Julia Rothman dishes up a beautifully illustrated guide to the basics of food and food preparation in her new installment Food Anatomy, the third in her Anatomy series. She covers a broad scope of topics, from food groups to spices to desserts and alcohol. The guide is not designed to be comprehensive but instead to introduce food basics such as appropriate terminology, how various cultures use the food item, and little known facts.

My favorite part of Food Anatomy was the trivia Rothman includes in each section. She provides details such as a flounder’s eyes start on each side of the fish but one eye migrates as the flounder ages so that both eyes end up on the same side. There are over 40,000 varieties of rice, and it is grown on every continent except Antarctica. Botanists believe that all citrus plants derive from four ancient wild plants. Rothman also explains the origin of the pretzel as well as that of the fortune cookie and describes how to tell whether fish and eggs are fresh or too old for consumption. The particulars regarding the way different cultures prepare various foods such as chicken, sandwiches, pastries, pizza and hot dogs were very informative, and the illustrations help the reader visualize the many food options the world offers. The other part I truly loved about Food Anatomy was the illustrations. Rothman’s drawings really add to the text and create a one-of-a-kind book.

At the end of this amazing book, the author includes a note stating that it took more than a year to create Food Anatomy. The time and effort it took Rothman and those helping her to bring this book to fruition is very evident. She traveled to various parts of the world to ensure numerous cultures were represented and then painstakingly (and stunningly) illustrated each and every topic. The result is a huge success that will appeal to a wide range of readers. I plan to order my own hard copy to keep on display in my kitchen for both reference and to just enjoy perusing from time to time.

I highly recommend this book. Food Anatomy would make a great gift for anyone, young or old. I would recommend buying it as a hard copy versus the Kindle edition so that the illustrations can truly be appreciated. Thanks to Storey Publishing and NetGalley for the chance to read this ARC in exchange for an honest review. ( )

A gift from Becca and Dirk