Kindle
$4.23
Available instantly
Audible Logo Audiobook
$0.00
with membership trial
Hardcover
$4.45
Audio CD
$29.95
Kindle Price: $4.23

Save $20.07 (83%)

Promotions apply when you purchase

These promotions will be applied to this item:

Some promotions may be combined; others are not eligible to be combined with other offers. For details, please see the Terms & Conditions associated with these promotions.

Audiobook Price: $11.57

Save: $4.08 (35%)

Read with our free app
You've subscribed to ! We will preorder your items within 24 hours of when they become available. When new books are released, we'll charge your default payment method for the lowest price available during the pre-order period.
Update your device or payment method, cancel individual pre-orders or your subscription at
Your Memberships & Subscriptions

Buy for others

Give as a gift or purchase for a team or group.
Learn more

Buying and sending eBooks to others

  1. Select quantity
  2. Buy and send eBooks
  3. Recipients can read on any device

These ebooks can only be redeemed by recipients in the US. Redemption links and eBooks cannot be resold.
Kindle app logo image

Download the free Kindle app and start reading Kindle books instantly on your smartphone, tablet, or computer - no Kindle device required.

Read instantly on your browser with Kindle for Web.

Using your mobile phone camera - scan the code below and download the Kindle app.

QR code to download the Kindle App

Amazon book clubs early access
Loading your book clubs
There was a problem loading your book clubs. Please try again.
Not in a club? Learn more
Amazon book clubs early access

Join or create book clubs

Choose books together

Track your books
Bring your club to Amazon Book Clubs, start a new book club and invite your friends to join, or find a club that’s right for you for free.
Explore Amazon Book Clubs

Follow the author

Larissa Zimberoff
+ Follow
More books from this author
Something went wrong. Please try your request again later.

Technically Food: Inside Silicon Valley's Mission to Change What We Eat Kindle Edition

by Larissa Zimberoff (Author) Format: Kindle Edition
4.3 4.3 out of 5 stars 76 ratings
See all formats and editions
Great on Kindle
Great Experience. Great Value.
iphone with kindle app
Putting our best book forward
Each Great on Kindle book offers a great reading experience, at a better value than print to keep your wallet happy.

Explore your book, then jump right back to where you left off with Page Flip.

View high quality images that let you zoom in to take a closer look.

Enjoy features only possible in digital – start reading right away, carry your library with you, adjust the font, create shareable notes and highlights, and more.

Discover additional details about the events, people, and places in your book, with Wikipedia integration.
Get the free Kindle app: Link to the kindle app page Link to the kindle app page
Enjoy a great reading experience when you buy the Kindle edition of this book. Learn more about Great on Kindle, available in select categories.
“In a feat of razor-sharp journalism, Zimberoff asks all the right questions about Silicon Valley’s hunger for a tech-driven food system. If you, like me, suspect they’re selling the sizzle more than the steak, read Technically Food for the real story.” —Dan Barber, the chef and co-owner of Blue Hill and Blue Hill at Stone Barns
 
Eating a veggie burger used to mean consuming a mushy, flavorless patty that you would never confuse with a beef burger. But now products from companies like Beyond Meat, Impossible Foods, Eat Just, and others that were once fringe players in the food space are dominating the media, menus in restaurants, and the refrigerated sections of our grocery stores. With the help of scientists working in futuristic labs––making milk without cows and eggs without chickens––start-ups are creating wholly new food categories. Real food is being replaced by high-tech.
 
Technically Food: Inside Silicon Valley’s Mission to Change What We Eat by investigative reporter Larissa Zimberoff is the first comprehensive survey of the food companies at the forefront of this booming business. Zimberoff pokes holes in the mania behind today’s changing food landscape to uncover the origins of these mysterious foods and demystify them. These sometimes ultraprocessed and secretly produced foods are cheered by consumers and investors because many are plant-based—often vegan—and help address societal issues like climate change, animal rights, and our planet’s dwindling natural resources. But are these products good for our personal health?
 
Through news-breaking revelations, Technically Food examines the trade-offs of replacing real food with technology-driven approximations. Chapters go into detail about algae, fungi, pea protein, cultured milk and eggs, upcycled foods, plant-based burgers, vertical farms, cultured meat, and marketing methods. In the final chapter Zimberoff talks to industry voices––including Dan Barber, Mark Cuban, Marion Nestle, and Paul Shapiro––to learn where they see food in 20 years.
 
As our food system leaps ahead to a sterilized lab of the future, we think we know more about our food than we ever did. But because so much is happening so rapidly, we actually know less about the food we are eating. Until now.
Read more Read less
Previous page
  1. Print length
    240 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Sticky notes
    On Kindle Scribe
  4. Publisher
    Abrams Press
  5. Publication date
    June 1, 2021
  6. File size
    2200 KB
  7. Page Flip
    Enabled
  8. Word Wise
    Enabled
  9. Enhanced typesetting
    Enabled
  10. See all details
Next page
Hard Rock apparel
Outerwear, tees, and accessories. Discover the rock shop.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Explores eight of the latest tech trends...The reporting behind this book is masterful.

-- "Science"

Technically Food is a must read.'

-- "Rachel Paul, PhD, RD"

A breezy and informative survey...Zimberoff excels at making complex issues accessible, and she leavens her survey with dashes of dry humor.

-- "Publishers Weekly"

In a feat of razor-sharp journalism, Zimberoff asks all the right questions about Silicon Valley's hunger for a tech-driven food system.

-- "Dan Barber, author of The Third Plate"

A combination of excellent storytelling and reporting...makes Technically Food a wonderland of intelligence.

-- "Bloomberg News"

An engaging, thorough examination of the transformation of the food industry as it relates to sustainability and creating alternatives to the slaughterhouse. Highly recommended.

-- "Library Journal"

About the Author

Larissa Zimberoff is a freelance journalist who covers the intersection of food, technology, and business. Her work has appeared in the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg Businessweek, Wired, and many other publications. Zimberoff is an expert voice in the foodtech scene and appears frequently at industry conferences. She lives in the Bay Area.

Product details

  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ B084ZLJNK1
  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Abrams Press; 1st edition (June 1, 2021)
  • Publication date ‏ : ‎ June 1, 2021
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • File size ‏ : ‎ 2200 KB
  • Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
  • Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
  • Print length ‏ : ‎ 240 pages
  • Page numbers source ISBN ‏ : ‎ 1419747096
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.3 4.3 out of 5 stars 76 ratings

About the author

Follow authors to get new release updates, plus improved recommendations.
Larissa Zimberoff

Larissa Zimberoff

Brief content visible, double tap to read full content.
Full content visible, double tap to read brief content.

Larissa Zimberoff is an investigative reporter covering the intersection of food, business and technology. She's written on the promise of fake eggs, the potential of peas, and how artificial intelligence saved a winery. Her work has appeared in The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Wired, Time, Bloomberg Businessweek, Insider and many more publications.

She worked in the tech industry in San Francisco for over a decade before moving to the east coast and embarking on a new career. She received her MFA from The New School, and almost became a New Yorker after living there for seven years.

Her decade spent working in tech helps her to translate the frenzy over today’s food startups. Her hard-earned belief in technology is matched by an equally precious hope for foods that come from the natural world. When not chasing a story you can find her hiking up steep mountains or cycling around town looking for the best bakery.

Customer reviews

4.3 out of 5 stars
4.3 out of 5
76 global ratings
Fascinating peek at the inner workings of food tech
5 Stars
Fascinating peek at the inner workings of food tech
This book is a trippy journey through the Willy Wonka world of bizarre new foods being invented and marketed by high-tech startups. We're not food tech people. We're food tech curious. Like everyone else, we've started to notice and try futuristic new foods that promise health, diet and sustainability benefits through weird ingredients we've never seen before. The author is understandably skeptical of industry shenanigans. But she left us actually excited about possibilities of things like red seaweed, blue algae, freaky fermented mushroom derivatives and more. Maybe not the mealworms though.
Hide
Thank you for your feedback
Sorry, there was an error
Sorry we couldn't load the review

Top reviews from the United States

Amazon Customer
5.0 out of 5 stars Eye opening survey of what we will be offered very soon
Reviewed in the United States on August 28, 2021
Verified Purchase
I loved this witty and thought provoking book on what food technology is starting to offer us. I've eaten Impossible Burgers but hadn't considered how processed they are.

Ms Zimberoff takes the lid off all the different approaches that technology is enabling as new food sources and deftly decodes what it means for the consumer & the environment. I found it immensely helpful and learnt many new things.

As an innovative twist Ms Zimberoff ends the book with future forecasts from 20 different food insiders. This book has provoked many passionate discussions and I look forward to her next book eagerly.
One person found this helpful
Helpful
 Report
Tardigrade
4.0 out of 5 stars For Michael Pollan readers
Reviewed in the United States on June 2, 2021
„Don’t Eat Anything Your Great Grandmother Wouldn’t Recognize as Food”, Michael Pollan famously wrote in his “Food Rules”. Well, when it comes to the New Food, it can be a challenge. There is a booming industry of laboratory created meals and while many of them are tempting for vegetarians and people who want to eat less meat, there is a concern whether they are good for us.

This is a starting point for this interesting book. The author takes us on a mind blowing tour of the food tech. She is a perfect guide, as both a journalist covering this topic for years and a type 1 diabetic, which means that her attitude towards food is much more inquisitive than that of most consumers. While very well written, the book can be sometimes a little chaotic, nonetheless it gives you not only a good overview of the latest innovations in this field but also tries to find answers to the questions of sustainability and wholesomeness of these new products. In most cases the answer is: it’s too early to say.

Recommended to readers of Michael Pollan and anyone interested in the food industry.

Thanks to the publisher, Abrams Press,, and NetGalley for the advance copy of this book.
2 people found this helpful
Helpful
 Report
carol humphrey
5.0 out of 5 stars Technically Food
Reviewed in the United States on April 7, 2023
Verified Purchase
I love the indepth storytelling and information that Larissa cultivated in making this book an easy read. You can follow along out getting lost or bored because of scientific jargon!
Great book!!!
One person found this helpful
Helpful
 Report
Anya K. Zimberoff
5.0 out of 5 stars Interesting, well done, and even humorous
Reviewed in the United States on June 27, 2021
Verified Purchase
I am a health conscious vegetarian and food lover. The writing in this book is excellent, engaging, and even funny. The research is well done and I am learning a lot about interesting ingredients and the quest for making engineered foods tasty. I also love Zimberoff's sharing about her health and how she has become mindfully attuned to the messages from her body. This book is a winner in that it researches and discusses an interesting topic and is an entertaining and pleasurable read. I just bought an additional copy that I sent as a birthday gift to a friend.
2 people found this helpful
Helpful
 Report
Commentnik
5.0 out of 5 stars One of the Most Important Books on Food Technology
Reviewed in the United States on June 2, 2021
Verified Purchase
As a technologist in the food space, it's challenging for me to stay on top of the constantly evolving cutting edge of what is possible.

This much-anticipated work by Larissa Zimberoff carefully dives into the most exciting developments in the quest to develop a "perfect" vegetarian meat, milk and egg. She also shares engaging and often hilarious anecdotes of her travels to try these products, and the food innovators and visionaries she's met along the way.

I literally could not stop reading this book, and found myself excited to try many of the foods she explores!
7 people found this helpful
Helpful
 Report
Joseph Reese
2.0 out of 5 stars Interesting overview but riddled with errors
Reviewed in the United States on January 22, 2022
Verified Purchase
I enjoyed this book as a broad overview of the new food technologies being developed. However, there were a number of blatant errors in very basic science that distracted me and made the book feel rushed. A few examples: saying ocean acidification is an increase in pH (it is a decrease), equating glutamic acid and glutamine as the same thing (they are not) and many others. My favorite was the term “genetically modified version of iron”. You cannot genetically modify iron….

I also didn’t enjoy how critical she was of the companies for not backing up their claims (valid on its own) while she freely offered up many opinions and thoughts that were themselves unsubstantiated. For example, when talking about how Impossible donates its meat to a local food bank she inserted the comment that she assumed it was the reject meat. No proof offered.
4 people found this helpful
Helpful
 Report
Sudhir Joshi
5.0 out of 5 stars A must-read for anyone involved in the new food-tech
Reviewed in the United States on June 14, 2021
Verified Purchase
Excellent summary and review of the new food-tech landscape. Larissa Zimberoff dives deep into all the verticals of the new food revolution - from algae to vertical farms. The book is easy to understand for laypeople who may not be familiar with this space and yet incredibly helpful and insightful for anyone involved in this space. She artfully explains what is good about each solution and delineates the unknowns - and there are many, and presents new questions about how these solutions would affect human health. A must read for anyone working in the new food-tech.
3 people found this helpful
Helpful
 Report
Prateek Mugai
2.0 out of 5 stars Interesting Content, Reads Like a First Draft
Reviewed in the United States on November 11, 2021
Verified Purchase
The content was interesting but it reads like a first draft. The style is choppy, there are a lot of awkward dialogues and no endnotes, the book's layout is disorganized, and there's a lot of extraneous and distracting information. I'm still unclear what the book's thesis is, as the author didn't seem to have any concrete opinions or offer any analysis of the facts presented - I ended confused as to whether I should be skeptical of the industry or run out and support it.
Helpful
 Report

Top reviews from other countries

Edward van der Hout
5.0 out of 5 stars A balanced overview of what's cooking in Silicon Valley
Reviewed in the Netherlands on November 23, 2021
Verified Purchase
Technically Food is one of those books you wish they'd make about everything. Zimberoff takes you on a journey through some possible futures of our food, and talks with everyone. It's amusing, personal, and informative. She manages to walk the line between joining founders and VC's in their optimism on one side, and remaining vigilant and sceptical on the other.

More than anything else I've read she identifies that there's a difference between healthy for the planet and healthy for you, and that while the future of foods might improve on the first, they don't necessarily do so on the second. To explain why that is, she doesn't shy from technical details.

The book is clearly divided in topics, and ends with a chapter of future food perspectives from different people she interviewed (I didn't love this part, but it was interesting food for thought. I recommend writing down your own thoughts before reading this chapter). The chapter style keeps everything neatly organized, but in a Technically Food 2 I'd love some more larger or cross-industry perspectives.
Report
Amazon Customer
4.0 out of 5 stars What's possible and real of all the companies of manufactured food claim to be the real thing.
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on October 22, 2021
Verified Purchase
I liked her down to earth attitude in what's being done by the silicon valley investors.
Report
Cliente Amazon
2.0 out of 5 stars Good overview of the industry, low objectivity
Reviewed in Italy on August 31, 2021
Verified Purchase
+ Extensive overview of the industry, big players and founders
- - too much traditional and biased narrative towards the “terror” that lab grown and plant based food will be less nutritious than traditional food
- - Few facts (ie hard numbers from latest FAO research’s)
3 people found this helpful
 Report
Kumar
5.0 out of 5 stars A new perspective on ‘alternative ‘proteins
Reviewed in Singapore on October 3, 2021
Verified Purchase
At a time when there is so much sizzle rather than steak , froth more than form on new foods ,
This book provides a sobering view of this growing industry .
Having interviewed the giants of the the industry , every chapter summaries the current state of play -it also raises many questions and challenges . Essential reading for all who want to know more about technically food !
Report
Report an issue

Does this item contain inappropriate content?
Report
Do you believe that this item violates a copyright?
Report
Does this item contain quality or formatting issues?
Report