Eating for Beginners

An Education in the Pleasures of Food from Chefs, Farmers, and One Picky Kid

Melanie Rehak

• Publisher: Mariner Books
• Year: 2010
• Print ISBN:
  9780547520353
• eBook ISBN:
  9780547487212
• Topic: Art
• Subtopic: Social Science Biographies

A memoir of a year spent working at a Brooklyn restaurant—and on a series of farms—to get the lowdown on organic, local, ethical cooking. Includes recipes!

Food was always important to Melanie Rehak. She studied the experts on healthy nutrition, from Michael Pollan to Eric Schlosser to Wendell Berry, cooking, preparing, and sourcing what she thought were the best ingredients. So when her son turned out to be an impossible eater, dedicated to a diet of yogurt and peanut butter, she realized she needed to know more than just the basics of thoughtful eating—she needed to become a pro.
 
Thus began a year-long quest to understand food: what we eat, how it's produced, how it's prepared, and what really matters when it comes to socially aware, environmentally friendly, and healthy eating. By working at Applewood, a locally sourced Brooklyn restaurant, and volunteering her time to farming, milking, cheese making, and fishing, she learned the ins-and-outs of how to shop, cook, and eat right—all while discovering some delicious recipes along the way.
 
Wry, wise, and warm, Eating for Beginners is a delicious and informative journey into two of life's greatest and most complicated pleasures: food and motherhood.

Table of contents

• Title Page
• Front
• Introduction
• 1. In the Beginning
• 2. We Eat What We Are
• 3. What Is Cheese?
• 4. School for Chefs
• 5. Meet the Farmer
• 6. Lucky Me, Lucky You
• 7. Into the Frying Pan
• 8. One Fish, Two Fish
• 9. Night Shift
• 10. Rich in Imperfections
• 11. Away in a Manger
• 12. Farm to Cleaver
• 13. Out to Sea
• 14. Sweetness and Light
• Back