Reviews for American Terroir:

“Jacobsen opens the door to celebrating the food of the American continent with a mélange of natural history, travel narrative, biology, and recipes…This exploration of place eschews dietary prescription and admonition in favor of eating with passion. Down-to-earth, for real.”—Library Journal

Barbara Hoffert’s Library Journal blog: "Let’s see, Jacobsen is just a bit busy. He has a piece about sailing a yacht through the Gulf oil slick in November’s Outside magazine and another, not yet scheduled, on traveling to India with a team going up against tiger poachers. Still pending: a piece for ForbesLife on the terroir of Parma, Italy, and another for Eating Well on shellfish in the Pacific Northwest. In January, he starts cohosting a new segment on Vermont Public Radio called “The Vermont Table”—utterly appropriate, give how lusciously he wrote about the state’s maple syrup in American Terroir. Then he launches on a tour of the country with winemakers from New Zealand, Italy, and France, conducting oyster and wine–pairing seminars. In March, he’ll hit the Tennessee Williams Literary Festival in New Orleans. Come May, Bloomsbury will publish his Shadows on the Gulf, which argues that the Gulf of Mexico is one of the ecological wonders of the world and that we’ve just been given a last chance to save it. Oh, and he will be touring for that book as well. Amazing; I’m exhausted just writing this."

“One cannot help but get a little hungry while perusing Jacobsen’s enchanting book. Part manifesto, part travelogue, part science lesson, and part cookbook, this saliva-inducing work is perhaps best described as erotica—a sensual, titillating, sometimes lewd journey into the best foodstuffs of America… in large part, Americans are not aware of the beauty of what they have. The book seeks, in a small way, to remedy this ungrateful ignorance… Jacobsen’s love of the earth’s bounty is not merely sensual but yields deeper moral insights about the world.”—The New Republic

“More than two centuries after the fall of Robespierre, Rowan Jacobsen would like to launch a "reign of terroir" to improve American culinary habits.”— Wall Street Journal

“In his very readable and highly informative book, Jacobson introduces the reader to the way in which terroir affects all the food we eat, providing rich and interesting examples from apples to maple syrup, from salmon to cheese. Always respectful of the farmers, fishermen, and foragers who take pride in the uniqueness of what they are offering, his tour of North American food producers clearly shows that all foods are not created equal. While dedicated gastronomes and gourmets will delight in Jacobson's richly developed examples and careful background research, the message he offers is appropriately down-to-earth.”—Sustainable Woodstock, also picked up by the Vermont Standard

Rowan Jacobson will be Leonard's guest on WNYC’s “The Leonard Lopate Show” on Nov. 9th.

A terrific review from Christine C. Chen for American Terroir on Zocalo: “If foodies have ‘organic,’ ‘local’ and ‘slow,’ then wine-lovers can claim ‘terroir’ as their buzzword. Yet the use of terroir needn’t be so restricted. In American Terroir, James Beard Award-winning author Rowan Jacobsen brings the concept out of the wine cellar and onto the table…Jacobsen is hardly the first to broach the subject of artisanal and local food, although he might be the most unpretentious. His message is a simple reminder that we should pay attention to where our food comes from, not necessarily from faddish motivations or environmental concerns — although the environment certainly benefits when we buy what’s in season locally. Food simply tastes better, he shows, when it doesn’t come in a shrink-wrapped package shipped from halfway across the world.”

“Jacobsen is a seasoned food writer. He balances the history and regional significance of each of these ingredients with his own experiences in consuming them. One gets a real sense of rediscovering one's home turf, and seeing North America's edible offerings through new eyes. It's easy to forget that we live in an expansive country full of different climates and food histories. Books like American Terroir can redirect our attention back home, and underline the importance of place in food production.” ––—Serious Eats

“Rowan Jacobsen delivers a locavore's bible with American Terroir (Bloomsbury USA, $25), both a fascinating, recipe-sprinkled guide to our most important "flavor landscapes" and a chronicle of the author's quests to find the most sublime honey, coffee, oysters, chocolate, salmon, mushrooms, wine, cheese, etc., that the country has to offer.”— Outside.com

“Rowan Jacobsen of Calais, a multiple James Beard Award winner, has a way with words. Whatever he writes crackles with wit, whether he’s describing the flavor of a rare honey or an environmental disaster.” – Seven Days

Review in the Examiner

Here’s a great piece on American Terrior and Rowan in today’s Burlington Free Press

"Fascinating." —Seattle Weekly

"A small feast."—Boston Globe

Read Rowan’s wonderful New York Times op ed on oysters and the Gulf.

"Anyone interested in the ideals of Slow Food will find this book captivating and will envy the hands-on research Jacobsen did to prepare his newest book. —Farmbrarian

Here's a mention of American Terroir in the Chicago Daily Herald.

“In a dozen informative and often funny essays spanning breakfast to dinner, Jacobsen deploys an open mind as he travels…beyond issues of slow food and sustainability, Jacobsen's affable, nerdy DIY spirit (he brewed his own mead for his wedding) challenges readers to rethink their relationship to food.” —Publishers Weekly

See Rowan on MSNBC’s “Andrea Mitchell”

“Jacobsen eases readers into discussions of chemistry, history, geography, and gastronomy with cavalier charm and worldly wit, but his knack for cutting to the core restores exoticism to our backyard. Inspirational and highly engaging.” —Library Journal

"[Jacobsen] discovers the best avocados in Mexico’s Michoacán. He finds superior cheeses and maple syrup in Vermont. Northeast Canada yields both mussels and mushrooms. And Jacobsen sources the world’s most esteemed coffee beans from the mountains of Panama. In his travels to these far-flung farms, Jacobsen shows that it is as much farmers’ dedication to their profession that counts as the soil itself."—Booklist