thedeadlyhook

Now, here's the thing - most male food writers I've read (a small number, but a representative sample) talk about cooking as science, as if the study of cooking and the rotation of planetary spheres were all the same thing. (There are very slight peeks of this in Thorne's writing too, which is what makes me think it's a male thing, but lesser than most.)

You should read Nigel Slater's books, particularly Real Food and Real Cooking. He is a complete hedonist/sensualist about food and his books are the diametric opposite to the "cooking as science" guys (although Alton Brown is entertaining). And even though she's overexposed (in more ways than one), everyone forgets that Nigella Lawson started out as a food writer, and her first couple of books are wonderful and shrewd in a really great way. Actually, I'm partial to British and Australian food writers in general (all totally straighforward yet vivid), and their food magazines (Olive and Delicious in particular) make their American counterparts seem both overly fussy and self-importantly trendy (Saveur) in the extreme.