National Dish

A fast-paced, entertaining travelogue, peppered with compact history lessons that reveal the surprising ways dishes become iconic * New York Times *
This voyage into culinary myth-making and identity is essential reading. Its breadth of scope and scholarship is conveyed with such engaging wit. I couldn't love it more -- Nigella Lawson
This dazzlingly intelligent examination of how foods become national symbols . . . so enlightening - as well as so much fun to read . . . Von Bremzen is a superb describer of flavours and textures - but she also understands that food is never just about food -- Bee Wilson * Financial Times *
For all its dry wit and vivid descriptions of puttanesca and tortillas, this is a serious book - a skilful blend of academic research and lived experience. It's a sparklingly intelligent examination of, and a meditation on, the interplay of cooking and identity * Spectator *
A playful, erudite and mouthwatering exploration of ideas around food and identity. With the help of a diverse cast of characters and dishes, Anya von Bremzen highlights the intricacies and the contradictions of our relationship with what we eat -- Fuschia Dunlop
Enchanting, fascinating, thought provoking and humorous -- Claudia Roden
'In this lively blend of travelogue, food writing and cultural critique, Anya von Bremzen explores the idea of the "national dish" ... [and] calls for food preparation, writing - and of course eating - to be treated with greater political significance than we typically give it' * New Statesman *
Anya von Bremzen's new book reads like an engrossing unputdownable novel about the perpetual soup of humanity. And it made me think so much! -- Olia Hercules
A quest to get to the heart of culinary identity and myth-making, von Bremzem's knowledge is staggering and her writing witty, urgent and personal. I couldn't put it down -- Diana Henry
Entertaining * Independent *
Every dish tells a story. A powerful storyteller herself, Anya von Bremzen blends historical research and beautiful writing into this absorbing crazy-smart book about how food defines who we are and where we come from. Whether she's decoding pizza in Naples or tortillas in Mexico, Anya is your perfect guide to the profound subjects of nationalism, food, and identity. And she's often funny as hell. -- René Redzepi, chef and co-owner of NOMA
Revealing and richly detailed exploration of six national cuisines . . . Fans of food and travel writing will want to sink their teeth into this * Publishers Weekly *
Journalists relish the fraught politics of food. Von Bremzen's book is more interesting than this, considering not just food as propaganda but also the flighty, fickle nature of tradition itself (yes, even among the French) * FT Books of the Year *
Takes up the task of unpicking the fictions and half-memories at the core of so many cuisines... examines the subtle interactions between neighbouring communities as dishes cross borders to find themselves rebranded and relocated at the heart of another culture's table * TLS *
A delightfully engaged and engaging writer * Observer Food's Books of the Year *
In this piquant platter of a book, von Bremzen tackles questions of culture, history, and the meaning of a good meal . . . Her vivid narrative is packed with intriguing characters, and in some countries, conversations about the food can be as important as the dish itself * Kirkus Reviews *
Vivid . . . for readers who appreciate a sensorial journey and eschew arriving at easy conclusions, this will hit the spot * Booklist *
Anya von Bremzen, already a legend of food writing and a storytelling inspiration to me, has done her best work yet. National Dish is a must-read for all those who believe in building longer tables where food is what bring us all together -- José Andrés
Nobody writes about food like Anya Von Bremzen. In this smart, personal, and compulsively readable book she takes on history, politics, love and flavor to show us the real meaning of what we eat -- Ruth Reichl
It's a great pleasure to follow Anya von Bremzen as she brings her characteristic wit, curiosity, and agility as a prose stylist to make sense of this current moment in which what we eat has become so closely bound to identity. She writes with the intimacy of your most erudite friend telling you a story. This is a masterfully woven study, both edifying and entertaining, from one of the finest writers on food today -- Mayukh Sen, author of Taste Makers: Seven Immigrant Women Who Revolutionized Food in America
Any new book by Anya von Bremzen is cause for celebration for curious cooks and readers. Whether she's writing about the hidden restaurants of Cuba, the modern chefs of Spain, or telling deeply poignant stories of the table of the Soviet Union where she grew up, she always balances the pleasures of the palate and the mind. In National Dish, she explores not just why people care about their food, but how food makes us a people -- Francis Lam, host of The Splendid Table
In this eye-opening book, Anya von Bremzen travels the world to search beyond the cliches of iconic foods like ramen, pizza, or tapas-showing us how their stories are tied to colonialism, nationalism, religion, race, and more. Full of delicious scenes, colorful characters, and fascinating historical facts, National Dish is both thought-provoking and hugely entertaining to read -- Kwame Onwuachi, chef, author, and restaurateur
Anya von Bremzen's tour of world cuisines, from France to Japan to Turkey to Mexico, is written as both an elegant entertainment and a love letter to those cuisines. But it's also a meditation on the paradox of national identity that will seduce the gastronomic curiosity of any world traveler -- Lawrence Osborne, author of The Forgiven and On Java Road
Anya von Bremzen's National Dish is a revelation, giving us hard truths about where our food traditions really come from. What we cherish about great food cultures-the genuine origins, the long historical roots-turns out to be in no small part myth, and of surprisingly recent vintage, yet National Dish is an exceedingly hopeful read -- Dan Barber, chef and co-owner of Blue Hill and author of The Third Plate