A review of Grub: Ideas for an Urban Organic Kitchen by Anna Lappe and Bryant Terry

by Monica Pless

What do you call a book that’s part debate, part textbook, part how-to and part cookbook? In this case, you call it Grub. With a unique mix of formats within the book, this was a quick read that explained why we need a change in the food system and how each of us could make steps to support that.

The first section focuses on the current food system and its effect on the health of consumers, farmers, communities, the land and environment. It’s broken down pretty logically, and with all of Anna’s own stories from meeting people and trying to get in to talk to industry folks, it’s pretty easy to read. The best part was breaking down the six illusions of the conventional food system. Don’t feel bogged down by the statistics in the first section, more hopeful times are ahead!

Part two focuses on how YOU can become a more conscientious consumer – exploring some of the arguments against organic food and providing you with a cheatsheet of 10 powerful arguments for organic – never get caught off guard without a way to defend and promote your food choices.

Grub lays this personal change out in steps, which allows the reader to work towards buying more local and organic food without being overwhelmed. Steps range from finding where to get grub to how to set up your kitchen. Sometimes changing so much of your lifestyle can be daunting –I moved into my first apartment without a lot of kitchen appliances – because I had no idea even what to buy. Finally, any book in which one of the steps is “celebrate” is alright with me!

Part 3 the cookbook, was great. Organized into menus with a theme – often by ethnic cuisine, and menus are grouped by season. While I felt like they could have spoken more about local food in the cookbook, I appreciated how much they talked about where to find unusual ingredients. I loved the tie-in to the rest of the local community by having local artists and DJs recommend a soundtrack to each meal and all the tips (how do you cut a plantain?). I wish the tips had been better cross-listed but found the index to be useful and the instructions to be clear. Not being one who cooks menus of three courses all the time I especially appreciated tips on what order to make dishes in and hints on what could be made ahead of time and stuck in the fridge! Check out their website at www.eatgrub.org for a taste of the book – the cookbook also promises printable shopping lists for each menu online which I haven’t found yet but will be a great help when they are up!

This book is a starting point to jump deeper into the movement. With lists of resources to learn more and a section called “ideas for action,” it avoids a common trap of the doomsday environmental publications that only say what we are doing to destroy our world but no feasible steps to improve it. While it’s not an exhaustive list, Grub gives great examples of organizations and websites where you can find out more.

The book is directed at young urban folks, both from references to popular culture in section heading “Would the …. Please stand up” and conversational style of writing to the ideas about where to shop for ingredients for the recipes. As such, I think it addresses a lot of the most relevant issues to that audience. I would like to see more recipes focus on local food – but then that’s an issue that might not be as relevant to a big chunk of their audience. Overall, Grub is helpful and pretty user friendly, and written by young people who will admit they occasionally get behind on cleaning their fridge and don’t buy ALL their food organic. It’s a great way to get started.

This entry was posted on Thursday, April 13th, 2006 at 1:37 pm and is filed under Look. Both comments and pings are currently closed.