Avocado: A Global History

Description

The avocado is the iconic food of the twenty-first century. It has gone from a little-known regional food to a social media darling in less than a hundred years. This is an astounding trajectory for a fruit that isn't sweet, becomes bitter when it is cooked and has perhaps the oddest texture of any fruit or vegetable. But the idea that this rich and delicious fruit is also healthy despite being fatty and energy-dense gives it unicorn status among modern eaters, especially millennials. Through lively anecdotes, colourful pictures and delicious recipes, Jeff Miller explores the meteoric rise of the avocado, from its co-evolution with the megaherbivores of the Pleistocene to its acceptance by the Spanish conquistadores in Mexico and its current dominance of food consumers' imagination.

Jeff Miller is an Associate Professor of Hospitality Management at Colorado State University. He is the co-author of Food Studies: An Introduction to Research Methods (2009) and was named Culinary Educator of the Year in 2017.

"A welcome addition to the Reaktion food series. . . . Filled with splendid facts, figures, and illustrations. . . . This is a fascinating story, beautifully told." -- Marion Nestle, professor emerita of nutrition, food studies, and public health, New York University, author of "Unsavory Truth: How Food Companies Skew the Science of What We Eat"