MixedThe Wall Street Journal...Stephen Heyman, a Pittsburgh-based magazine writer and editor, applies keen narrative skills to tell the story of Bromfield’s celebrity-studded life—two lives, really—as an author and farmer. The result is a rattling good yarn. Unfortunately, Mr. Heyman moves the tale along too rapidly. The book would have been more rewarding if it offered a deeper analysis of Bromfield and his work ... Bromfield’s life provides a ready-made template for a Lost Generation biography.
Jenny Linford
PositiveThe Wall Street JournalInnovative ... even as she probes obscure details, Ms. Linford never loses her infectious, chatty voice ... There are plenty of other sources to consult if you are looking for practical cooking instructions. For curious cooks, The Missing Ingredient offers a unique perspective on how food is produced. Paging through the book is time well spent.
Daniel Stone
PositiveThe Wall Street JournalMr. Stone is an amiable narrator who balances botany, culinary history and travelogue with fast-paced adventure writing and a well-drawn cast of characters, although his prose is marred occasionally by a clumsy or clichéd metaphor ... From the outset, Fairchild acknowledged that collecting new plants and transporting them to the United States was the easy part of his job. Convincing consumers to get past what he called 'a persistent conservatism of taste' and try new foods was far more difficult. His success in breaking through that barrier was perhaps his most important contribution to the evolution of American cuisine.
