New Orleans: A Food Biography is the first in a projected series, "Big City Food Biographies," from AltaMira Press. The aim of the series is to focus on "those metropolises celebrated as culinary destinations, with their iconic dishes, ethnic neighborhoods, markets, restaurants, and chefs" and to provide "real biographies that will satisfy readers' desire to know the full food culture of a city." New Orleans, with its unique cuisine and urban culture, is an appropriate city in which to begin such a series. Williams spends the first half of the book identifying the historical events, cultural influences, raw materials, and immigrant groups that greatly contributed to the creation of New Orleans cuisine. The second half of the book details restaurants, drinking culture, home cooking, and the signature New Orleans foods. The final chapter on New Orleans foods is the book's strength, highly readable and researched. The historical background provides necessary context for the evolution of New Orleans food, and a bibliography is provided). Summing Up: Recommended. General readers and lower-division undergraduates.
