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The Interdisciplinary Character of Food Writing:

An Analysis of Michael Pollan’s Literary Journey in His Works A Defense of Food,

Food Rules and Cooked

Vanessa Schmolke (University of Idaho)

So telling stories about food and cooking is not only natural, it’s necessary for our survival.

It’s important to understand how something that is essential to our humanity and our well-

being affects all other aspects of our lives and our humanity. No one questions the need to

explore string theory and economic policy, or asks for justification for art and literature. But

people do question the seriousness of writing about food. I can go weeks without quantum

physics or a good movie. Can’t say that about food.

(Michael Ruhlman 2012)

Introduction: The Emergence of Interdisciplinary Food Writing

The introductory quote—given by Michael Ruhlmann, a popular American author,

blogger, and home cook—displays his personal opinion why writing about food is a necessary

cultural practice and should become as accepted as any other form of writing. Ruhlmann does

not seem to be alone with his opinion, since books about food have become one of the most

popular topics in the twentieth-first century. However, Ruhlmann takes this idea even further

in his 2012 editorial “Revisiting the Importance of Food,” published in the Huffington Post.

He states that writing about food has a long-standing, but neglected tradition. George Orwell’s

The Road to Wigan Pear (1932), a work of non-fiction about the British working class before

the beginning of World War II, or Upton Sinclair’s novel The Jungle (1906), for example, are

early prominent works that focused on eating habits or the food production.

Since these early accounts, the food writing’s range has widened into more than half a

dozen different forms. In “The Business of Food”, a special edition of The Reference Shelf

journal series, the wide spectrum of food writing is explained in the following:

Food writing takes a variety of forms, from a memoir of a respected chief’s life

in the kitchen to the Internet critic who praises or pans a restaurant on a

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community review website. The quality and purpose of food writing [also]

varies greatly between the sources. (The Reference Shelf 2013: 117)

As broad as the number of different writing genres which make food to their central topic is the

quality of these accounts. An internet blog written by a hobby cook can be regarded as food

writing as well as an article on food science in an academic journal. However, the unknown

author of the Reference Shelf chapter identifies one defining characteristic that relates to genre

as well as the profession of food writing. The topic of food is inextricably linked to human

culture and so every written account about the topic is a “record of social and cultural

development” composed by a writer who functions as a “documentarian”. In this regard, food

writing of the twenty-first century includes “[…] ecological, sociological and cultural aspects

of the food industry and […]” (The Reference Shelf 2013: 118). This tendency to exhaustively

analyze the topic of food from pluralistic angles and disciplines makes food writing an

interdisciplinary, literary genre.

One of the most prominent authors discussed in The Reference Shelf and the focus of this

paper is Michael Pollan, an American author, journalist and Professor for Journalism at the

UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism. He is one of the first authors who critically

examined the topic of food and thereby went the interdisciplinary way. In his literary works

Pollan “[…] explores the social and environmental aspects of food choice, but still manages to

communicate the sensual pleasures that surround the experience of eating” (The Reference

Shelf 2013: 118). Others scholars such as Justin Eckstein and Donovan Conley regard Pollan

and his work as the “leading voice of the new food movement” (Eckstein and Conley 2012:

120), since his accounts do not only detect potential problems in the context of food, but also

describe possible solutions to overcome these obstacles. All in all, in his interdisciplinary

writing Pollan intertwines a literary narrative, scientific research and his own investigative

observations aiming to create a complete description of food and the identified problematic

issue. He, however, has a degree in literature and needs assistance especially while presenting

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scientific research. For this reason, he is more than a writer and becomes, in the course of his

book, a mediator when he is making scientific data comprehensible for his readers.

Defining Michael Pollan and his Works

Michael Pollan himself characterizes his work as an author as “writing books and

articles about the places where nature and culture intersect; on our plates, in our farms and

gardens, and in the built environment” (About Pollan). This self-description of his work

allows the assumption that he regards himself as more than being a food writer exclusively. It

is also possible to call him an environmental writer, a science writer, or farming and agricul

ture writer. These difficulties in labeling Pollan as an author supports the argument

that he works in various fields aiming to compose a thorough account on food that crosses

disciplinary boundaries.

All of Pollan’s previously published works on food concentrate on a specific angle of

the topic while using scientific data and research aiming to support his own observations,

investigations and experiences. In the introduction of his second major work on food, The

Defense of Food, Michael Pollan clearly states that science as a discipline is not sufficient to

grasp the whole dimension of food. In the same context, he describes the purpose of his first

book The Omnivore’s Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals, by presenting “ecological

and ethical dimension of food” (Pollan 2008: 2). In The Defense of Food: An Eater’s

Manifesto, published two years later in 2008, he discusses the topic in the context of health

and declares that it is his intention to “reclaim our health and happiness as eaters” (ibid: 7).

Shortly after the release of this book, he published his account Food Rules: An Eater’s

Manual (2009) in which he composed a numbered list of what a well-balanced and healthy

diet should look like. His most recent work, Cooked: A Natural History of Transformation,

published in the spring of 2013, focuses on the traditional process of cooking as a cultural and

transformative act to prepare edible substances.

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In addition to the interdisciplinary character of food as a topic, Pollan’s books, and the

claims made in them, are consolidated on more than one level. First, each of his accounts

contains a list of sources Pollan used in support of the claims made in the text. In his first two

works, The Omnivore’s Dilemma and In Defense of Food, Pollan adds a record of scientific

sources that he either mentioned in the course of his books or that are aimed to confirm the

explanations given. Second, and as identified in The Reference Shelf issue, Pollan regards

food and the act of eating as cultural practices that are pleasurable. For this reason, his works

contain elements of the memoir and the autobiography when he retells anecdotes and

incidences from his own life. The third important element in Pollan’s book is his own

investigative journey, which he describes in the course of his books. This form of journey can

be either a mental journey on which he collects more knowledge or an actual journey as in

Cooked when he visits professional cooks and learns to prepare food himself.

Identifying a Problem, Proposing a Solution

The structure in Pollan’s works adopts a problem-solution pattern. In the first two

parts of In Defense of Food, Pollan describes the Western society’s attitudes toward food and

their eating behavior; the third part aims to give practical advice and a solution to the

previously identified food dilemma. Not only does he want to give an overview of the current

situation as well as a description of the factors that have helped to create the dilemma, he also

intends to offer a solution by explaining what a better and healthier diet could look like. In

this regard, his work presents the diligence to change the current food problem identified by

him and the scientific sources he is citing. Other works, such as Eric Schlosser’s book Fast

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Food Nation (published in 2001), harshly criticize the global fast food industries but fail to

present a realistic solution to the problem1.

In Food Rules, Michael Pollan’s ambition to offer solutions instead of only describing

the problem becomes even more evident through the book’s structure. The book is designed

as a booklet rather than a heavy hardcover book, so the reader can easily flip through the

pages while carrying it in backpacks and purses. While skimming the pages the book appears

more as a list of food rules. The food rules are stated in the form of a declarative sentence,

such as “Eat Wild Foods When You Can” (Pollan 2009: 69) and are written in a bigger font

size than the explanation that follows, emphasizing the solution. The content presented in In

Defense of Food and Food Rules overlaps, while the latter consists predominantly of

descriptions about a better and healthier diet given in the third part of In Defense of Food.

However, the explanations are shorter and do not exceed the length of one and a half pages.

For example, the rule “Eat Wild Foods When You Can” is also found in the previous work

(cf. Pollan 2008: 170). In this specific case, whole sentences from the explanations in In

Defense of Food were reused. Therefore, Food Rules seems to be a remake of the third part of

In Defense of Food when it is restating some of the ideas and solutions given in the earlier

work. Additionally, the food rules themselves were extended and now comprise a total of

sixty-four, while the explanations of the single regulations have been shortened.

The different structure of Food Rules compared to the earlier work In Defense of

Food, although they share similar content, can be regarded as an intentional decision to attract

a different audience. In a time, where dozens of magazines include articles about cooking

recipes, advice on how to lose weight more effectively, and cooking shows are airing on

television, Pollan’s books include all elements: entertain, inform and advice change people’s

1 Eric Schlosser’s book describes McDonalds, Burger King, and other fast food restaurants as cruel opponents to

a healthy diet. However, just describing the development of fast food and the current dilemma does not give any

form of solution other than the abolishment of a huge industry.

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behavior. Doubtless, reading Pollan’s In Defense of Food demands more time since it contains

over two hundred pages than browsing through a magazine. For this reason, Food Rules

inherits only the third and probably most important part of the earlier work, which is the

attempt to present solutions for a healthier diet, while making it more attractive to a larger

audience due to its shortness and its booklet design. In this form, it is able to compete with the

many different accounts about food that are released every day and demand less time than the

lecture of a whole book partly composed of scientific explanations.

With the publication of Cooked in 2013, Michael Pollan appears to go back to his

roots as he publishes a book on the popular topic of cooking, but in his traditional form of a

more than four hundred-fifty pages account. While cooking might be perceived as a daily, and

maybe even banal activity, Pollan aims to explain the cultural value of cooking and while also

describing the often invisible scientific transformation processes. While dividing the structure

into separate parts, Pollan facilitates the comprehension of the complex topic. In the part

called “Fire,” for example, Pollan explains how fire and its little particles transform raw meat

into a steak. In Cooked, he seems less driven to contemplate about the problem of

convenience or fast food, but instead Pollan intends to bring back people’s appetite for

cooking and freshly-prepared food.

Narrative Strategies in Michael Pollan’s Books

Michael Pollan’s writing style in his works appears unique and recognizable since it

consists of four prominent characteristics which can be found in each of his major works: the

use of comprehensible scientific facts, the use of scientific explanations that are made

comprehensible through comparisons and metaphors, the inclusion of his own

autobiographical anecdotes and the equal relationship he establishes between himself and his

reading audience.

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Michael Pollan makes extensive use of scientific data and research to validate his own

observations about food he makes. However, this method varies since he either quotes the

accounts in their original scientific tone or he “translates” the research into his own easier,

more comprehensible language. In the first part of In Defense of Food, for example, when

Pollan refers back to the scientific discovery of nutrients and the meaning of their existence in

food, he cites from a research study conducted by the Harvard School of Public Health. Parts

and passages of the study entitled, “Types of Dietary Fat and Risk of Coronary Heart Disease:

A Critical Review” are directly quoted by Pollan, then followed by an explanation.

Only two studies have ever found ‘[…] a significant positive association

between saturated fat intake and risk of CHD (coronary heart disease]’; many

more have failed to find an association. Only one study has ever found ‘a

significant inverse association between polyunsaturated fat intake and CHD’.

Let me translate: The amount of saturated fat in the diet may have little if any

bearing on the risk of heart disease, and evidence that increasing polyunsaturated

fats in the diet will reduce risk is slim to nil. (Pollan 2008: 43)

While using the direct wording of the scientific study, Pollan gives his statement credibility.

However, he seems aware of the danger that people without scientific training might have

difficulty understanding the meaning of the statement. For this reason, Pollan recognizes the

need to paraphrase the direct quotes into a more common language, when he says “Let me

translate […]” (Pollan 2008: 43). In comparison to the scientific statement, Pollan’s

translation is direct and unambiguous, while using easily understandable phrases such as

“slim to nil.”

Although the practice of cooking is essential in human culture and seems less abstract

than a scientific study, Michael Pollan recognizes the need to support his own explanation

with expert opinions from professional, trained cooks. This method is comparable to the

quotation of scientific research, especially since he regards cooking as a form of science:

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[…] Cooking is not a single process but, rather, comprises a small set of

technologies, some of the most important humans have yet devised. […] These

technologies range from the controlled use of fire to the manipulation of

specific microorganisms to transform grain into bread or alcohol […]. (Pollan

2013: 16)

While cooking is so well established in human society, the act itself is often underestimated,

especially since the use of the microwave is often regarded as a form of cooking. For this

reason, Pollan creates his own definition, considering cooking as a highly complex process

that involves technology and even scientific laws to transform edible ingredients into a meal.

In the first part “Fire,” Pollan illustrates the importance of barbecue in the preparation of

meat; he does this by describing his visit to Ed and Aubrey Wilson’s restaurant – Wilson’s

barbecue – in Raleigh, North Carolina. Both are well-known pit masters and during his visit,

Pollan learned how to prepare meat on the grill (Pollan 2013: 77ff). In addition to the actual

preparation of the meat, Pollan explains which transformation processes scientifically occur

while the meat is in the pit.

Chemically, what had been simple the fire had rendered complex. According to a flavor

chemist I consulted, putting smoke and fire to the proteins, sugar, and fats in meat

creates anywhere between three thousand and four thousand new chemical compounds,

complex and often aromatic molecules forged from the simple building blocks of sugar

and amino acids. (Pollan 2008: 88)

With these two-fold expert opinions, from the trained cooks as well as from the chemist,

Pollan presents a reflection of the significance of cooking. Even more, he aims to restore the

recognition this special way of cooking had in the past, which has become lost through the

technological innovations such as the microwave and the invention of convenience meals and

fast food.

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Another essential part in Pollan’s work is the use of metaphors intending to facilitate

the comprehension of scientific processes or appealing to the readers’ emotions and their

common knowledge. In Cooked, Pollan states that, though the American society in the

twenty-first century spends less time cooking than ever before, many still have past memories

seeing their mother or grandmother preparing food for the family. For this reason, metaphors

are used as stylistic devices rather than serving the purpose of making things more

comprehensible. One example of this is Pollan’s description when he is preparing food

himself. “I was beginning to appreciate how the marriage of plant and animal food in a liquid

medium…” (Pollan 2010: 145). Comparing the act of cooking and the preparation of

vegetables and meat in one pan creates the effect of appreciation and pleasure. Pollan enjoys

what he has been doing and tries to transfer this enthusiasm for cooking to his readers.

Including his own memories and reflections in regard to the topics he describes is

another essential part in Michael Pollan’s works. In Cooked, he extensively includes

anecdotes from his live, since the tangible role of cooking in human lives, clearly influences

human values and attitudes toward food. Already in the introduction of his recent book,

Pollan states,

Most of us have happy memories of watching our mothers in the kitchen performing

feats that sometimes looked very much like sorcery and typically resulted in something

tasty to eat. […] I would watch, rapt, when my mother conjured her most magical dishes,

like the tightly wrapped packages of fried chicken Kiev that, when cut open with a sharp

knife, liberated a pool of melted butter and an aromatic gust of herbs. (Pollan 2008: 4)

In this passage, Pollan aims to remind his readers of their childhood and connect it with his

own recollections of watching his mother cook. The emphasis on details such as the

description of the food’s odor aims to stimulate the readers even more to reflect upon their

own experiences. Since both Pollan as the author and his readers may have similar memories,

a kind of equality forms. Pollan and his knowledge about cooking is not presented in a

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superior form. Instead, he calls his book his own “education of cooking” (Pollan 2013: 12)

and presents himself as a student who is eager to learn how to cook and he takes the readers

on his journey.

In Defense of Food is less personal, but in parts Michael Pollan describes his everyday

boundary points with the more scientific topic dealing with the components of food. He is

describing, for example, the completion of a validation survey examining people’s food

habits.

Try to fill out the food-frequency questionnaire used by the Women’s Health Initiative,

as I recently did, is to realize just how shaky the data on which all such dietary studies

rely really are. The survey, which takes about forty-five minutes to complete starts off

with some relatively easy questions. “Did you eat chicken or turkey during the last three

months?”[…] But the survey soon became harder, as when it asked me to think back

over the past three months to recall whether I ate okra, squash, or yams, were they fried,

and if so, were they fried in stick margarine, tub margarine, butter, shortening, olive or

canola oil, or non-stick spray? (Pollan 2008: 73)

In comparison to the personal passage taken from Cooked, this account appears less intimate,

but again creates a form of equality between Pollan and his readers. While describing his

struggle filling out a questionnaire about his food habits, Pollan does not appear more

knowledgeable than his readers. He himself does not yet have all the information he needs in

order to decide what a healthy diet should look like. However, he is willing to overcome this

by collecting all the data for himself and for his readers. As the inclusion of scientific and

personal observations and investigations into one account is interdisciplinary, the connection

of elements of autobiographies or the personal memoir with these scientific explanations

crosses the boundaries of literary genres and conjoins different disciplines in an

interdisciplinary way. Also, the metaphor is a stylistic element predominantly found in works

of prose. Therefore its extensive use in Pollan’s non-fictional accounts functions as an

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instrument to facilitate the readers’ comprehension of originally complex and complicated

processes.

The analysis of Michael Pollan as a food writer and three of his works proves the

interdisciplinary character of food writing. In his works, Pollan relates scientific accounts

with his own translations as well as the metaphorical comparison of these results with his

autobiographical descriptions and memories. This method creates an interdisciplinary content

as well as interdisciplinary literary work in form of its genre. The presentation of information

about food in this manner distinctively separates Pollan’s work from other accounts that can

be found in popular magazines or on television. However, he is aware of the fact that his

readers often have no scientific training or background knowledge and so his writing style and

his interlacing of literary genres and disciplines creates and informative and engaging

account.

Although food writing has gained a high popularity in the twenty-first century,

academic analyses of its use of language and its collaboration of several disciplines are

missing. Instead, the focus concentrates more on the examination of marketing strategies

inaugurated by the food industry or on political decision-making concerning the fight against

malnutrition or the labeling of genetically-modified food (GMO). Michael Pollan’s works

make extensive use of scientific data, allowing them to be used as reference to analyze other

works, discussions or campaigns about food rather than being the object of examination itself.

For this reason, the analysis in this essay has been more or less an independent interpretation

using no other secondary literature other than Pollan’s books. However, since this paper only

had the opportunity to analyze the overall rhetoric of three books written by the same author,

it appears desirable to further work in this field to compose a more general account of the

rhetoric of different genres of food writing.

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Works Cited

Eckstein, Justin, and Donovan Conley. “Spatial Effects and Rhetorical Relations: At the

Cherry Creek’s Farmers’ Market.” The Rhetoric of Food. Ed. Joshua J. Frye and

Michael S. Brunner. New York: Routledge, 2012. 171-89.

Pollan, Michael. “About Michael Pollan.” Web. November 29, 2013.

>http://www.michaelpollan.com/about/<

---. Cooked: A Natural History of Transformation. New York: Penguin Press, 2013.

---. Food Rules: An Eater’s Manual. New York: Penguin Press, 2009.

---. In Defense of Food: An Eater’s Manifest. New York: Penguin Press, 2008.

Ruhlman, Michael. “The Importance of Food Writing.” Huffington Post. Web. 24 September

2012, November 29, 2013. > http://www.huffingtonpost.com/michael-ruhlman/is-food-

writing-important_b_1903689.html<

The Reference Shelf. The Business of Food. Vol. 85(2), 2013.