Frostbite
How Refrigeration Changed Our Food, Our Planet, and Ourselves
Twilley takes readers on a tour of the cold chain from farm to fridge, visiting off-the-beaten-path landmarks such as Missouri’s subterranean cheese caves, the banana-ripening rooms of New York City, and the vast refrigerated tanks that store the nation’s orange juice reserves. A deeply researched and reported, original, and entertaining dive into the most important invention in the history of food and drink, Frostbite makes the case for a recalibration of our relationship with the fridge—and how our future might depend on it.
In the developed world, we’ve reaped the benefits of refrigeration for more than a century, but the costs are catching up with us. We’ve eroded our connection to our food and redefined what “fresh” means. More important, refrigeration is one of the leading contributors to climate change. As the developing world races to build a US-style cold chain, Twilley asks: Can we reduce our dependence on refrigeration? Should we?
EARLY PRAISE
“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.
REVIEWS, INTERVIEWS, AND COVERAGE
A “captivating new book … that should go on your summer reading list. Twilley is an irresistibly entertaining journalist—curious, smart, and funny. Even if you are not a science nerd, her history of refrigeration in our country—which takes us to subterranean cheese caves in Missouri and banana-ripening rooms in NYC—and leaves us with grave questions about how it impacts the environment and politics, is just brilliant.” The Sunday Long Read
“I cannot recommend this book highly enough. It is a page-turner. It is fascinating. And it changes the way you think about every single thing you eat. Go get it now!” Atlas Obscura podcast
“An oddly fascinating look at the world of refrigeration … Twilley’s book is a delightful mine of meaningful trivia … Throughout, the author’s historical reach traverses seemingly effortlessly from the Roman Empire to 19th-century America.”—Kirkus (starred review)
“A literate treat for tech- and history-inclined foodies.”—Kirkus, “20 Books That Should Be Bestsellers”
“A revelatory deep dive into refrigeration’s past and present” … “the result is a brilliant synthesis of a complex system’s many facets.”—Publisher’s Weekly (starred review)
“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