Burn the Ice

The American Culinary Revolution and Its End

By: Kevin Alexander

Narrated by: Holter Graham

"Inspiring." (Danny Meyer, CEO, Union Square Hospitality Group; Founder, Shake Shack; and author, Setting the Table)

James Beard Award-winning food journalist Kevin Alexander traces an exhilarating golden age in American dining

Over the past decade, Kevin Alexander saw American dining turned on its head. Starting in 2006, the food world underwent a transformation as the established gatekeepers of American culinary creativity in New York City and the Bay Area were forced to contend with Portland, Oregon. Its new, no-holds-barred, casual fine-dining style became a template for other cities, and a culinary revolution swept across America. Traditional ramen shops opened in Oklahoma City. Craft cocktail speakeasies appeared in Boise. Poke bowls sprung up in Omaha. Entire neighborhoods, like Williamsburg in Brooklyn, and cities like Austin, were suddenly unrecognizable to long-term residents, their names becoming shorthand for the so-called hipster movement. At the same time, new media companies such as Eater and Serious Eats launched to chronicle and cater to this developing scene, transforming nascent star chefs into proper celebrities. Emerging culinary television hosts like Anthony Bourdain inspired a generation to use food as the lens for different cultures. It seemed, for a moment, like a glorious belle epoque of eating and drinking in America. And then it was over.

To tell this story, Alexander journeys through the travails and triumphs of a number of key chefs, bartenders, and activists, as well as restaurants and neighborhoods whose fortunes were made during this veritable gold rush - including Gabriel Rucker, an originator of the 2006 Portland restaurant scene; Tom Colicchio of Gramercy Tavern and Top Chef fame; as well as hugely influential figures, such as André Prince Jeffries of Prince's Hot Chicken Shack in Nashville; and Carolina barbecue pitmaster Rodney Scott.

He writes with rare energy, telling a distinctly American story, at once timeless and cutting-edge, about unbridled creativity and ravenous ambition. To "burn the ice" means to melt down whatever remains in a kitchen's ice machine at the end of the night. Or, at the bar, to melt the ice if someone has broken a glass in the well. It is both an end and a beginning. It is the firsthand story of a revolution in how Americans eat and drink.

©2019 Kevin Alexander (P)2019 Penguin Audio

Critic reviews

“An anecdotal, episodic, wide-ranging accounting of the strange, slow deceleration of the restaurant mania of the aughts, and the human costs of the decline.” (Helen Rosner)

“Sharply insightful.... From new urbanism and gentrification to identity politics, venture capital, and the difficulty of ‘eating local’ when the local is subject to abrupt climate change, Alexander gets at how the buzzy restaurant scene of the past twenty years has depended on trends much bigger than its own.” (The Times Literary Supplement)

“Mr. Alexander is an admirably thorough researcher. He conducted hundreds 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 authority not just about public perceptions but also about private moments.... [T]he book provides an entertaining and informative picture of the American restaurant scene over the past dozen years. Just dipping in and out of it pretty much guarantees learning something new.” (Wall Street Journal)

the revolution is dead, long live the revolution

engaging series of narratives giving a delicious post mortem with incredible insight into the food service industry

A New Beginning to "American" Cuisine

While the introduction to this beautifully written treatise on the importance of food, culture, respect, and creativity felt like it was preparing me for a journey into the cold waiting room of cynicism regarding the approaching collapse of one of the things I treasure most: food, it ended up peeling back the layers of something I wanted to understand more deeply in an accessible and touching way. Now at its end, the veil of pessimism has lifted, and I'm seeing the book for what it really is: a Phoenix like call to action for those willing to carry the light of inspired cooking forward in the years to come.

Kept my attention

As a chef with 30 years of experience, I was very pleased with the authors approach to not rehashing chefs stories that have been over celebrated in recent years. He avoiding the "usual suspects" and shed some light on some of the lesser unknowns who had an interesting story to tell and had an impact on the industry in their regional location.
I learned a lot from these stories about individuals that I really hadnt heard much about, which I was hoping to acheive by listening to the book.

Good story, well written, kept me engaged, would like to hear more stories from this author within the food and beverage industry as I think he has a good perspective.

Chronicles the biggest food moments for millennials

I had a general understanding of the US food and beverage industry from 2000-2018 and it was great filling in the gaps, getting backstories, and learning the origins of many of the things I love. Food junkies will enjoy this. Fair warning - the stories jump around so you may have to take a beat to remember where the author left off 3 or 4 chapters ago.

Top book of 2019.

My favorite read of 2019. Interesting from beginning to end. Couldn’t put down and may have to read again.

Accurately Explained

A truly great listen if you are in the hospitality industry. Accurately explains how the last 20 years have been in the restaurant industry with emphasis on the more "eye opening" dramas and dilemmas.

Excellent

Very well written and researched. Would highly recommend for foodies and non alike! Great story.

Amazing read

My favorite restaurant book since kitchen Confidential. Just a great read. Surprisingly engaging and well paced. A very honest look at the industry

Story Too Long, Substance Too Little

I'm a total foodie and work in the Industry, so I was looking forward to Kevin's take on the rise and demise of the American culinary scene. The book follows chefs/restaurants from various cities across the country and gets into *waaaay* too many irrelevant details. (i.e. talking about totally unrelated businesses in each restaurant's neighborhood). The story could easily have been completed in half the time. The author also allows his political views to bleed into the story-line repeatedly, which has zero relevance on the plot and was just additional rhetoric in an already long book.

The book just kind of ends without any real reckoning on why the culinary scene is dead. There are some allusions to it, but I was hoping for a more more cohesive argument from the author. There were some cool factoids along the way, but it's really just a retelling of several different restaurants without much overlap or interplay. If you're big into the Portland or Nashville scene, you may appreciate the extra details provided, but my overall take on the book is kind of 'meh'.