All Consuming by Ruby Tandoh
Ruby Tandoh returns with All Consuming, an investigation into how taste is formed
Like most things that hinge – quite literally – on matters of taste, the modern plate is far more than the sum of its parts. Shaped by visions of plenty (via mukbangs), performance (via tradwives) and mass participation (via trending recipes), what we eat does not just speak to who we are but who we aspire to be. However, as Ruby Tandoh surmises in her latest book, All Consuming, many of these exercises in choice actually boil down to a remarkably simple credo: “If all those people are doing it, then it must be good; and if it’s good, then I should be doing it too.”
What mainstream culture determines to be aspirational is both an ever-moving target and a measure of taste’s direction of travel. And who does any of this serve? All Consuming attends to this question with care: it is an exceptional survey of the 'shared culinary grammars' that have shaped modern life and keep us striving for something more. It is also a tremendously funny, forthright and tightly-stitched study of the things Tandoh has realised upon reflection, amongst friends or amid the 'emotional plasma of the kitchen.' For every penetrating analysis of how our tastes are impacted by the flow of capital, the borders of class and the ignoble engines of commerce, there is a personal anecdote about Come Dine With Me, a pithy reference to the now-discontinued Calippo Shots or a perfectly-formed shot of snark.
Released on 4 Sep with Serpent's Tail