- Addresses American readers
Provides some background for some of the most frequently faked foods
= Not my cup of tea

I did a quick review of this book. Olmsted covers fish, beef, olive oil, cheese, wines, and other food with high prices (usually) and high risk of fakery. It really is a very good book. The one thing I am taking from it now is to switch to honey purchased at a local farmers’ market. ( )

This is one depressing book. Larry Olmsted proceeds to rip open the curtain and show us readers that the food that we love is about as real as the great wizard of Oz. He takes us a stroll through real cheese and wine makers ... and through the fake world of "kobe beef", "champagne", "olive oil", "parmesan", and "sushi".

This book makes me want to stop eating, especially out at restaurants.





( )

Larry Olmsted is a foodie. Food is his passion, hobby and, according to the back of the book, at least partially his job as a food journalist. Real Food/Fake Food is Olmsted's homage to some of his favorite premium foods and outrage over the fact that imposters are everywhere. It also contains some great information for general consumers with tips on how to avoid food fraud when you can though most of this information tends to be a few paragraphs at the end of each chapter.

Olmsted breaks down fake foods into three categories: regional imposters (such as Parmesan cheese made in California instead of Italy); fraud (the swapping of a lesser quality ingredient for another or adding lesser quality ingredients to pure ones yet still selling it as the real deal); and synthetic chemicals masquerading as actual food (cheeses being made with ingredients not related to cheese at all such wood fibers or plastics). Olmsted's main focus is on regional imposters so if you're wanting a deeper look at the other two categories further reading will be required.

Depending on where you are in your real food journey will determine how much value you get from this book. If you've never done research at all into where food comes from and just how bad fraud is in the food industry, this book will likely be eye opening. If you have done some research this book won't come as a surprise though you should still learn something. I didn't realize just how bad fraud in the seafood industry is until reading this and doing further searching on my own. I don't think I'll be ordering seafood from a restaurant for a while!

This book is written exclusively from the US perspective. While the author does mention some very specific regional laws in other countries, and those outside of the US may find this information valuable, you'll have to check the laws of your country to see if your food sources have better or any protections. In the US, food manufacturers looking to make every last dime off consumers and our lack of proper government regulations make things a lot harder for the average person to tell the difference between what's real and what's fake. As if eating healthy, whole foods wasn't difficult enough!

My main issues with the book come from spelling and grammatical errors, lots of repetition and how pretentious the author's writing style comes across, especially in the early chapters.

In essence, buyer beware. Food fraud is everywhere at the grocery store and restaurants. The FDA is not doing its job to protect consumers and the responsibility is with us to stay informed, check labels and shop carefully. ( )

A defense of truth in foodie advertising.

First off, Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese, a delicious hard grating (and snacking!) cheese, unlike any other to hear him tell it. I'm all for Parmigiano-Reggiano. But Grana Padano has all the same characteristics. I'm more familiar with the latter than the former, so maybe I need to go find some P-R and be transported into ecstasies by what I've been missing; but I have to say I've had damn good G. P. He talks about G. P. being passed off as parmesan, and I'm all for truth in labeling and advertising; but he never stakes any claims as to why G. P. is such a worse thing.

And a confession here. That "cardboard" powder that comes in the shakeable green can? It ain't Parmigiano-Reggiano or even lousy Grana Padano or even, I guess, cheese. But (whisper) I kind of like it? It has its place? It's an easily shakeable umami I can put on my pasta. Shaved hard cheese is delicious, but it's not the same thing, is it? I like the grated stuff. Grew up with it.

Onward... parma ham - I'm not familiar enough with it to comment. Fish labeled as the wrong species - again, I don't want things mislabeled. But he doesn't really sufficiently go into why the species is so important.

Olive oil - a very informative chapter. And I've been destroying my bottle of super-authentic olive oil that I carted personally all the way from Italy, by keeping it next to the toaster-oven - DOH! But sigh, to hear the experts tell it, we have to buy oils and spices and grains in practically single-serving sizes since they allegedly become inedible so quickly.

Truffle oil, another informative section - basically, don't. Just don't.

Kobe beef... You haven't had it. There are only three places in America serving the real deal. Meanwhile, we have a lot of "wagyu" beef floating around... this is nominally the same species as the cows used in Japan to make Kobe beef, but that doesn't make it Kobe beef, or good, or anything, really. Anyway, Kobe beef doesn't sound like something I want. The way it's described reminds me of a croissant - fat, fat, fat, and just enough lean [muscle/flour] to keep the structure together and not just be a stick of fat. Meh.

Champagne - I don't even like. Scotch - even less so. More about cheese. And wine - provenances and varietals. Useful info, like what percentage of a varietal is needed in the U.S.A. to use the name of the varietal in the label (used to be 51%, now it's much higher)...

Don't let my negativity fool you, the book was A.O.K. with lots of info; I guess just a few too many sections about foodstuffs I'm not interested in. ( )