Tracie McMillan The New York Times • Feb. 20, 2012
One of the first things to like about Tracie McMillan, the author of “The American Way of Eating,” is her forthrightness. She’s a blue-collar girl who grew up eating a lot of Tuna Helper and Ortega Taco Dinners because her mother was gravely ill for a decade, and her father, who sold lawn equipment, had little time to cook. About these box meals, she says, “I liked them.”
I love Cathy Erway‘s smart prose and practical but adventurous cooking, so I”m extra-excited to sit in on her radio program today at 1:00 p.m. for Heritage Radio. Check it out today or download the podcast for later!
REASON #2 to buy The American Way of Eating: “This is an amazing book. Tracie McMillan will take any reader into new territory. The implacable fierceness of farmwork, the slovenliness behind the produce section at Walmart—prepare to be submerged in harsh little worlds and shocked. But McMillan keeps her cool, always presenting the context and … Read more
Nice, straightforward summary of AWE in a double-review, alongside (appropriately!) Tovar Cerulli’s The Mindful Carnivore: A Vegetarian’s Hunt for Sustenance, a book on hunting and fishing, in Sunday’s Toronto Star: McMillan’s book isn’t simply a personal account but, in addition, a good analysis of the systemic problem of food production in the United States (the hard … Read more
I’ll be talking about The American Way of Eating on NewsTalk 106-108FM, Ireland’s Independent National Public Radio today at 11 am EST (4 pm in Dublin). Really enjoyed the pre-interview chat with the producer Brian O’Neill last week; should be fun. And they’ve got 16,000 followers on Facebook, so I assume someone will be listening! … Read more
I’ll be talking about The American Way of Eating on Ireland’s Independent National Public Radio today at 11 am EST (4 pm in Dublin). Really enjoyed the pre-interview chat with the producer Brian O’Neill last week; should be fun. And they’ve got 16,000 followers on Facebook, so I assume someone will be listening!
Simon & Schuster • Feb. 20, 2012 Tracie McMillan talks about The American Way of Eating. To learn more about Simon & Schuster click here.
Slate • Feb. 20, 2012
It’s hard to avoid the occasional personal attack when you’re a journalist—especially when you write about an issue as fraught as poverty. And I’ve been called plenty of names before. But in the last week I’ve gained some new ones: “Elitist.” “Poverty pimp.” “Precious little snowflake.” Most of these came in the comments below three excerpts from my new book, The American Way of Eating, describing my experience going “undercover” to work in the kitchen at an Applebee’s, published here at Slate.
The Wall Street Journal • Feb. 28, 2012
In 2009, Tracie McMillan, an accomplished young writer, spent nearly a year working undercover as an agricultural field laborer in California, as a produce handler at a Michigan Wal-Mart and as a kitchen worker at a Brooklyn branch of Applebee’s, the country’s largest “family style” restaurant chain. The result of her efforts is “The American Way of Eating.” The best thing about this engagingly written tract is its excellent and sometimes moving first-person narrative of the author’s experiences sharing, albeit briefly and under false colors, the daily grind of workers at the bottom of the Great American Food Chain.
The San Francisco Chronicle • Feb. 19, 2012
The American way of eating is terrible. So says Tracie McMillan, who spent a year pretending to be a poor person eking out a living at menial levels of the nation’s food system, including farm fields, Walmart groceries and an Applebee’s kitchen. A New York writer and senior fellow at Brandeis University accustomed to top-tier provisions, she descends the class ladder a few rungs (her expression) to venture undercover and figure out why the hoi polloi eat so badly.
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