National Dish: Around the World in Search of Food, History, and the Meaning of Home offers plenty of food for thought as it dives into the cultural significance of what we eat. We all have certain images of what defines French, Italian, Japanese, or Mexican cuisine, but where do these notions originate? Who has the authority to decide what constitutes a country’s culinary canon?
Anya von Bremzen, a three-time James Beard Award winner and the author of several celebrated cookbooks and the internationally acclaimed memoir Mastering the Art of Soviet Cooking, sets out to answer these questions in National Dish. In this book, she explores the well-worn saying “We are what we eat” by traveling to six iconic food cities. From mingling with renowned chefs and culinary scholars to chatting with everyday people in local bars, von Bremzen investigates how food is intricately linked to place and identity.
National Dish is more than a culinary travelogue—it’s an insightful journey into how cuisine shapes and is shaped by culture and tradition. Through her unique and vibrant exploration, von Bremzen encourages us to look beyond the surface of familiar dishes and appreciate the deep connections between a nation’s food and its people. It’s a thought-provoking and enchanting read for anyone interested in how what we eat defines who we are.
Anya von Bremzen is one of the most accomplished food writers of her generation: the winner of three James Beard awards; a contributing writer at AFAR magazine; and the author of six acclaimed cookbooks, among them The New Spanish Table, The Greatest Dishes: Around the World in 80 Recipes, and Please to the Table: The Russian Cookbook (coauthored with John Welchman). Her memoir, Mastering the Art of Soviet Cooking, has been translated into nineteen languages. Anya has been a contributing editor at Travel+Leisure and Food & Wine and has written for Saveur, The New Yorker, and Foreign Policy, among other publications. Her work has been anthologized in several editions of Best Food Writing and in The Best American Travel Writing. A former concert pianist, Anya is fluent in four languages and when not on the road divides her time between New York and Istanbul.