Consider the Fork
A History of How We Cook and Eat
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Consider the Fork
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Narrated by:
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Alison Larkin
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By:
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Bee Wilson
About this listen
Since prehistory, humans have braved the business ends of knives, scrapers, and mashers, all in the name of creating something delicious - or at least edible. In Consider the Fork, award-winning food writer and historian Bee Wilson traces the ancient lineage of our modern culinary tools, revealing the startling history of objects we often take for granted. Charting the evolution of technologies from the knife and fork to the gas range and the sous-vide cooker, Wilson offers unprecedented insights into how we've prepared and consumed food over the centuries - and how those basic acts have changed our societies, our diets, and our very selves.
©2012 Bee Wilson (P)2012 TantorListeners also enjoyed...
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- By: Ken Albala, The Great Courses
- Narrated by: Ken Albala
- Length: 18 hrs and 22 mins
- Original Recording
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 5,166
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 4,572
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 4,537
Eating is an indispensable human activity. As a result, whether we realize it or not, the drive to obtain food has been a major catalyst across all of history, from prehistoric times to the present. Epicure Jean-Anthelme Brillat-Savarin said it best: "Gastronomy governs the whole life of man."
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5 out of 5 stars
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One of my top 3 favorite courses!
- By Jessica on 12-28-13
By: Ken Albala, and others
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First Bite
- How We Learn to Eat
- By: Bee Wilson
- Narrated by: Alison Larkin
- Length: 13 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 519
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 474
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Story4 out of 5 stars 472
In First Bite, the beloved food writer Bee Wilson draws on the latest research from food psychologists, neuroscientists, and nutritionists to reveal that our food habits are shaped by a whole host of factors, including family, culture, memory, gender, hunger, and love.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Wealth of info I wish I knew before having kids..
- By VerdereC on 06-07-16
By: Bee Wilson
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The Taste of Empire
- How Britain's Quest for Food Shaped the Modern World
- By: Lizzie Collingham
- Narrated by: Jennifer M. Dixon
- Length: 12 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 74
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 65
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 66
In The Taste of Empire, acclaimed historian Lizzie Collingham tells the story of how the British Empire's quest for food shaped the modern world. Told through 20 meals over the course of 450 years, from the Far East to the New World, Collingham explains how Africans taught Americans how to grow rice, how the East India Company turned opium into tea, and how Americans became the best-fed people in the world.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Overall really interesting and informative
- By Amazon Customer on 01-01-21
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High on the Hog
- A Culinary Journey from Africa to America
- By: Jessica B. Harris
- Narrated by: Jessica Harris
- Length: 8 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 239
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 210
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Story5 out of 5 stars 209
Acclaimed cookbook author Jessica B. Harris weaves an utterly engaging history of African American cuisine, taking the listener on a harrowing journey from Africa across the Atlantic to America, and tracking the trials that the people and the food have undergone along the way. From chitlins and ham hocks to fried chicken and vegan soul, Harris celebrates the delicious and restorative foods of the African American experience and details how each came to form an important part of African American culture, history, and identity.
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3 out of 5 stars
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more of a history lesson than a culinary book
- By Scott Johnson on 09-02-15
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National Dish
- Around the World in Search of Food, History, and the Meaning of Home
- By: Anya von Bremzen
- Narrated by: Kathleen Gati
- Length: 12 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 5
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 5
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 5
In this engrossing and timely journey to the crossroads of food and identity, award-winning writer Anya von Bremzen explores six of the world’s most fascinating and iconic culinary cultures—France, Italy, Japan, Spain, Mexico, and Turkey—brilliantly weaving cuisine, history, and politics into a work of scintillating connoisseurship and charm.
By: Anya von Bremzen
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Proof
- The Science of Booze
- By: Adam Rogers
- Narrated by: Sean Runnette
- Length: 8 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 1,572
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 1,388
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 1,381
In Proof, Adam Rogers reveals alcohol as a miracle of science, going deep into the pleasures of making and drinking booze—and the effects of the latter. The people who make and sell alcohol may talk about history and tradition, but alcohol production is really powered by physics, molecular biology, organic chemistry, and a bit of metallurgy—and our taste for those products is a melding of psychology and neurobiology.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Great listening to all about booze
- By Atila on 08-02-14
By: Adam Rogers
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A History of the World in 6 Glasses
- By: Tom Standage
- Narrated by: Sean Runnette
- Length: 7 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 4,596
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 3,962
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 3,974
Throughout human history, certain drinks have done much more than just quench thirst. As Tom Standage relates with authority and charm, six of them have had a surprisingly pervasive influence on the course of history, becoming the defining drink during a pivotal historical period. A History of the World in 6 Glasses tells the story of humanity from the Stone Age to the 21st century through the lens of beer, wine, spirits, coffee, tea, and cola.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Fun and Informative
- By Stoker on 09-09-11
By: Tom Standage
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Culinary Reactions
- The Everyday Chemistry of Cooking
- By: Simon Quellen Field
- Narrated by: Sean Pratt
- Length: 4 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 190
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 159
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Story4 out of 5 stars 160
When you're cooking, you're a chemist! Every time you follow or modify a recipe you are experimenting with acids and bases, emulsions and suspensions, gels and foams. In your kitchen you denature proteins, crystallize compounds, react enzymes with substrates, and nurture desired microbial life while suppressing harmful microbes. And unlike in a laboratory, you can eat your experiments to verify your hypotheses.
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2 out of 5 stars
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Culinary Reactions - The Chemical Formulas to Cook
- By Vicente Gard on 06-06-19
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The Cooking Gene
- A Journey Through African American Culinary History in the Old South
- By: Michael W. Twitty
- Narrated by: Michael W. Twitty
- Length: 15 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall5 out of 5 stars 6
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 6
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Story5 out of 5 stars 6
Southern food is integral to the American culinary tradition, yet the question of who "owns" it is one of the most provocative touch points in our ongoing struggles over race. In this unique memoir, culinary historian Michael W. Twitty takes listeners to the white-hot center of this fight, tracing the roots of his own family and the charged politics surrounding the origins of soul food, barbecue, and all Southern cuisine. From the tobacco and rice farms of colonial times to plantation kitchens and backbreaking cotton fields, Twitty tells his family story.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Thank you!
- By Jesse on 01-27-24
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Cooked
- A Natural History of Transformation
- By: Michael Pollan
- Narrated by: Michael Pollan
- Length: 13 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 2,578
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 2,269
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 2,267
In Cooked, Pollan discovers the enduring power of the four classical elements - fire, water, air, and earth - to transform the stuff of nature into delicious things to eat and drink. Apprenticing himself to a succession of culinary masters, Pollan learns how to grill with fire, cook with liquid, bake bread, and ferment everything from cheese to beer. Each section of Cooked tracks Pollan’s effort to master a single classic recipe using one of the four elements.
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4 out of 5 stars
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A bit bland
- By Mark on 12-12-14
By: Michael Pollan
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Cod
- A Biography of the Fish That Changed the World
- By: Mark Kurlansky
- Narrated by: Richard M. Davidson
- Length: 7 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 622
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 363
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Story4 out of 5 stars 369
The cod has played a vital part in livelihoods, diets, and health in general — as well as roles in national economies and international wars. Drawing on his love of food and food culture, Mark Kurlansky leaps into history and folklore to explore how this innocuous fish had such an impact over the centuries.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Seven and a half hour about COD???
- By B. W. Larsen on 03-01-03
By: Mark Kurlansky
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The Omnivore's Dilemma
- A Natural History of Four Meals
- By: Michael Pollan
- Narrated by: Scott Brick
- Length: 15 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 9,387
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 6,373
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 6,363
"What should we have for dinner?" To one degree or another, this simple question assails any creature faced with a wide choice of things to eat. Anthropologists call it the omnivore's dilemma. Choosing from among the countless potential foods nature offers, humans have had to learn what is safe, and what isn't. Today, as America confronts what can only be described as a national eating disorder, the omnivore's dilemma has returned with an atavistic vengeance.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Great book; didn't love the reading
- By Lily on 11-02-08
By: Michael Pollan
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Ten Restaurants That Changed America
- By: Paul Freedman
- Narrated by: Keith Szarabajka
- Length: 13 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 315
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 274
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 271
Ten Restaurants That Changed America reveals how the history of our restaurants reflects nothing less than the history of America itself. Whether charting the rise of our love affair with Chinese food through San Francisco's the Mandarin, evoking the richness of Italian food through Mamma Leone's, or chronicling French haute cuisine through Henri Soulé's Le Pavillon, Paul Freedman uses each restaurant to tell a story of race and class, immigration and assimilation.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Worthwhile listen, cringe-worthy pronunciations
- By Tag Christof on 09-01-20
By: Paul Freedman
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Milk!
- A 10,000-Year Food Fracas
- By: Mark Kurlansky
- Narrated by: Brian Sutherland
- Length: 12 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 213
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Performance3.5 out of 5 stars 179
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Story4 out of 5 stars 180
Mark Kurlansky's first global food history since the best-selling Cod and Salt; the fascinating cultural, economic and culinary story of milk and all things dairy - with recipes throughout. According to the Greek creation myth, we are so much spilt milk; a splatter of the goddess Hera's breast milk became our galaxy, the Milky Way.
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2 out of 5 stars
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Horrible narration nearly kills Kurlansky
- By Scarlatti's Muse on 05-15-18
By: Mark Kurlansky
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Salt
- A World History
- By: Mark Kurlansky
- Narrated by: Scott Brick
- Length: 13 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 3,160
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 2,361
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Story4 out of 5 stars 2,363
The author of Cod and The Basque History of the World takes an extraordinary look at an ordinary substance — salt, the only rock humans eat — and how it has shaped civilization from the very beginning. Mark Kurlansky has produced a kaleidoscope of history, a multi-layered masterpiece that blends economic, scientific, political, religious, and culinary records into a rich and memorable tale.
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5 out of 5 stars
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More than SALT
- By Karen on 03-12-03
By: Mark Kurlansky
What listeners say about Consider the Fork
Highly rated for:
Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance2 out of 5 stars
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Story3 out of 5 stars
- GH
- 07-10-13
Great information if you play Trivail Pursuit
I have read a significant number of books of this ilk. I generally like the book. You lean about the history of this and that -- one of them being the fork. Although this book is packed with interesting information. There is nothing earth moving or should I should say cow moving. If you want to lean many numerous factoids, this is the book for you. For me it was just ok.
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15 people found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- minchen
- 03-17-15
Fake American accent is distracting!
Have you listened to any of Alison Larkin’s other performances before? How does this one compare?
No, but I intensely dislike the (un)American accent she uses for the American characters in the book. It's utterly distracting and takes away from her otherwise splendid performance.
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Ben
- 11-29-12
What fun...
A charming book that tells the history of what we eat through the tools we use to prepare it. The book is written with great charm and good humor and the narration is just right.
History is most often told through politics and commerce. This is history of a different sort, told through the kitchen.
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Melinda
- 07-04-19
Fascinating Book
This is even better than I hoped for, but I did have to listen away from bedtime because the narrator's voice is very calm and soothing.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- VoxVolat
- 06-09-13
Fascinating!
This is a wonderful romp through culinary gadget and cutlery history. Kept me engaged and fascinated by the implications of some revelations the book makes. I would highly recommend this book for cooks and foodies in addition to those who like history.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Amazon Customer
- 12-28-13
Clearly on of the best
What made the experience of listening to Consider the Fork the most enjoyable?
The reader was clearly, engaging and the tempo was very good. The writing was amazingly thought provoking.
What other book might you compare Consider the Fork to and why?
I've been looking for other books as I've never read anything quite so engaging. It reminded me a bit of the James Burke show "Connections"
Which scene was your favorite?
By far the chapter on Pots and Pans were quite interesting, and the one on refrigeration.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- AB
- 02-18-24
Fun listen on food & utensils
Enjoyed the history of all these utensils! Low effort and fun listen about so many various implements and styles
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Gwenna Laithland
- 09-18-17
Informatively Whimsical
A great look at the evolution of cooking technology that blends history with a light humor and realistic examination of the role of cooking and the tools used to do so.
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6 people found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Joseph
- 07-17-18
A charming history lesson that made me hungry.
What a fascinating lens through which to view the world! This book really helped contextualize the day to day life of people from various walks of life throughout history. I'm also excited to get back into the kitchen myself knowing what I now know about our varied utensils and appliances. The narrator was simply a joy to listen to with a musical voice and fantastic comedic timing for all the witty asides and unexpected connections the author included.
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story2 out of 5 stars
- WCL
- 12-02-17
Interesting info but hum-drum
The narrator did a great job with many different accents.
The content is: "That's nice." (Yawn)
I put it on a faster speed for listening; that helped.
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