THE WALL STREET JOURNAL. **** Saturday/Sunday, August 17 - 18, 2019 |C11
Lisbeth
Salander
uses her
hacking
skills to
go after
an array
of bad
actors—
including
her twin
sister.Meghan Cox Gurdon’s column
on children’s books will return
next week.BYJOHNWILLOUGHBY
L
IKE MOST revolutions,
the culinary revolution
that has overtaken the
United States during the
past half-century cannot
be traced to a single event or individ-
ual but instead has been a process.
When Alice Waters opened Chez
Panisse in 1971, the organic, farm-to-
table elements of what eventually
became California cuisine peeped over
the horizon. In 1979 Paul Prudhomme
opened K-Paul’s, his New Orleans res-
taurant featuring Creole dishes, spark-
ing a fascination with regional Ameri-
can cuisines. Television’s Food Network
arrived in 1993, and young people
across the country started to think of
chefs as cool and cooking as exciting.
Online food coverage, with its enor-
mous effect for both good and ill, began
to come of age with the founding of
Eater in 2005 and Serious Eats in 2006.
In his book “Burn the Ice,” food
journalist Kevin Alexander, the
national writer at large for the web-
site Thrillist, contends that the period
from 2006 to 2018 comprises a unique
chapter in this continuing revolution.
He casts it as a 13-year “golden age
of American dining,” during which a
generation of bold, innovative, even
reckless young cooks expanded the
frontiers of trailblazing restaurants
to unlikely locales all over the U.S.
Mr. Alexander’s origin story for
this new age is the opening, in 2006,
of Le Pigeon, in Portland, Ore., by
Gabriel Rucker, a self-made, Napa-
raised culinary genius who struggled
with and overcame alcohol addiction.
Mr. Rucker, writes the author, intro-
duced a new aesthetic—“mismatched
chairs...Goodwill plates and silver-
ware...lack of tablecloths” and
“scratch-kitchen-level food made by
hand using local ingredients”—and
this aesthetic spread wildly. Suddenly
“it became intrinsically cool,” says
Mr. Alexander, for diners “to care about
where things were grown, and to know
if restaurants got their Cornish game
hens from small farmers, or made the
bar they built out of discarded ceramic
tubs by hand.” To chronicle this era,
he profiles dozens of chefs and restau-
rateurs in locations from Pittsburgh
to Nashville to Pawhuska, Okla.
Mr. Alexander is an admirably thor-
ough researcher. He conducted hun-
dreds of hours of interviews for the
book, meeting with some of his subjects
dozens of times and revisiting most
at least once to chart the arc of their
careers. This groundwork allows him
to bring us deeply into their worlds,
probing their motivations, backgrounds,
flaws and virtues, writing with author-
ity not just about public perceptions
but also about private moments.
The full-bodied portrait of Tunde
Wey, a Nigerian chef, author and public
intellectual best known for opening
a food stand in New Orleans that
charged white customers more than
blacks as a critique of wealth disparity
in the U.S., brings a new appreciation
of Mr. Wey’s fierce, uncompromising
politico-culinary vision.
The story of André Prince Jeffries
illustrates the twin perils and rewards
of fame. Her family’s restaurant in
Nashville, Prince’s Hot Chicken Shack,
was “discovered” and publicized by the
influential Southern journalist John T.
Edge. This led to national attention for
Ms. Jeffries and eventually created a
country-wide craze for red-hot spicy
chicken. But it also inspired local com-
petitors whose success almost eclipsed
hers and eventually led to the appro-
priation of her signature dish by KFC
and other national chains.
Mr. Alexander is at his most thor-
ough when covering the cocktail revo-
lution, which in fact did rise almost
entirely during this time period. He
details not only the close family tree ofpioneering mixologists and bar owners
but also the drinks they invented. If
you have ever wondered why a “dark,
cavernous hideaway” on a neglected
street in Manhattan’s East Village be-
came the epicenter of the craft-cocktail
movement, you will wonder no more.
There are bursts of history and
social commentary, as well. His account
of the husband-and-wife team Anjan
and Emily Mitra, who in 2005 opened
Dosa, a groundbreaking South Indian
restaurant in San Francisco, is preceded
by an analysis of why South Indian food
in America had always been, until re-
cently, so lackluster. Mr. Alexander also
covers more recent developments, in-
cluding the #MeToo movement and its
tearing away of the veil that hid ram-
pant sexual abuse and misogyny in the
restaurant business from public view.
The book is not without its flaws.
Some of the author’s profile choices
seem arbitrary (he acknowledges leav-
ing out many of the prime movers of
the period because they’ve been much
written about elsewhere), and, taken
together, the portraits never quite co-
here into a master story of the period.
Also, while Mr. Alexander’s energetic
prose drives the book steadily alongthrough its many disparate parts, it also
partakes of the excesses that seem
endemic to much online journalism,
where the most baroque constructions
and extreme takes are guaranteed to
get the most clicks. At the end of his
account of Tom Colicchio’s becoming
“one of the most politically active,knowledgeable, and famous chefs in the
country,” for example, Mr. Alexander
declares that Colicchio’s word “was the
only word that really mattered” with
his fellow chefs, which is nonsense. And
here is his description of a pause-filled,
Gospel-inflected Hoodie Awards accep-
tance speech by Ms. Jeffries: “The
world was no longer in prograde mo-
tion. The tidal effects of the moon
didn’t register. Atomic clocks all burst
into flame.” Calm down, one wants toWere the years 2006
to 2018 the golden age
of American dining?
One food writer makes
a persuasive case.Burn the Ice
By Kevin Alexander
Penguin Press, 371 pages, $28
say: The story you are telling is colorful
enough without all that purple prose.
Despite such infelicities, the book
provides an entertaining and informa-
tive picture of the American restaurant
scene over the past dozen years. Just
dipping in and out of it pretty much
guarantees learning something new.
The title, “Burn the Ice,” comes
from bar slang. It means dousing the
ice machine with hot water to quickly
melt the ice, especially at closing time.
Mr. Alexander chose the title because
he believes that this mini-revolution
is over, that we are metaphorically
burning the ice and shutting it down.
Although it is debatable whether
this is true or not, it is certainly the
case that this particular American res-
taurant aesthetic shows signs of wear.
Fortunately, as Mr. Alexander says in
his epilogue, before too long “a fresh
torch will be lit.” The fact that no one
quite knows what this torch might be,
or who might light it, is what keeps
the culinary world exciting.Mr. Willoughby, who has served
as executive editor at Gourmet and
senior editor at Cook’s Illustrated,
is the co-author of eight cookbooks.The Triumph of American Cuisine
LOCALLY SOURCED Simple roasted pigeon, as prepared atLe Pigeon, in Portland, Ore.
DAVID REAMERBOOKS
‘Let things taste of what they are.’—ALICE WATERS
MYSTERIES
TOMNOLANIN DAVID LAGERCRANTZ’S
“The Girl Who Lived Twice”
(Knopf, 347 pages, $27.95) ,
Swedish IT wizard Lisbeth
Salander is paired, as usual,
in a mutually advantageous
partnership with investigative
journalist Mikael Blomkvist.
Early in the book, Salander
is seeking dark-web info for
Blomkvist’s story-in-progress
about Russian troll farms
thought to have triggered a
stock-market crash through
the online dissemination of
lies and rumors. But an
apathetic Blomkvist also has
his eyes on another story:
the discovery of a dead man’s
body in a public park in
Stockholm.
Intriguingly, the deceased
had Blomkvist’s number in his
pocket at the time his body
was found, and he had been
heard making remarks about
a controversial government
figure. The medical examiner
who alerts Blomkvist about
the dead man thinks he was
murdered.
But Salander’s overriding
obsession is her near-lifelong
battle with her evil twin sister,
Camilla, a Moscow resident
with criminal ties who is just
as obsessive about eliminating
her dangerous sibling. Salander,
a skilled hacker, has no trouble
keeping tabs on Camilla’s every
move in Moscow. And she
knows of Camilla’s connection
with the same trolls that
Blomkvist is investigating;
could it be that these bad
actors also have somethingto do with the dead man found
in the park?
Eventually Salander has
her fill of fact-finding as she
readies to make her move on
Camilla. But when it comes
time to deliver the coup de
grâce, she hesitates. Will
Salander recover her deadly
moxie, enough to defend herself
against her sister’s hatred?
And how might the conspira-
cies she’s uncovering fit into
Blomkvist’s journalistic
pursuits?
“The Girl Who Lived Twice”
is Mr. Lagercrantz’s third
Salander novel, continuing a
series begun by the late Stieg
Larsson. Translated from the
Swedish by George Goulding,
it’s a murder mystery inside an
espionage conspiracy wrapped
in an action thriller—a unique
concoction that should leave
Salander’s legion of followers
clamoring for more.
English author William
Shaw’s “Play With Fire”
(Mulholland, 442 pages, $28)
begins in the middle of 1969,
with the death by drowning of
Rolling Stones founder Brian
Jones. The Summer of Love
is yesterday’s papers, and
Swinging London has become
a more dangerous place.
The case demanding Det.
Sgt. Cathal Breen’s immediate
attention is the grisly murder
of a prostitute known as Julie
Teenager, a practical-minded
professional who catered to
the youthful fantasies of a
middle-aged clientele. “Some
cases were simple,” Breenreflects at the start of his
investigation. “The guilty were
easy to find. Maybe this would
be one of those.” But his
inquiries are thwarted by the
unhelpful tenants in the
victim’s building: “an old man
who couldn’t see, a caretaker
who appeared to do his best
not to notice, and four young
people who didn’t look.”Julie’s regular clients, Breen
discovers with help from the
“maid” who kept her books,
included a dodgy Russian
attaché, a well-placed journalist
and possibly a policeman.
“There are some things,” a
superior tells Breen, “it’s better
not to know.” The detective
starts to feel he “was falling
into something dark and
bottomless.” And when Breen’s
pregnant girlfriend Helen, a
former policewoman, explores
the possibility that Brian
Jones’s high-profile death
may somehow be linked to
Julie Teenager’s, she herself
draws the attention of a
sinister stalker.
“Play With Fire” does a
first-rate job of evoking itsperiod, a time when genera-
tions seemed at war with
one another. “Everything is
different now,” a member of
the Stones’ retinue tells Breen.
“You lot are stuck in the past.”
Maybe so, but we admire the
detective’s clinging to his
own moral principles. “For
us,” an English spymaster
scolds Breen, “it’s about
what’s best for the whole
country.Which...webelieve
is slightly more important
than the life of one person.”
“That’s where we’re different,”
Breen responds. “I don’t
believe that at all.”
Detective Superintendent
Peter Diamond of Bath,
England, who stars in Peter
Lovesey’s “Killing With
Confetti” (Soho Crime,
321 pages, $27.95) , also
seems a bit of a throwback.
A widower, Diamond wears a
dark suit even on warm days
and feels truly in his element
only when dissecting a crime.
“No one could call you a
smooth operator,” his boss says
in a backhanded compliment,
“but you’re a damned fine
detective.”
In “Killing With Confetti,”
Diamond thinks little of his
latest assignment—providing
security at the wedding of a
colleague’s son to the daughter
of crime boss Joe Irving.
But there’s genuine fear that
an enemy of Irving’s will take
advantage of the mobster’s first
public appearance in years to
make an attempt on his life.
Someone does have such plans,as readers will learn from
scenes in which Mr. Lovesey’s
book seems like a combination
of “Romeo and Juliet” and
“The Day of the Jackal.”
Fate forces a change in
plans, but events take a homi-
cidal turn nonetheless. The
crime that ultimately concerns
Diamond is the murder of an
uninvited reception guest, a
man found in a remote room
that no one could enter
without being witnessed by
others. One theory is that
the man committed suicide,
but Diamond isn’t having it:
“A right-handed man doesn’t
shoot himself in the left
temple. Call it an impossible
crime as many times as you
want. You’d be wrong.”
So what did happen, and
why? Diamond discovers the
murder has roots in the bride’s
father’s past—in a prison break-
out engineered by Irving but
foiled by the act of a brave
official. Stirring up these old
events leads to disturbing
revelations about criminal
police connections.
Mr. Lovesey has been writing
his Peter Diamond series for
nearly three decades, and it’s a
pleasure to note no discernible
flagging of energy in author or
detective. And how refreshing
to hear the inimitable Diamond
erupt in righteous expletive:
“F— forensics....We’redetec-
tives....Weinvestigate.”Devils and the Dark Web
THIS WEEK
The Girl Who Lived Twice
By David LagercrantzPlay With Fire
By William ShawKilling With Confetti
By Peter Lovesey