You and I Eat the Same : On the Countless Ways Food and Cooking Connect Us to One Another

Winner, 2019 IACP Award for Best Book of the Year in Food Matters

Named one of the Best Food Books of the Year by The New Yorker, Smithsonian, The Boston Globe, The Guardian, and more

MAD Dispatches: Furthering Our Ideas About Food

Good food is the common ground shared by all of us, and immigration is fundamental to good food. In nineteen thoughtful and engaging essays and stories, You and I Eat the Same explores the ways in which cooking and eating connect us across cultural and political borders, making the case that we should think about cuisine as a collective human effort in which we all benefit from the movement of people, ingredients, and ideas.
 
An awful lot of attention is paid to the differences and distinctions between us, especially when it comes to food. But the truth is that food is that rare thing that connects all people, slipping past real and imaginary barriers to unify humanity through deliciousness. Don’t believe it? Read on to discover more about the subtle (and not so subtle) bonds created by the ways we eat.
 
Everybody Wraps Meat in Flatbread:
From tacos to dosas to pancakes, bundling meat in an edible wrapper is a global practice.
 
Much Depends on How You Hold Your Fork:
A visit with cultural historian Margaret Visser reveals that there are more similarities between cannibalism and haute cuisine than you might think.
 
Fried Chicken Is Common Ground:
We all share the pleasure of eating crunchy fried birds. Shouldn’t we share the implications as well?
 
If It Does Well Here, It Belongs Here:
Chef René Redzepi champions the culinary value of leaving your comfort zone.
 
There Is No Such Thing as a Nonethnic Restaurant:
Exploring the American fascination with “ethnic” restaurants (and whether a nonethnic cuisine even exists).
 
Coffee Saves Lives:
Arthur Karuletwa recounts the remarkable path he took from Rwanda to Seattle and back again.

Chris Ying is the cofounder and former editor in chief of Lucky Peach. He has written and edited numerous books about food and other topics.

René Redzepi is the chef and co-owner of noma in Copenhagen, four times recognized as the world’s best by the World’s 50 Best Restaurants. Redzepi has twice appeared on the cover of Time magazine (and been named one of Time’s 100 Most Influential People in the World); been featured in publications from the New York Times to Wired; and been profiled in two feature-length documentaries and countless national and international media outlets. His first book, Noma: Time and Place in Nordic Cuisine, an IACP and James Beard Award winner, has over 150,000 copies in print. He is also the author of A Work in Progress. He lives with his wife, Nadine Levy Redzepi, and their three children. Find him on Instagram @reneredzepinoma and @nomacph.

MAD (Danish for “food”) is a nonprofit dedicated to bringing together a global food community with an appetite for change. Food is inseparable from some of the most pressing global challenges of our time, and MAD’s focus is to help inspire, educate, and find creative solutions that make a real and sustainable difference in restaurants, communities, and the world at large.