The Ark of Taste Delicious and Distinctive Foods That Define the United States

Explore the heritage foods and traditions that give the United States its distinctive culinary identity—some rare, some endangered, all delicious—in this gorgeous compendium for curious eaters and home gardeners.

This sumptuously illustrated book gathers together dozens of unique fruits, vegetables, fish, game, and other food products. Organized by region, each entry shines new light on American history, identity, or taste. Some members aboard the Ark are well known, like Tupelo honey, Carolina Gold rice, Cherokee Purple tomatoes, or Wellfleet oysters. Others have evocative names like the Moon and Stars watermelon, Black Republican cherry, and the Candy Roaster squash. The book includes recipes inspired by these essential products, and profiles of the growers who are working to preserve them.   

Part history and part culinary call to action, The Ark of Taste preserves food treasures that have been passed down for generations, including Indigenous foods and the products of colonization and migration. Each entry in the Ark is a delicious opportunity to lift up the local traditions that shaped this country, and to support equitable alternatives to a modern food system that is harming our planet and its people. 

The Ark of Taste is a living catalog of the foods that define our diverse biological, cultural, and culinary heritage. By championing these foods, we can keep them in production and on our plates. This is a vital reference and guidebook for curious cooks, eaters, and gardeners.
 

David S. Shields is the Carolina Distinguished Professor in the College of Arts and Science, University of South Carolina. He is the Chairman of the Carolina Gold Rice Foundation, chairs Slow Food’s Ark of Taste Committee of the South, and in 2018 was awarded Slow Food USA’s “Snail Blazer” award for Biodiversity. He is the author of The Culinarians, a James Beard Award finalist. 

Giselle Kennedy Lord is the Slow Food USA director of communications and was named James Beard National Scholar Northwest in 2018. She has worked on farms around the world and can be found photographing rare ingredients on working farms, and in her own garden and kitchen. 

Claudia Pearson has been illustrating her entire life and her work has been published internationally in magazines such as The New Yorker, The New York Times, Elle and Travel & Leisure, as well as in her award-winning children’s book, Tribal Alphabet.

Slow Food is a global, grassroots organization, founded in 1989 to prevent the disappearance of local food cultures and traditions, counteract the rise of fast life and combat people’s dwindling interest in the food they eat, where it comes from and how food choices affect the world. Since its beginnings, Slow Food has grown into a global movement involving millions of people in over 160 countries, working to ensure everyone has access to good, clean and fair food.