Fat City book club
By Owen Morris in Leftovers
Fri., Apr. 17 2009 @ 12:00PM
A couple of interesting food-related books are coming out soon.
The first is Food of a Younger Land by Mark Kurlansky, who has written books about oysters, cod and salt. While poking around the Library of Congress, Kurlansky discovered a forgotten work that was part of the Federal Writers' Project of the 1930s. To keep writers busy, the government sent them across America as amateur food anthropologists, making notes of what people in different regions ate, the cooking methods they used, recipes they followed etc. But then World War II started and the project was never finished. Kurlansky has edited these notes into a 1930s food guide with recipes.
This was long before the interstate highway system or the first McDonald's, so different regions really did have different habits. One chapter of the book is titled "A Los Angeles Sandwich Called a Taco." Another has a recipe for Depression Cake. That's one recipe I hope doesn't make a comeback.
The other book is business writer Stacy Perman's In-N-Out Burger. As people who have been to the California-based chain can attest, it changes the way you view fast food. But the family behind the chain -- holy bananas they're nuts! When founder Harry Snyder died in 1976, the chain had 18 locations. The board passed over the oldest, drug-addicted son and put in charge Snyder's other son, a 24-year-old dyslexic and religious zealot named Rich, who ended radio commercials by asking listeners to accept Jesus into their hearts. After Rich was killed in a plane crash, eldest son Guy took over.
Guy sounds more like a drug lord than a fast food CEO. This is how the Wall Street Journal describes him: "before long Guy is shooting heroin, sending a company executive into Mexico to smuggle drugs, and getting busted (on Christmas Day) with a briefcase stuffed with pot, Valium, Klonopin, a 9mm Glock, a switchblade and $27,475 in cash."
Guy died of a drug overdose. Now running it is his daughter Lynsi Martinez, who apparently fits right in with the rest of them.
The real value in this book won't be reading about a family who puts the fun in dysfunctional but how the chain can continue to grow and maintain such high quality standards with such eccentric management.
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| Flickr: Tommy Ironic |
This was long before the interstate highway system or the first McDonald's, so different regions really did have different habits. One chapter of the book is titled "A Los Angeles Sandwich Called a Taco." Another has a recipe for Depression Cake. That's one recipe I hope doesn't make a comeback.
The other book is business writer Stacy Perman's In-N-Out Burger. As people who have been to the California-based chain can attest, it changes the way you view fast food. But the family behind the chain -- holy bananas they're nuts! When founder Harry Snyder died in 1976, the chain had 18 locations. The board passed over the oldest, drug-addicted son and put in charge Snyder's other son, a 24-year-old dyslexic and religious zealot named Rich, who ended radio commercials by asking listeners to accept Jesus into their hearts. After Rich was killed in a plane crash, eldest son Guy took over.
Guy sounds more like a drug lord than a fast food CEO. This is how the Wall Street Journal describes him: "before long Guy is shooting heroin, sending a company executive into Mexico to smuggle drugs, and getting busted (on Christmas Day) with a briefcase stuffed with pot, Valium, Klonopin, a 9mm Glock, a switchblade and $27,475 in cash."
Guy died of a drug overdose. Now running it is his daughter Lynsi Martinez, who apparently fits right in with the rest of them.
The real value in this book won't be reading about a family who puts the fun in dysfunctional but how the chain can continue to grow and maintain such high quality standards with such eccentric management.
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