Pashman, who hosts NPR affiliate WNYC's podcast
The Sporkful, is amusing in his first book. He fashions the work as the textbook of Sporkful University, complete with an assignment to be submitted to the author at the end of each chapter. The chapters are given titles of typical college subjects—language arts, philosophy, psychology, and so on—and end with commencement. The content is tongue in cheek; the math section discusses why pies aren't squared, for example. Also included are helpful suggestions or recipes, e.g., to eat a cheeseburger upside down so the cheese touches your tongue, a recipe for a veggieducken for Thanksgiving, and mac and cheese made with "potato cream" rather than milk. The black-and-white illustrations and diagrams are clever, particularly pictures of the "hover and dart" technique for navigating a buffet line and Pashman's Hierarchy of Cheeseburger Needs based on Abraham Maslow's theory.
VERDICT A fun leisure read for lovers of food.
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