Sauce on the side? It's the tip of the iceberg

A new book, Devoured, by Sophie Egan explores Americans' obsession with food customization and how it helps us define ourselves. Julie Beck provides a nice glimpse of the book at The Atlantic's website:

Fancy Starbucks Drinks and the Special Snowflakes Who Order Them

Surely some of those combinations are gross—Venti green tea latte with peppermint and whipped cream, anyone?—but you can have them if you want them. And as Sophie Egan, a program director at the Culinary Institute of America, writes in her new book Devoured, that speaks to “a most American element of the American food psyche”: customization.

American culture is also notoriously individualist. We tend to define our personal identities as separate from our communities, which sociological research contrasts with the collectivism seen in other cultures, such as in East Asia or Kenya, where people tend to think of the groups they belong to as equal to or more important than their personal characteristics.

I just ordered the Kindle version and plan on reading it right away.

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ronnie_suburban wrote:A new book, Devoured, by Sophie Egan explores Americans' obsession with food customization and how it helps us define ourselves. Julie Beck provides a nice glimpse of the book at The Atlantic's website:

Fancy Starbucks Drinks and the Special Snowflakes Who Order Them

American culture is also notoriously individualist. We tend to define our personal identities as separate from our communities, which sociological research contrasts with the collectivism seen in other cultures, such as in East Asia or Kenya, where people tend to think of the groups they belong to as equal to or more important than their personal characteristics.

Perhaps. But if you read accounts of American society in the 1950s & '60s you'll find an overwhelming amount of commentary on how rigidly "conformist" it was ... and maybe still is, see how serious a charge "not a team player" is.


PS -I realize the statement I'm responding to is from the Atlantic writer.

Having finished the book, I have to say it was pretty disappointing and I don't recommend it -- at least not for this crowd. There was a ton of information (sometimes organized better than others) but not a ton of insight or new ground covered.

Perhaps my disappointment stems from the fact that the main theme of the book didn't really match up with the expectation created by the Atlantic review (linked above) that brought the book to my attention in the first place. I found Devoured to be a lot less about food customization and how it defines Americans than about how Americans will do and buy just about anything to avoid cooking for themselves. As the author states in the review linked above “'the most guaranteed way to really customize and personalize your food is to make it yourself.'” Ironically, even via a Kindle search, I never did find this passage in the electronic version of the book . . . and it's the most interesting thing the author had to say.

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"Have it your way"

Jazzfood wrote:"Have it your way"

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For the record, Burger King was not the ONLY chain that stressed customization. Wendy's advertised that there were 256 different ways to dress up a single hamburger ... and more if you included the extra patty options.

In addition, Burger Chef and Roy Rogers had "fixins bars" attached.

I must say that there is nothing more irritating than being the 12th person in line at Starbucks when people are each spending 2-3 minutes describing how they want their beverage constructed.

jlawrence01 wrote:I must say that there is nothing more irritating than being the 12th person in line at Starbucks when people are each spending 2-3 minutes describing how they want their beverage constructed.

Hehe, Steve Martin was totally ahead of his time with this one . . .


L.A. Story (1991)

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jlawrence01 wrote:I must say that there is nothing more irritating than being the 12th person in line at Starbucks when people are each spending 2-3 minutes describing how they want their beverage constructed.

When I was in Las Vegas for a couple of weeks this year, my wife would drop me off at the day care, I mean Starbucks, where I would get together with six new friends. I showed up one day with one of the guys while we waited in the line.

He gets up to the front and looks at the girl and says, "take the small cup, walk over and fill it up with coffee, here is the $1 and that is all I want."

And all I said was "Me too."

Surely some of those combinations are gross—Venti green tea latte with peppermint and whipped cream, anyone?—but you can have them if you want them. And as Sophie Egan, a program director at the Culinary Institute of America, writes in her new book Devoured, that speaks to “a most American element of the American food psyche”: customization.

Late to this conversation, but what the venti green tea with flavors brings to mind is a principal thesis recently made in The Dorito Effect [https://www.amazon.com/Dorito-Effect-Surprising-Truth-Flavor/dp/1476724210]: food flavor has become so diluted (due to accelerated growing seasons, processing, etc.) that we have to add flavor back in so that we can actually taste something in our corn, chicken, etc.