Andrew Smith offers up a volume of food resources in his book, The Oxford Companion to American Food and Drink, which reveals American food history and how it has influenced everything from slang to humor. His timing is perfect: America's interest in food is at an all-time high, with celebrity chefs, cooking shows, food and health trends becoming a larger part of our cultural focus.
Smith teaches culinary history and professional food writing at the New School University in Manhattan. He also serves as a consultant to several food television productions (airing on the History Channel and Food Network), and is the general editor for the University of Illinois Press' Food Series. Editor of the highly acclaimed two-volume Encyclopedia of Food and Drink in America, Smith has written several books on food, including The Tomato in America, Pure Ketchup and Popped Culture: A Social History of Popcorn in America.