Precious Cargo: How Foods from the Americas Changed the World

DeWitt’s decade as editor of Chile Pepper magazine strongly piqued his interest in the New World foods that spread around the world and became part of countless cultures. Here he traces the migration and culinary influences of such foods as turkey, maize, chiles, manioc, cocoa, tomatoes, potatoes, and avocados, along with many forms of beans and squash. He’s not at all shy about stepping into current historical debates—did the pineapple truly symbolize hospitality in colonial era America?—and he has an eye for spotting food connections to figures as varied as Goethe, Mungo Park, and Zora Neale Hurston. color throughout.