Real Food/Fake Food: Why You Don't Know What You're Eating and What You Can Do About It

(Paperback)

Publishing Details

Classifications

Physical Properties

Description

Olmsted makes you insanely hungry and steaming mad--a must-read for anyone who cares deeply about the safety of our food and the welfare of our planet. Steven Raichlen, author of the Barbecue! Bible series

The world is full of delicious, lovingly crafted foods that embody the terrain, weather, and culture of their origins. Unfortunately, its also full of brazen impostors. In this entertaining and important book, Olmsted helps us fall in love with the real stuff and steer clear of the fraudsters. Kirk Kardashian, author of Milk Money: Cash, Cows, and the Death of the American Dairy Farm

Youve seen the headlines: Parmesan cheese made from wood pulp. Lobster rolls containing no lobster at all. Extra-virgin olive oil that isnt. So many fake foods are in our supermarkets, our restaurants, and our kitchen cabinets that its hard to know what were eating anymore. In Real Food / Fake Food, award-winning journalist Larry Olmsted convinces us why real food matters and empowers consumers to make smarter choices.

Olmsted brings readers into the unregulated food industry, revealing the shocking deception that extends from high-end foods like olive oil, wine, and Kobe beef to everyday staples such as coffee, honey, juice, and cheese. Its a massive bait and switch in which counterfeiting is rampant and in which the consumer ultimately pays the price.

But Olmsted does more than show us what foods to avoid. A bona fide gourmand, he travels to the sources of the real stuff to help us recognize what to look for, eat, and savor: genuine Parmigiano-Reggiano from Italy, fresh-caught grouper from Florida, authentic port from Portugal. Real foods that are grown, raised, produced, and prepared with care by masters of their craft. Part cautionary tale, part culinary crusade, Real Food / Fake Food is addictively readable, mouthwateringly enjoyable, and utterly relevant.

Reviews

New York Times Bestseller
Washington Post Bestseller
National Post Bestseller (Canada)

Olmsteds well-researched expos reveals how often what we eat isnt what it seems. (Parmesan cheese made of wood pulp or fake lobster rolls, anyone) Eye-opening.
PEOPLE magazine

Olmsted boldly walks readers through a course in food authenticity that covers olive oil, cheese, Champagne, seafood, steak, coffee, and more. Readers will be inspired by his intensity and clarity, and floored by how far some counterfeiters go to fool consumers and some historic food institutions go to protect their products and their names. Olmsteds research is impressive, and he lets no stone go unturned. He lets the terrifying facts speak for themselves, adding just a little humor . . . Olmsteds sharp language will hopefully put fires under counterfeiters everywhere . . . With the guiding hand of a good friend and prose that keeps the readers eye moving, Olmsted insists that readers shop better and cook more.
Publishers Weekly, starred review

Equal parts foodie chronicle and investigative expos . . . Real Food / Fake Food is less treatise than guidebook, showing readers how to navigate an increasingly complex food system.
Outside magazine

Required reading for cooks who genuinely care about quality and health . . . a fascinating read that sheds light on our under-regulated food industry. The book also serves as a handy guide to what items consumers should avoid, and how to find and identify the real deal.
CookingLight.com

A striking look at the food industry. Its unnerving that so many people don't know what authentic olive oil or port wine tastes like because theyve been undersold on some off-shoot knock off and no one is raising a flag until now.
Ming Tsai, author, chef, and host of PBSs Simply Ming

Larry Olmstead makes you insanely hungry and steaming mad in this provocative account of how fraud threatens not just the worlds great craft foods (think caviar, Kobe beef, and Parmigiano-Reggiano) but our everyday diet.A must-read for anyone who cares deeply about the safety of our food and the welfare our planet.
Steven Raichlen, author of the Barbecue! Bible cookbook series and host of Project Smoke and Primal Grill on PBS

Do not take another bite or swallow another sip of anything, for your sake and the sake of your children, before reading Real Food Fake Food. It is the health equivalent of Ralph Nader's expose Unsafe at any Speed. The content blows the doors off the kitchens.
Michael Patrick Shiels, radio host and author of Invite Yourself to the Party

Larry Olmsteds meticulously researched tour de force is chilling for what he uncovers about the food industry. At the same time his love of great food and his skill in writing about it make me want to try every one of the real foods he recommends. A must-read for anyone with an interest in, well, eating.
Dan Dunn, author of American Wino: A Tale of Reds, Whites and One Mans Blues

The world is full of delicious, lovingly-crafted foods that embody the terrain, weather, and culture of their origins. Unfortunately, its also full of brazen impostors that are hard to identify. In this entertaining and important book, Larry Olmsted helps us fall in love with the real stuff and steer clear of the fraudsters. I'll never look at a menu the same way again.
Kirk Kardashian, author of Milk Money: Cash, Cows, and the Death of the American Dairy Farm

In his solidly researched new book, USA Today food and travel columnist Olmsted, a well-traveled and knowledgeable food writer, takes readers on an enlightening but frequently disturbing culinary journey. While providing fascinating insights into where and how some of the most delicious food products are produced, the author also reveals how often these are imitated to detrimental effectA provocative yet grounded look at the U.S. food industry.
Kirkus Reviews

This is an important book to help all buyers shop prudently and with a wary eye toward the claims of food producers. Recommended for all consumers along with policymakers, those interested in food science, and marketing professionals.
Library Journal

Olmsted gives us the lay of this seedy landscape with momentum and aplomb. He demystifies the process by which fake ingredients end up in your shopping cart, explains why some of these deceitful foods could be a real threat to your health, and sheds a light on the government policies and shortsighted commercialism that landed them there.
Mother Jones

Author Bio

Larry Olmsted writes the Great American Bites column for USA Today and is the travel and food columnist at Forbes.com, where his column was named one of the Worlds Top 100 Travel Sites. A longtime member of the Society of American Travel Writers and Golf Writers Association of America, he covers food, wine, and spirit topics, including regional food specialties, production, health, consumer issues, celebrity chefs, and restaurants worldwide. He appears regularly on radio and television and is a frequent contributor to the Dr. Oz Show. Olmsted, who has visited more than forty countries around the globe, is of the author of two books on golf and Getting into Guinness. (In the process of writing that book he personally set or broke three Guinness world records). He teaches nonfiction writing at Dartmouth College and lives with his wife live in Vermont.