Have you ever tasted a classic dish and wondered how it was created? Take Detroit-style pizza for example, how did we come up with a square shape? Well, you can find the story behind that dish and many other American favorites in the new book “Food Americana” by David Page.
Page is a food aficionado and the Executive Producer behind the popular Food Network show, “Diners, Drive-Ins & Dives.” He joined Live In The D Host Jason Carr to discuss his new book all about American cuisine.
“I took a look, in this book, about what makes American cuisine,” said Page.
Much like America itself, our food is a melting pot with different influences from around the world. As Page pointed out American-style Chinese food is not the same as what you would get in China.
“We’ve taken these wonderful bits and pieces and put them all together and created a very nice cuisine,” Page explained.
In the book, you will get stories and recipes behind some of America’s favorite foods. More locally, he covers the origins and recent surge in popularity of the Detroit-style pizza. He also talks about the caviar service at the historic London Chop House.
Page first got into food while traveling around as a producer for network television. Eventually, he created his own production company and started pitching shows to the Food Network.
“I was on the phone, pitching the network, and failing, and failing, and failing, and finally this executive said to me, ‘Don’t you have anything about diners?’ And I said, ‘Sure, I am developing something called ‘Diners, Drive-Ins & Dives.’”. As they say, the rest is history.
You can get your copy of “Food Americana” on Amazon, or most other major retailers.