A Greedy Man in a Hungry World: How (Almost) Everything You Thought You Knew About Food is Wrong

It shoots an awful lot of sacred cows, blows holes in a bunch of myths and does not shy away from laughing in the face of conventional wisdom. It is an argument for a new 'Gastronomics' - combining memoir, polemic and hard-nosed reportage.

Each chapter will take apart a major issue in the food chain, in a logical progression. Sprinkled between these sections, will be more 'Dispatches from the front line of greed': why fat is where the flavour is; the joys of eating with your hands; the pleasures of bad food; why a taste for oysters is a mark of adulthood attained; how leftovers can be the route to true happiness; the need to embrace foods that make you stink; why the very best ingredients are the ones that carry with them the faint tang of death; the importance of pig in everything.

The potential to include beautiful illustrations or even recipes is there, but at heart this will be a compulsory read for any foodie.