Eaterland

The United States of Eater is popular website Eater’s deep dive into the quirky regional dishes that truly define American cuisine, with recipes, essays, and stories from local celebrities and chefs.

When casual food lovers attempt to define stereotypical “American cuisine,” they often lean into foods like hamburgers, hot dogs, and pizza. Perhaps some understand that everything from Cajun cuisines to soul food is as American as apple pie. But it takes a certain kind of obsessiveness—one Eater is known for—to really investigate what American food means.

In The United States of Eater, national publication and go-to site for restaurant recommendations, recipes, and food stories, Eater maps out where to eat, what to eat, and how to eat food that is quintessentially, unequivocally American.

Divided into eight regions, this cookbook is filled with recipes, introductions from notable local chefs or celebrities, and recommendations for restaurants that serve the eclectic, multicultural cuisines that make up American food. From more recognised dishes like Detroit-Style Pepperoni Pizza and New York’s Chopped Cheese to the French fry-topped Pittsburgh Salad and the Midwest’s Funeral Potatoes, this almanac is an ode to American food.

Essays call attention to local ingredients unique to their region, like New Mexican green chiles. The glossaries have every region’s essential dishes, and deeply personal stories about American culture will encourage readers to learn more. This book also celebrates the history of food in the United States, centring Indigenous recipes and cooking techniques, highlighting immigrant influences on local favourites, and illustrating how renowned chefs like Kwame Onwuachi and Tiffany Derry are recontextualising and modernising food in America.

For anyone who’s wanted to experience Maryland crab soup, toasted ravioli from St. Louis, and Kentucky’s renowned Hot Brown sandwich all without leaving their kitchen, this book is a perfect guide from Eater, the authority on where to eat and why it matters.