All Consuming

Food dominates our every waking minute: Hype restaurants. Allrecipes. The Great British Bake Off. In this dazzling cultural history, bestselling food writer Ruby Tandoh (author of Cook As You Are) traces how—and why—we’ve all become foodies.

“Ruby Tandoh is a genius and All Consuming is everything.” —Bryan Washington, author of Family Meal

“A fascinating, sometimes shocking, eye-opener that is also brilliantly funny.” —Claudia Roden

How, in the space of a few decades, has food gone from fact of life to national past time; something to be thought about—and talked about—24/7?
In this startlingly original, deeply irreverent cultural history, Ruby Tandoh traces that transformation, exposing how cult cookbooks, bad TV, visionary restaurants, and new social media have all wildly overhauled our appetites. All Consuming explores:
•The rise of the TikTok food critic
•What makes a hype restaurant go viral
•Bubble tea’s world domination
•The dream of the modern dinner party
•The limits of the cookbook
•The history of the supermarket
•Wellness drinks—and where they come from
•The rise and fall of the automat

Our tastes have been radically refashioned, painstakingly engineered in the depths of food factories, and hacked by craveable Instagram recipes. They’ve been pulled into supermarket aisles and seduced by Michelin stars, transfixed by Top Chefs and shaped by fads. A deep dive into the social, economic, cultural, legislative, and demographic forces that have reshaped our relationship with food, All Consuming questions how our tastes have been shaped—and how much they are, in fact, our own.