Finding the Flavors We Lost

We hear the word artisanal all the time—attached to chocolate, coffee, even fast-food chain sandwiches—but what does it actually mean? We take “farm to table” and “handcrafted food” for granted now, but how did we get here? In Finding the Flavors We Lost, the multiple James Beard Award–winning restaurant critic for Los Angeles magazine Patric Kuh delivers an arresting exploration of the rise in cultural demand for “artisanal” foods in a world dominated by corporate agribusiness. He narrates the fascinating stories of countercultural “radicals” who taught themselves how to make better tasting bread, cheese, and beer in reaction to the ever-present marketing of bland, mass-produced food. These artisans in turn helped blaze the trail for today’s crop of rising young chefs.

Eye-opening, informative, and entertaining, Finding the Flavors We Lost is a fresh look into the culture of artisanal food as we know it today—and what its future may be.