Frostbite

Reviews

“A lively history of humans and food and fridges, told by Twilley, a science journalist . . . She takes us from the earliest experiments in freezing food—Sir Francis Bacon caught a fatal chill in 1626 trying to freeze a chicken—up through the contemporary systems we now have in America and around the world . . . The history of chilling our food is twinned with the study of how and why it rots, and those explanations are much more complicated than you might expect.” —Pittsburgh Post Gazette
 
“[Twilley’s] engrossing book combines lucid history, science and a thoughtful consideration of how daily life today is both dependent on and deformed by this matrix of artificial cold . . . I found this book hard to put down. The startling statistics—the cold chain preserves almost three-quarters of the food Americans eat; American households open the fridge door an average of 107 times a day—separate tales of unsung scientists . . . Read this book at your own risk; grocery shopping will not be the same.” —New York Times Book Review

“A revelatory deep dive into refrigeration’s past and present. [Twilley] goes well beyond the obvious (‘nearly three-quarters of everything on the average American plate' is at some point refrigerated) to explore every aspect of what she dubs the ‘artificial cryosphere’—a globe-spanning cold zone maintained by massive infrastructures and energy expenditures that, due to its greenhouse gas emissions, has paradoxically played a major role in ‘the disappearance of its natural counterpart’: ice . . . The result is a brilliant synthesis of a complex system’s many facets, with a useful focus on sustainable solutions." —Publishers Weekly (starred review)
 
“[Twilley] spent a decade tracing the history and contemplating the future of artificial cold. In Frostbite, she considers how we got where we are today: enjoying whatever food we want when we want it, but with unintended consequences for our health and environment . . . From hard science to fascinating history, major machinery to quirky theories, Frostbite explores seemingly every aspect of our refrigeration-dependent existence as the author visits banana-ripening rooms in New York City and cheese caves in Missouri; travels to China to learn about its booming pork industry; has coffee in California with “the world’s first and only refrigerator dating expert” and much more . . . Frostbite, a decidedly interesting and insightful book by an impressively intrepid reporter, offers compelling food for thought about the role of cold in our lives, for better or worse, now and in the future.” —BookPage (starred review)

“An oddly fascinating look at the world of refrigeration . . . Twilley’s book is a delightful mine of meaningful trivia: One learns from her pages, for instance, why pizza and ice cream are shipped separately and why baked goods are cooled gradually (because, as a cold storage warehouse manager told her, “bread will crystallize if it’s cooled too fast”). Throughout, the author’s historical reach traverses seemingly effortlessly from the Roman Empire to 19th-century America . . . A literate treat for tech- and history-inclined foodies.” —Kirkus (starred review)

“The saga of 'domesticating cold' and the many methods of food preservation are spryly communicated by Twilley . . . Information about the evolution and design of modern refrigerators, food waste, the control of fruit ripening, and the subterranean Global Seed Vault ('a Noah's ark for seeds') is noteworthy. This distinctive history tells us not to take our household fridge for granted; it has profoundly affected the composition of our meals and made handy leftovers possible.” —Booklist

“Frostbite is a perfectly executed cold fusion of science, history, and literary verve. You have no idea the fun you’re in for here, the marvelously odd characters and their quietly world-shifting devices – truths and tales that could only have been unearthed through the reporterly perseverance and giddy curiosity of Nicola Twilley. As a fellow nonfiction writer, I bow down. This is how it's done.” —Mary Roach, New York Times bestselling author of Fuzz and Stiff
 
“Nicola Twilley takes readers on a trip along the “cold chain,” which is really what connects farm to table. It’s a fascinating, eye-opening journey, and Twilley is a fabulous guide. Frostbite will forever change the way you look at food.” —Elizabeth Kolbert, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Sixth Extinction
 
“In Frostbite, Nicola Twilley has made the simple idea of cold into both a complex tale of life on Earth and a wonderfully addictive reading experience. There’s a remarkable cast of characters–from scientists to freezer specialists–working to understand it, to harness it, along the way accidentally and purposefully reshaping our lives. We so often focus on issues of warmth that we tend to forget the bone-chilling power of its opposite. But, I can promise you, after this book you won't do that.” —Deborah Blum, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Poison Squad
 
“Frostbite is astonishing. From daring cryonauts to exhaling salad bags to gaseous apples, Nicola Twilley brings readers on a jaw-dropping voyage that lays bare the miracle, mess, and surprising ramifications of refrigeration. A must-read for anyone who eats or drinks in the 21st century. I can’t stop thinking about this book.” —Bianca Bosker, New York Times bestselling author of Get the Picture
 
“In her wonderfully, shiver-inducingly immersive Frostbite, Nicola Twilley scrapes clear a window onto the modern cold chain, the pervasive yet mostly invisible infrastructure of chilled warehouses and distribution systems that supply food to our household refrigerators—today’s humming hearths. As Twilley documents in both entertaining and sobering detail, this cold control is a truly remarkable achievement, a boon for human nourishment and pleasure, yet a costly one for the natural superstructures that ultimately feed and house us all.” —Harold McGee, James Beard Award–winning author of Nose Dive and On Food and Cooking Expand reviews