planting or livestock introduction at the farm, and the mouth-watering prose in which he describes these experiments may have some readers vowing to never again cook polenta until they, too, can get their hands on some Eight Row Flint corn.
If this planet is to support 9 billion humans by mid-century without absolutely devastating every other species, we must get over our predilection to "eat high on the hog." Unfortunately, so many previous calls to mend our dietary ways -- whether the motive is to improve health, environment, economy or even mood -- have led many to equate virtuous eating with limitation. Mr. Barber, thankfully, is an immensely talented chef who refuses to sacrifice flavor for virtue, and he makes a convincing case (one I wish I could taste for myself at his restaurant) that such a compromise is unnecessary.
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LibraryThing member simchaboston
I'm wicked jealous of Dan Barber; not only is he a renowned chef, but damn, can he write! This book, about looking for more sustainable ways of producing, cooking and eating food, manages to balance eloquence with nuance and realism with optimism. Most notably, he urges people (including himself
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and other chefs) to look beyond the locavore and farmer's market trends, to think more conscientiously about how to nurture the ecosystems and communities behind our food, and to broaden our concepts of what we consider food. At the same time, the farmers and researchers he profiles generally don't claim to have any grand solutions, which to me make their efforts more credible and more inspiring. Too bad I work in a preschool and therefore can't afford to eat the way Barber cooks! Show Less
LibraryThing member HeatherWhitney
Wonderful and just so interesting. I recently ate at Blue Hill at Stone Barns and toured the farm itself ahead of time. It was magical. I heard about this book while there and got it straight away. If you find complexity compelling — if you’re the kind of person who delights in layer by layer
Just today I bought some Anson Mills graham flour (discussed in the book) and got my mom to make those biscuits. Yes, we ate them all in one sitting.
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of additions mounting until you’ve got something you can barely hold in your head — and love food, farming, cooking, ecology and/or great stories, you will love this book. The seed portion was my favorite, so you end on a high note. Just today I bought some Anson Mills graham flour (discussed in the book) and got my mom to make those biscuits. Yes, we ate them all in one sitting.
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LibraryThing member reader1009
nonfiction; sustainability/food culture. I thought I had it covered with Michael Pollan (and thus I probably didn't need to read this book also), but when I finally picked this up I found that it actually covers a totally different perspective on our food consumption (and agricultural practices).
*Yep, add that to your dictionary, Windows spellchecker. It's a real thing.
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We are probably pretty well doomed anyway (I'm betting the acidification* of the oceans will severely restrict our choices in the very near future) but there is certainly a lot here to think about. *Yep, add that to your dictionary, Windows spellchecker. It's a real thing.
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LibraryThing member jennybeast
Ok, it's not really a cookbook, but that works for my organizational purposes. This is a really interesting thought experiment and treatise -- on the future of food, on sustainability, on the role of chefs and the role of cuisine and the role of culture in creating a world full of delicious foods
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that don't destroy our environment. The book really resonated with me. Show Less
LibraryThing member mmparker
An interesting read that tied together a lot of things I've read recently, while also recommending several related things to me. Kinda rambling and self-aggrandizing, despite the pro forma humility - "Golly, I knew nothing but now I know enough to write a book and I owe it all to my close personal
I would have preferred fewer gossipy anecdotes and more hard original analysis. Still good as a quick read.
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friend, [Famous Person]." I felt uneasy with the (sometimes antagonistic) relationships the author described/arranged/created for the real people he writes about; it seemed less than polite sometimes.I would have preferred fewer gossipy anecdotes and more hard original analysis. Still good as a quick read.
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Awards
James Beard Foundation Award (Winner — 2015)
Village Voice Favorite Books (2014)
Language
Original language
English
Original publication date
2014
Physical description
496 p.; 5.5 inches
ISBN
0143127152 / 9780143127154
Similar in this library
Letters to a Young Farmer: On Food, Farming, and Our Future by Stone Barns Center for Food and Agriculture