Michael Pollan the bestselling author of The Omnivore's Dilemma Food Rules and How to Change
Your Mind explores the previously uncharted territory of his own kitchen in Cooked. Cooked
is now a Netflix docuseries based on the book that focuses on the four kinds of
"transformations" that occur in cooking. Directed by Oscar-winning filmmaker Alex Gibney and
starring Michael Pollan Cooked teases out the links between science culture and the flavors
we love. In Cooked Pollan discovers the enduring power of the four classical elements-fire
water air and earth-to transform the stuff of nature into delicious things to eat and drink.
Apprenticing himself to a succession of culinary masters Pollan learns how to grill with fire
cook with liquid bake bread and ferment everything from cheese to beer. Each section of
Cooked tracks Pollan's effort to master a single classic recipe using one of the four elements.
A North Carolina barbecue pit master tutors him in the primal magic of fire a Chez
Panisse-trained cook schools him in the art of braising a celebrated baker teaches him how air
transforms grain and water into a fragrant loaf of bread and finally several mad-genius
"fermentos" (a tribe that includes brewers cheese makers and all kinds of picklers) reveal
how fungi and bacteria can perform the most amazing alchemies of all. The reader learns
alongside Pollan but the lessons move beyond the practical to become an investigation of how
cooking involves us in a web of social and ecological relationships. Cooking above all
connects us. The effects of not cooking are similarly far reaching. Relying upon corporations
to process our food means we consume large quantities of fat sugar and salt disrupt an
essential link to the natural world and weaken our relationships with family and friends. In
fact Cooked argues taking back control of cooking may be the single most important step
anyone can take to help make the American food system healthier and more sustainable.
Reclaiming cooking as an act of enjoyment and self-reliance learning to perform the magic of
these everyday transformations opens the door to a more nourishing life.
