Steven Gdula

http://www.libraryjournal.com/lj/reviews/xpress/891181-289/xpress_reviewsfirst_l...
Gdula, Steven. Gobba Gobba Hey: A Gob Cookbook. Bloomsbury, dist. by Macmillan. Aug. 2011. c.160p. index. ISBN 9781608194780. $18. COOKING
Food writer Gdula (The Warmest Room in the House: How the Kitchen Became the Heart of the Twentieth-Century American Home) began baking and selling gobs to supplement his income during a slow spell in his career. Soon, buzz spread, and his low-key operation became a part of the San Francisco street vendor scene. Twists on an old Pennsylvania staple, Gdula's gobs, like their more famous cousin, the whoopie pie, are hold-in-the-hand cupcakelike concoctions traditionally made with chocolate cake and vanilla frosting. Intent on spreading the joy of the gob, he created variations from the mild (spiced pumpkin gobs with cream cheese filling) to the nontraditional (vanilla lavender gobs with blackberry filling) using ingredients readily available at the farmers' market. He includes 52 weekly recipes, listing background information, instructions, ingredients, and tips.
Verdict One of few books available on the topic, this intriguing cookbook would be more useful if it included photos, since many will not know what a gob is or how to assemble it. Readers may benefit by visiting Gdula's blog (gobbagobbahey.com) or other websites.—Jane Hebert, Orange Cty. Lib. Syst., Orlando, FL… (mais)

This book is a breezy history by decades of how American food preparation and eating habits changed throughout the twentiteth century. Gdula touches on quite a few things, including kitchen layout, family cuture of eating, the onslaught of appliances, condern over food quality, dieting, and health, but I am going to concentrate on cookbooks.

The Boston Cooking-School Book is the one in big use at the turn of the century: there are 530 owners of Fannie Farmer's books with a an average rating of 3.9. The Settlement Cookbook, popular in the Midwest in the same era, has 239 owners with a rating of about 3.73.

James Beard became both a popular personality, as well as a writer, after World War II and LT members own 270 of his books with a 4.01 rating.

Concerns over the style of eating in the U.S. led to the book "Fast Food Nation", which might be the most owned 'food' book in LT with 8,574 owners and a 3.97 rating. This is considerably grater than any cookbook. The "Joy of Cooking" which came out in the 1930's, and was (is) the bible in many kitchens went through a number of revisions, and has 3,950 owners and a 4.3 rating.

Many regard the truly gourmet cooking to come with the advent of Julia Childe. Her book, "Mastering the Art of French Cooking" is owned by 1,961 LTers and has a wapping rating of 4.56.

The concern over diet and weight has produced such books as the Weight Watchers series, which has 2904 owners but only a 3.53 rating, which means that although many want to lose weight, they find the program and recipes not up to their desire.

The vegetarian desire, which has grow consideraby in the nation, has produced a book like "Stalking the Wild Asparagus", which only has attracted 397 owners, but does has a decent rating of 4.06.

In some ways, this book is somewhat more for the analyst, but it is well worth perusing.… (mais)

As a lover of micro-histories, this book hit the spot for me. Each chapter covered a decade of Americans' relationship with food and their kitchens. For a researcher it might not be organized well, as the subtopics of advances in food packaging, grocery shopping, and dietary trends were all located at different places in each chapter, but for a casual reader the book flowed well. It made me realize how recent some trends (our love for pizza), and how surprisingly old others were (the Atkins diet and focus on organic/whole foods). An eye-opening read.… (mais)