LIZZIE COLLINGHAM
Curry: A Tale of Cooks and Conquerors

The admiration of food that can’t be eaten immediately recalls King Phineus, the mythical king of Thrace, whose sumptuous feasts were snatched away by the Harpies before he could partake in them. In “Curry: A Tale of Cooks and Conquerors” (Oxford University Press, 304 pages, $28), Lizzie Collingham engagingly examines the culinary history of India – focusing on how it affected, and was affected by, other cuisines – weaving in descriptions of foods and recipes with anecdotes and brief history lessons. The result is even more tantalizing than watching the Food Channel.

Ms. Collingham cites the teachings of Ayurveda, the Hindu science of life, developed more than 2,000 years ago in India to promote healthy living and a healthy diet. Although Indian food may differ from region to region and over time, a recurring theme of “Curry” is how complex spice mixtures unify the cuisine.

The book describes the invasion of the Mughals in the 16th century and the subsequent arrivals of the Portuguese and the British in South Asia. Instead of just describing food, Ms. Collingham uses maps, contemporary accounts of the cuisine, and historical examples of recipes to trace the arrival of foreign peoples and how their dietary preferences changed as a result of time spent in India.

Many of the staples of modern Indian food have arisen from this interaction between foreigners and natives. The Mughals were Muslims from Central Asia and in the 16th century brought with them preferences for grilled meats and rice dishes, called pilaus. A versatile dish, pilaus often changed in response to local ingredients. In Spain, the addition of seafood and saffron to pilaus led to the creation of paellas. In India, the addition of the complex spice mixtures of South Asia to pilaus led to the development of biryani. The Portuguese, for their part, brought with them chili peppers and potatoes from the Americas in the 17th century, and their employment of Indian cooks led to the development of vindaloo.

Ms. Collingham is clearly in her element describing the British in India. In fact, much of “Curry” is dedicated to the interaction between the peoples of South Asia and the British. While the Mughals became Indian the longer they spent in South Asia, the British became more British. The first British representatives in India eagerly adopted Indian practices and food, but later representatives spent tremendous amounts of energy trying to re-create the British formal dining experience in India.

A serious aficionado of Indian food may be disappointed by the distillation of a dense culinary history into a slim volume, but for the general reader, the combination of history and food will prove more than satisfying.

– Josh Hummert

LEE CLARKE
Worst Cases: Terror & Catastrophe in the Popular Imagination

Disaster is not an aberration – it is just thought to be because of the destruction and suffering it causes. In gathering an abundance of examples to support this claim, many of which are largely forgotten incidents from history entailing large-scale loss of life, Lee Clarke unifies the anecdotes that comprise “Worst Cases: Terror and Catastrophe in the Popular Imagination” (University of Chicago Press, 200 pages, $22.50). Mr. Clarke examines a whole spectrum of disasters, both real and hypothetical, natural and man- made, in order to show that all catastrophes share certain features that can be instructive for the creation of risk-management strategies. He implores organizations, corporations, and governments to “expect the unexpected” and to prepare for the most unimaginable calamities; he encourages policy-makers to “stretch their imaginations” and conceive of all the possible scenarios in which things could go disastrously wrong, no matter how infinitesimal the possibility.

In the wake of Hurricane Katrina’s destruction of the Gulf Coast, Mr. Clarke’s warning that organizations and governments often underestimate potential risks seems especially worthwhile. In fact, his specific reference to New Orleans’s susceptibility to disaster because of the “bowl” effect and its location below sea level (he presumably wrote this prior to the hurricane, since there is no mention of it) lends a sense of credibility and immediacy to the work. Mr. Clarke also returns throughout the book to the attacks of September 11, 2001, as examples of a systemic failure of government.

Mr. Clarke is a strong proponent of “possibilistic” as opposed to “probabilistic” thinking in assessing risk. The desired result of “possibilistic” thinking, which takes into account highly unlikely “worst case” scenarios, is both preventing disaster and effectively managing it when it occurs. But Mr. Clarke offers no specific or detailed means by which organizations, public or private, could systematically implement a heightened risk analysis based on “possibilistic” thinking.

More disturbing than the catastrophes Mr. Clarke describes, however, is his frequent insensitivity, resulting from his attempts to be bold and realistic. He discusses the Irish potato famine as an effective means of population control in overcrowded Ireland and writes that the firefighters of the FDNY were not as heroic as they were portrayed to be because “it was these people’s job to go into a burning building to help others” and “they didn’t even know the buildings were going to collapse when they went charging in.” Comments like these devalue his book.

– Luke Amentas