Delicious

The Evolution of Flavor and How It Made Us Human

De: Robert Dunn, Monica Sanchez

Narrado por: Russell Bentley

This delightful audiobook narrated by Russell Bentley offers a savory account of how the pursuit of delicious foods shaped human evolution

Nature, it has been said, invites us to eat by appetite and rewards by flavor. But what exactly are flavors? Why are some so pleasing while others are not? Delicious is a supremely entertaining foray into the heart of such questions.

With generous helpings of warmth and wit, Rob Dunn and Monica Sanchez offer bold new perspectives on why food is enjoyable and how the pursuit of delicious flavors has guided the course of human history. They consider the role that flavor may have played in the invention of the first tools, the extinction of giant mammals, the evolution of the world’s most delicious and fatty fruits, the creation of beer, and our own sociality. Along the way, you will learn about the taste receptors you didn't even know you had, the best way to ferment a mastodon, the relationship between Paleolithic art and cheese, and much more.

Blending irresistible storytelling with the latest science, Delicious is a deep history of flavor that will transform the way you think about human evolution and the gustatory pleasures of the foods we eat.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.

©2021 Monica Sanchez (P)2021 Princeton University Press

Reseñas de la Crítica

"An utter delight. Delicious is a gastronomic tapestry of far-flung anecdotes, science, and history expertly woven into a story of the profound significance of taste and aroma for humans and other species. I relished every page." (Joanna E. Lambert, University of Colorado Boulder)

"Rob Dunn and Monica Sanchez write with the creativity of great chefs and the precision of food biochemists. This book is a feast that will not only stimulate your mind but also excite your senses. No book better brings the natural and gastronomic sciences to life while instilling us with wonder better than this one." (Gary Paul Nabhan, father of the local food movement, author of Food, Genes, and Culture)

"A revolutionary look at the way our appetite for the delicious made us human. Taking readers on an exciting journey into the past, Dunn and Sanchez reveal how and why we love to eat the things we do and the impact this has had on human biology and culture. You will never look at food the same way again." (Vanessa Woods, New York Times best-selling author of Survival of the Friendliest)

Cue the Eye Roll

I loved learning all the tidbits and trivia in this book. In fact my family would say I enjoyed learning a bit too much because I was constantly sharing the amazing and intriguing facts with them and they grew tired of hearing “in the book Delicious…” soon each time I started with that I got a simultaneous eye roll from all the members. Maybe it’s not for everyone, but it was a great education for me.

Delicious for the gut and the brain

Reading this book is a great delight - it paints pictures of how our ancestors consumed particular food (yum!) and assembles the puzzles of why (ah-ha!) It makes my mouth water when describing the flavors of meat and fruit and triggers my mind to turn when asking questions about why we eat certain things in specific ways.

My favorite chapter is "The Forbidden Fruit". It starts with talking about how delicious the animal meat tasted based on their diets (fruits, nuts, spices, etc.). It then talks about some strong-flavored, large-shelled fruits that no other animals want to eat. Why do those trees spend so much energy to produce fruits that no local animals can eat and carry their seeds? Because the large animals that these trees grow their fruits for had gone extinct due to human hunting. But how could those trees survive without the large animals eating and disseminating the seeds? Because there was a replacement - the human. A juicy and delicious chapter to digest with an interconnected puzzle to solve.

If you like this book, also check out Robert Dunn's other books, especially "Never Home Alone: From Microbes to Millipedes, Camel Crickets, and Honeybees, the Natural History of Where We Live" (2018).

If you like food-themed books, check out "Ingredients: The Strange Chemistry of What We Put in Us and on Us" by George Zaidan (2020), which also talks about spices, among other things, but from the nutrition perspective. You might also like books from Michael Pollan (who talks about food from the positive side - beautiful, wholesome food) and Michael Moss (who talks about food from the negative side - addictive junk food).

Meh

Narrator has a very annoying speaking rhythm and places inflections strangely, so you have to decipher some sentences for meaning that would probably be clear if you were reading a hardcopy. Narrator also mispronounces many scientific terms and even place names, which is very distracting. Content seems interesting, but there's not enough substance to really justify a full book on the premise, and authors' assertions are not always well supported by evidence but rather are selected to fit the narrative they've decided to create on the topic.