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HOOSH: ROAST PENGUIN, SCURVY DAY, AND OTHER STORIES OF ANTARCTIC CUISINE . Jason C. Anthony . 2012. Lincoln, NE and London : University of Nebraska Press . 286 p, illustrated, softcover. ISBN 978-0-8032-2666-1 . US$ 26.95.
Jason C. Anthony's book is a welcome addition to a comparatively small field. Although food is often the subject of intense interest in expedition narratives, few authors (with some exceptions, including Tom Griffiths' Slicing the silence (Griffiths 2007)) have examined Antarctic cuisine in depth. Whereas biochemist Robert E. Feeney's Polar journeys (Feeney 1997) took a more scientific approach to the subject, replete with nutritional tables, Anthony offers a potted history of Antarctica from the perspective of the dining table. His account is heavily informed by his own time working in the Antarctic between 1994 and 2004: indeed, the book's intention is, in part, to 'give voice to [the] neglected majority' of support workers, often ignored or obscured in the accounts of 'explorers, journalists, historians, and scientists' (page xv).
As its title implies, Hoosh takes a great interest in the privations and unconventional menus of Heroic Age cuisine. Its first four chapters provide a valuable cook's eye view of the period, from Louis Michotte's 'boardlike' (page 19) pastries on Belgica to the hastily boiled concoctions gulped down by Shackleton and his companions aboard James Caird. Anthony's rendering of the era's expeditions is commendably ecumenical, dwelling on lesser-known explorers (he is particularly taken with the unconventional Rozo, chef to Charcot's French Antarctic Expedition) as well as the iconic quartet of Amundsen, Mawson, Shackleton and Scott. This section is frequently fascinating, studded with facts and anecdotes that help to give a fuller flavour of Antarctic life a century ago: anyone wondering what Scott means when he talks about a seal galantine will find their curiosity satisfied here. However, Anthony's flippant approach to the Heroic Age ('eccentric men gambling with their lives for often rarified [sic] goals' (page 40)), will irk some. Although quick to praise Amundsen ('the most professional and shrewd of polar explorers' (page 83)) and Shackleton, the book follows Roland Huntford's lead on Scott: in...