It is no longer possible for any ship to cross the Pacific Ocean without encountering the ghost of Captain without encountering the ghost of Captain Cook and his voyages are the stuff of maritime legend.

'It works extremely well. In large part because Bourdain is a very funny writer; sharp, honest and with a beguiling mix of belligerence and sensitivity' Sunday Telegraph 'Brilliantly written up in a raw, stylish gonzo prose, with pitch-black humour and a devilish turn of phrase' Evening Standard ____________________ Anthony Bourdain, life-long line cook and bestselling author of Kitchen Confidential, sets off to eat his way around the world. But being Anthony Bourdain, this was never going to be a conventional culinary tour. Bourdain heads out to Saigon where he eats the still-beating heart of a live cobra, and travels deep into landmined Khmer Rouge territory to find the rumoured Wild West of Cambodia (Pailin). Other stops include dining with gangsters in Russia, a medieval pig slaughter and feast in northern Portugal, the Basque All Male Gastronomique Society in Saint Sebastian, rural Mexico with his Mexican sous-chef, a pilgrimage to the French Laundry in the Napa Valley and a return to his roots in the tiny fishing village of La Teste, where he first ate an oyster as a child. Written with the inimitable machismo and humour that has made Tony Bourdain such a sensation, A Cook's Tour is an adventure story sure to give you indigestion.

2018 James Beard Foundation Book of the Year | 2018 James Beard Foundation Book Award Winner inWriting | Nominee for the 2018 Hurston/Wright Legacy Award in Nonfiction | #75 on The Root100 2018 A renowned culinary historian offers a fresh perspective on our most divisive cultural issue, race, in this illuminating memoir of Southern cuisine and food culture that traces his ancestry—both black and white—through food, from Africa to America and slavery to freedom. Southern food is integral to the American culinary tradition, yet the question of who "owns" it is one of the most provocative touch points in our ongoing struggles over race. In this unique memoir, culinary historian Michael W. Twitty takes readers to the white-hot center of this fight, tracing the roots of his own family and the charged politics surrounding the origins of soul food, barbecue, and all Southern cuisine. From the tobacco and rice farms of colonial times to plantation kitchens and backbreaking cotton fields, Twitty tells his family story through the foods that enabled his ancestors’ survival across three centuries. He sifts through stories, recipes, genetic tests, and historical documents, and travels from Civil War battlefields in Virginia to synagogues in Alabama to Black-owned organic farms in Georgia. As he takes us through his ancestral culinary history, Twitty suggests that healing may come from embracing the discomfort of the Southern past. Along the way, he reveals a truth that is more than skin deep—the power that food has to bring the kin of the enslaved and their former slaveholders to the table, where they can discover the real America together. Illustrations by Stephen Crotts

The story of the 1768 expedition to the South Pacific on HMS Endeavour, through the eyes of the one-handed cook.--back of book.

Prologue : Three Comments on Cook's Third Voyage / Nicholas ThomasJames Cook, Navigator and Explorer : The Pacific Experience, 1768-1776 / John GascoigneJames Cook and the Northwest Passage : Approaching the Third Voyage / Glyn WilliamsSetting the Stage : Spain in the Pacific and the Northern Voyages of the 1770s / Iris EngstrandFrom Russia with Charts : Cook and the Russians in the North Pacific / Evguenia AnichtchenkoJames Cook and the New Navigation / Richard DunnA New Look at Cook : Reflections on Sand, Ice, and His Diligent Voyage to the Arctic Ocean / David L. NicandriEncounters : View of the Indigenous People of Nootka Sound from the Cook Expedition Records / Richard InglisThe Cook Expedition and Russian Colonialism in Southern Alaska / Aron L. CrowellGifting, Trading, Selling, Buying : Following Northwest Coast Treasures Acquired on Cook's Third Voyage to Collections around the World / Adrienne L. KaepplerThe International Law of Discovery : Acts of Possession on the Northwest Coast of North America / Robert J. MillerCook on the Coasts of the North Pacific and Arctic America : The Cartographic Achievement / John RobsonNarrating an Alaskan Cruise : Aspects of Cook's Journal (1778) and Douglas?s Edition of A Voyage to the Pacific Ocean (1784) / I.S. MacLarenThe End of the Northern Mystery : George Vancouver's Survey of the Northwest Coast / James K. BarnettFrom Discoveries to Sovereignties : The Imperial Scramble for Northwestern North America / Barry GoughThe Continuing Quest : The Lure of the Northwest Passage in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries / James P. DelgadoSea Ice in the Western Portal of the Northwest Passage from 1778 to the Twenty-first Century / Harry SternMarine Navigation in the Arctic Ocean and the Northwest Passage / Lawson W. BrighamThe Arctic in Focus : National Interests and International Cooperation / Gudrun Bucher and Robin Inglis.

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New York Times Bestseller: A Pulitzer Prize–winning author retraces the voyages of Captain James Cook: “Alternately hilarious, poignant, and insightful.” —Seattle Times Captain James Cook’s three epic journeys in the eighteenth century were the last great voyages of discovery. His ships sailed 150,000 miles, from the Arctic to the Antarctic, from Tasmania to Oregon, from Easter Island to Siberia. When Cook set off for the Pacific in 1768, a third of the globe remained blank. By the time he died in Hawaii in 1779, the map of the world was substantially complete. Tony Horwitz, author of Confederates in the Attic, vividly recounts Cook’s voyages and the exotic scenes the captain encountered: tropical orgies, taboo rituals, cannibal feasts, human sacrifice. He also relives Cook’s adventures by following in his wake to places such as Tahiti, Savage Island, and the Great Barrier Reef to discover Cook’s embattled legacy in the present day. Signing on as a working crewman aboard a replica of Cook’s vessel, Horwitz experiences the thrill and terror of sailing a tall ship. He also explores Cook the man: an impoverished farm boy who broke through the barriers of his class and time to become the greatest navigator in British history, whose voyages helped create the “global village” we know today. “With healthy doses of both humor and provocative information, the book will please fans of history, exploration, travelogues and, of course, top-notch storytelling.” —Publishers Weekly “Horwitz retells the sailor’s story and tries to re-create first contact from the point of view of the locals—Tahitians, Maoris, Aleuts, Hawaiians, and others—and judge the legacy of his landing . . . thought-provoking . . . brims with insight.” —Booklist “A rollicking read that is also a sneaky work of scholarship . . . new and unexpected insights into the man who out-discovered Columbus. A terrific book.” —Nathaniel Philbrick, National Book Award winner and New York Times–bestselling author of In the Heart of the Sea “Well-researched, gripping, and peppered with humorous passages.” —St. Louis Post-Dispatch “Part Cook biography, part travelogue, and very much a stroke of genius.” —Philadelphia Inquirer