"Naomi Darvell" wrote [about the Hesses' _Taste of America_]
>
> It's an outstanding book, and a fun read, too.
> Anybody who's interested in food should read it.


People who were around and following US food writing in the late 1970s will
probably remember this book and the stir it caused, the thoughtful comments
in print. Since then it's been an underground classic. References to it
surface in surprising places. A generation of new US food fanatics
experienced the ritual of hearing about it and checking libraries or the
used book market for copies of the original 1977 book. This quest was eased
after the Hesses reissued it in 2000 with supplemental content. Before
writing this book, John Hess was an experienced food writer and editor and
former dining critic for the _New York Times._ Karen Hess is a food
historian known for her work on cooking Americana including the mysterious
"Martha Washington" cookbook. In 2001 I put some comments about _The Taste
of America_ on amazon.com's listing of the reissue; currently those comments
are he

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg.../-/0252068750/

I have a few books about food (I started accumulating them in the early
1970s). Of those that deal with US cooking, I reckon the Hesses' to be one
of the most important, and certainly most informative.

-- M.