Real Food/Fake Food: Why You Don't Know What You're Eating and What You Can Do about It - Paperback

by Larry Olmsted (Author)

"Olmsted makes you insanely hungry and steaming mad--a must-read for anyone who cares deeply about the safety of our food and the welfare of our planet." -Steven Raichlen, author of the Barbecue! Bible series"The world is full of delicious, lovingly crafted foods that embody the terrain, weather, and culture of their origins. Unfortunately, it's also full of brazen impostors. In this entertaining and important book, Olmsted helps us fall in love with the real stuff and steer clear of the fraudsters." -Kirk Kardashian, author of Milk Money: Cash, Cows, and the Death of the American Dairy Farm You've seen the headlines: Parmesan cheese made from wood pulp. Lobster rolls containing no lobster at all. Extra-virgin olive oil that isn't. So many fake foods are in our supermarkets, our restaurants, and our kitchen cabinets that it's hard to know what we're eating anymore. In Real Food / Fake Food, award-winning journalist Larry Olmsted convinces us why real food matters and empowers consumers to make smarter choices. Olmsted brings readers into the unregulated food industry, revealing the shocking deception that extends from high-end foods like olive oil, wine, and Kobe beef to everyday staples such as coffee, honey, juice, and cheese. It's a massive bait and switch in which counterfeiting is rampant and in which the consumer ultimately pays the price. But Olmsted does more than show us what foods to avoid. A bona fide gourmand, he travels to the sources of the real stuff to help us recognize what to look for, eat, and savor: genuine Parmigiano-Reggiano from Italy, fresh-caught grouper from Florida, authentic port from Portugal. Real foods that are grown, raised, produced, and prepared with care by masters of their craft. Part cautionary tale, part culinary crusade, Real Food / Fake Food is addictively readable, mouthwateringly enjoyable, and utterly relevant.

Back Jacket

Do not take another bite or swallow another sip of anything before reading Real Food / Fake Food. *

It's unnerving that so many people don't know what authentic olive oil or port wine tastes like because they've been undersold on some offshoot knockoff and no one is raising a flag--until now. Ming Tsai, author, chef, and host of PBS s Simply Ming

Larry Olmsted s meticulously researched tour de force is chilling for what he uncovers about the food industry. Dan Dunn, author of American Wino: A Tale of Reds, Whites, and One Man s Blues

This is the health equivalent of Ralph Nader's expose Unsafe at Any Speed. The content blows the doors off the kitchens. *Michael Patrick Shiels, author of Invite Yourself to the Party

Where's the Kobe Beef?: More than 99.9 percent of the so-called Kobe beef sold in this country is Fake.

Parmesan-Gate: Most Parmesan cheese sold in the United States, grated or whole, cheap or expensive, is Fake.

The Restaurant Scam: Restaurants can claim any food is organic or dry aged, heritage breed or wild caught. Even names of farms and types of fish are misrepresented to justify higher prices.

The Extra-Virgin Olive Oil Racket: Though widely considered the healthiest fat, 75 to 80 percent of the extra-virgin olive oil sold in this country is Fake, and some is even dangerous.

The Sushi Fraud: DNA testing was used to compare the fish that menus offered with the actual species brought to the table in New York City sushi restaurants. In the largest study, 100 percent of the restaurants had lied.

The Seafood Swap: A third of the seafood sold in this country is intentionally mislabeled.
"

Author Biography

Larry Olmsted writes the "Great American Bites" column for USA Today and is the travel and food columnist at Forbes.com, where his column was named one of the World's Top 100 Travel Sites. A longtime member of the Society of American Travel Writers and Golf Writers Association of America, he covers food, wine, and spirit topics, including regional food specialties, production, health, consumer issues, celebrity chefs, and restaurants worldwide. He appears regularly on radio and television and is a frequent contributor to the Dr. Oz Show. Olmsted, who has visited more than forty countries around the globe, is of the author of two books on golf and Getting into Guinness. (In the process of writing that book he personally set or broke three Guinness world records). He teaches nonfiction writing at Dartmouth College and lives with his wife live in Vermont.