I wanted to love this book so badly. I really did. I ended up abandoning it after 50%. There's SO MUCH information and backstory that I really just could not get into it. This is a long book that just didn't hook my in within the first half.

A complex, conflicted, and literally and figurately outsized character, James Beard is one of the most fascinating figures in history, and for anyone who loves food – perhaps the most influential. John Birdsall’s extensively researched The Man Who Ate Too Much introduces readers to Beard in an intimate and unflinching way. One of the most poignant passages for me occurs early on when Birdsall writes, “… Beard was a pioneer in using food to communicate a lifestyle. He made food central to American identity.” Filled with nuanced details, insight, and almost poetic prose Birdsall’s biography sheds light on Beard’s formative childhood, influences like Alice B. Toklas, his fraught relationship with writing – and his fraught relationships, and friendships with icons like Julia Child. The cumulative effect is an epic tribute to a man who cultivated of pure appreciation for and understanding of quintessentially whole, local American food – decades before it would become aspirationally trendy.

I received a digital pre-publication copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I was really excited to dive into this book, as I consider myself a bit of a food writing nut, but honestly, this dive was a little too deep for me. I found the writing to be interesting, and the background on Mr. Beard himself to be insightful, but I could have skipped the pages and pages of backstory on every person brought in to the story. Because of this excess, it felt like the narrative thread of James' life was a little disjointed. By the time the author got back to the overall arc of the story, I had forgotten how or why that person was relevant to James to begin with.

This was an excellent biography of an American culinary legend. It focused on his career but also on his personal life as a closeted gay celebrity in 20th century America, and the ways in which his sexual identity shaped his life and choices. Beard almost seemed to fall accidentally in celebrity, after not finding success in the arts. But that is too simplistic a story and the author makes clear the way Beard plagiarized (himself and others) and formed and broke partnerships to become a celebrity. At times, though, it almost felt like a meta-biography, as if the author was having a conversation with previous biographies (as all biographies really do), but at times he forgot to let the reader into the first part of the conversation. And the biggest mystery was how Beard became famous in the first place. The author somewhat makes it seem like he wrote some interesting (plagiarized) cookbooks that mostly didn't sell too well and then at some point he became the face of American cooking? Knowing Beard only from the foundation and their annual awards, I feel like I learned a lot about the man and his psyche (ad the rise of American gourmet cooking culture in the 20th century) from the book. I greatly enjoyed it, but I want to go back and read some of those cookbooks and some of the earlier biographies to understand his fame and impact on American cooking a little better.

The Man Who Ate Too Much is a wonderfully researched and written biography of the American food icon James Beard. John Birdsall delves into all aspects of Beard's life, allowing the reader to get to know him as a complete person, flaws and all. The story is engaging and keeps the reader interested.
It becomes obvious that the relationship James Beard had with people- family, friends and co-workers alike, shaped his ideas of food and American culture. His motivations, desires and ultimately his fears are examined with well researched care, but also compassion. You gain an understanding of James Beard, as not only the first real American celebrity chef, but as a person and human being. There is something that everyone will be able to relate to within this book.

James Beard, the great unknown of American food scene, a "master of spinning shiny magic," comes alive in this biography.

As a foodie I have heard the name James Beard millions of times. I knew he was a gay man and legendary food writer, but beyond that I knew very little about him. Wanting to know more about his life, I dove into The Man Who Ate Too Much: The Life of James Beard. Well, I waded in. The first two chapters about his childhood in Portland, Oregon were so detailed that I thought "I'm not sure I can take 464 pages of this" but the book did pick up speed after that point. John Birdsall, 2014 James Beard Award winner for "America, Your Food is So Gay,” shares great stories about Beard's education, scandals, recipe "stealing" and collaborations. I learned exactly how Beard influenced American cuisine after World War II all the way up to today (he loved "home cooking" and fresh, farm-to-table type eating). Before there was Julia Child hosting "The French Chef" (1963), there was James Beard hosting the live television series "I Love to Eat" (1946–47). I had no idea! This book is a must for any "foodie" interested in not only the life of James Beard but the history of American food and food writing.

Thank you to NetGalley and WW Norton for the eARC of this important biography of one of the most outsized movers and shakers in American cookery.
3.75 stars.
John Birdsall has written a lively account of Beard’s life, so lively that it is extremely overwritten in the early stages that recount Beard’s family history, and early life. Luckily, the biography settles down to become vastly interesting as Birdsall recounts Beard’s many failures in life before seemingly lucking into writing several cookbooks during and after WWII. He continually steals and recycles recipes from others (over-generously termed “crowd-sourcing” by the author as he attempts to sum up Beard’s influence) and himself as he eventually accepts more writing assignments and contracts than one person could humanly maintain.
As with his highlighting of Beard’s stealing (very often without credit) of recipes from others (and he continued to do it right up until the end of his life), Birdsall presents a very balanced portrait of Beard, who found small circles of foodies around whom he could be himself (that is, outwardly gay), even with the many petty jealousies he found along the way.
Beyond his writing, Beard found his greatest influence in his NYC cooking school, and the detail in this portrait is fascinating, as Beard forges his brand right out of his Greenwich Village home, complete with teaching kitchen and grand-piano-as-buffet-table.
The chapters are not perfectly chronologically, and while there is some thematic idea to this, I’m not sure that the reader is all that well-served from this choice.
All in all, this is still a very important biography for those with an interest in how American cooking developed and grew up through the years, despite all of those TV dinners, and other convenient-but-really-terrible canned and frozen vittles.

James Beard is an icon and the author did him justice with this biography. Not only did the reader get to experience the highs of his career, but also the feelings of being a closeted gay man in a time when being open about his sexuality would have destroyed his career.

Man Who Ate Too Much
From the man who wrote “America, Your Food is So Gay” that won a James Beard Award in 2014, comes a biography of the bigger-than-life James Beard. There were a lot of gay men who helped create the American cuisine after World War II. Unfortunately, they may have been gay, but Americans weren’t ready to accept the sexual preference these men, including New York Times food editor Craig Claiborne, had. Closeted for all but his best friends, Beard had to pretend to live a lifestyle he didn’t. He grew up in Portland Oregon and was quietly kicked out of Reed College because of a relationship he had with a professor. In 1922, he headed for London where he planned to train in operatic stage and landed some parts back in Hollywood. But his theater career took a nosedive in New York City and he turned to food, organizing dinner parties for friends. Soon cookbook editors wanted his recipes. And, yes, he happily stole recipes from others, never bothering to included them in the credits. He had the first TV cooking show, NBC’s “I Love to Eat.” He didn’t come out until 1990. A reader can look at this book as a biography and as a peek at what gay life was like in the mid-twentieth century.

In the UK, we haven't really heard of James Beard. We are probably more familiar with Julia Child, and even that is because of the book and film Julie/Julia - post-war Britain was not affluent or successful in the same way as the US, we didn't have the same economic boom, so our eating habits sharply diverged at that point, and I'm sure what we were eating in the UK was quite horrible. My Dad remembers rationing. I am really fascinated with that era in American cooking and their obsession with French food, along with traditional fare such as barbecue! It must have led to some quite interesting meals and dinner parties, which I'd have loved to observe.

I wanted to like this book; as an LGBT+ foodie, it should have been completely for me, but I'm afraid I couldn't get past the writing which seems to be a problem for some of the other reviewers too - there are some flaws in it that get in the way of fully appreciating the story of James Beard, very much a man of his time who might be quite difficult to imagine for an international audience who are largely unfamiliar with him.

The writing in this did not work for me at all and it's a shame because The Man Who Ate Too Much should have been fascinating and there are so few good nonfiction books about famous food people. I'd really hoped for so much more, but less clunky writing would have helped a lot.

The author has a way with words, but this was not my cup of tea. James Beard a culinary icon indeed was a complex person who contributed so much to the way we think about food and wine today.
It was very slow to start and eventually picked up speed, but it lost my interest early on and I had to struggle to finish this. There will be definitely fans of this book, but I'm sorry to say that I'm not one of them.

I like the idea of exploring a complicated gay man in the world of food but I don't think the author was up the task.. James Beard was a complicated man who cheated and stole from his contemporaries. I think the author gave him too much of a pass. I also felt like there were some sexism and bias against the women in the book that reflected the author's values and not James Beard's. What a waste of what could have been a fascinating, well-done subject.

This is a well-researched and written biography of James Beard, considered a leading authority on food. Beard was born in Portland, Oregon and grew up in a progressive household. His mother was sophisticated and was well known in social circles. She was also an excellent cook and prepared meals for a boarding house that she managed. She dressed her young son to look like a "Qing dynasty princeling" and decorated her home in Chinese furnishings (the father was an appraiser of Asian goods arriving in Portland). Beard's childhood is well-described although the first two chapters which detail the history of Oregon landmarks and towns feels like excessive filler. The book picks up, however, when it finally gets back to the main subject.

Beard's college days at Reed College, where he was expelled for a sexual indiscretion, is followed by a long stint in the theater. He eventually found his calling in food writing and also had his own cooking show in the early days of television. His friendships and romantic attachments are a major focus. The book is wonderfully written with the exception of referring to gay people as "queer" (call me an old-fashioned gay but I find that term highly offensive.)

Some readers like myself may find Beard a difficult subject to warm up to. He used friends and acquaintances for both financial and career gain and was known to plagiarize recipes on a regular basis. Far worse is an episode from his youth when he drowned a litter of kittens. And in the end, he leaves his estate to a college that shunned him! This is an admirably researched book and the descriptions of food and appearances of well known celebrities in the food world (Julia Child, Alice Waters, Craig Claiborne) make it an interesting read.

The number of times that I had to stop reading to text friends or family and tell them a startling fact about the life of James Beard is astonishing. I cared very little about the man prior to starting this novel. I'm of a generation too young to have regularly seen him on TV, and when I received this book I knew him by name alone. Now I feel like he's a part of my life, a friend that I didn't know I had. The emphasis on his younger life is fascinating. It tells the story not just of a man, but of a period of time and the cultural norms that predominated it. As he ages, the narrative opens up, and we see a portrait of an imperfect, sensitive man. With a clear thesis and effective structure, this book is an excellent memoir for reader advisory, with ample cross appeal.

Review to be posted on Instagram @honeyedwordsreads 2 weeks prior to publication.

In almost everything I have read about James Beard, he is presented as iconic to the point of seeming concrete. This book delves into his private life in a necessary way.

The great James Beard from a different perspective: How his sexuality informed and influenced his life. A hugely detailed book that reveals the untold story of James Beard's personal life.

I'd suggest that it is aimed at a particular type of reader and I don't fit that profile. I can admire all the work that's gone into it but it is not one for me.