Brunch: A History

Though the meal first appeared in America at Begue’s, a restaurant in New Orleans, in the late 1890s, according to Ternikar (a professor of sociology at Le Moyne College in Syracuse) the meal is truly a global event served in Germany, Turkey, India, and China, and often has an “anything goes” approach to menus for an event that’s more about kinship and conversation than a rigid meal. Ternikar does include a handful of recipes, but they’re an accompaniment rather than the main dish here. She prefers to focus on the social aspect of the meal as opposed to defining the classic brunch. It’s an admirable approach, but brunch’s mercurial nature ends up getting the best of her as she digresses into the rise of bridal brunches, museum brunches, and the role of brunches in television shows like The Big Bang Theory and Real Housewives of New York City. The result is a book best consumed à la carte rather than one big gulp; she’s unable to tie all the disparate elements together. (July)