Anthony Warner
Oneworld Publications
2017 | 336pp | £12.99
ISBN 9781786072160
Buy this book from Amazon.co.uk
I’m just going to go ahead and say it: The angry chef is terrific. Read it at once. Take my copy. It’s wonderful, insightful, hilarious and downright effing rude. But not only that, at a time when it’s hard to know what to believe about the food we eat, this book is essential reading.
Anthony Warner feels that our relationship with food has become unhealthy. Central to this are those who profit from people’s desire to be healthier by offering pseudoscientific diets that at best do nothing and at worst take lives. This is something that we should be more concerned about as a society, but these false prophets seem to get a free pass.
Warner, however, is determined to stop them, especially if it means using more expletives than most of us can stomach. The angry chef provides a thorough grounding into how these fad diets or ‘superfood’ ingredients come about and how they propagate before he systematically tears each of them to shreds, exposing why the ‘science’ behind the diets is flawed and looking into the psychology that makes them so popular. It’s extremely impressive and at times even exhilarating.
The author is passionate and his anger is infectious. His writing is also hugely engaging; he has a knack for explaining complicated issues using inventive metaphors. Luckily, he also has the substance to back up all this style. This is clearly a topic he has researched thoroughly, providing relevant references and quotes from experts and dieters alike. Despite the anger, Warner’s thoughts are mature, considerate and even fair (unless you’re Gwyneth Paltrow). He is careful about assigning blame and encourages everyone to take responsibility (especially if you’re Gwyneth Paltrow). Most of all, he wants people to develop a better relationship with food and understand that it’s not the panacea that they’ve been promised.
The angry chef is an important voice of reason in a world where reason is in short supply. It’s loud, entertaining and full of F-words. So make sure you take it in, savour and digest it…and enjoy it with the dirtiest burger and creamiest milkshake you can find.
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