Winner of the James Beard Award for Literary Writing Named one of the best books of the year by Smithsonian Magazine and New Scientist "Engrossing . . . hard to put down." -- The New York Times Book Review An engaging exploration of refrigeration, tracing its evolution from scientific mystery to globe-spanning infrastructure, and an essential investigation into how it has remade our entire relationship with food. A century ago, the introduction of artificial refrigeration overturned millennia of dietary history, launching a new chapter in human nutrition. We could now overcome not just rot, but seasonality and geography. Tomatoes in January? Avocados in Shanghai? All possible. In Frostbite , New Yorker contributor and cohost of the award-winning podcast Gastropod Nicola Twilley takes readers on a tour of the cold chain from farm to fridge, visiting off-the-beaten-path landmarks such as Missouri's subterranean cheese caves, the banana-ripening rooms of New York City, and the vast refrigerated tanks that store the nation's orange juice reserves. Today, nearly three-quarters of everything on the average American plate is processed, shipped, stored, and sold under refrigeration. It's impossible to make sense of our food system without understanding the all-but-invisible network of thermal control that underpins it. Twilley's eye-opening book is the first to reveal how refrigeration has changed what we eat, where it's grown, how it tastes, and--most importantly--how it affects our health and the environment. In the developed world, we've reaped the benefits of refrigeration for more than a century, but the costs are catching up with us. More important, refrigeration is one of the leading contributors to climate change. As the developing world races to build a US-style cold chain, Twilley asks: Can we reduce our dependence on refrigeration? Should we? A deeply researched and entertaining dive into the most important invention in the history of food and drink, Frostbite makes the case for a recalibration of our relationship with the fridge--and how our future might depend on it. "[Nicola Twilley] tells the fascinating story of refrigeration and tracks its effects on eating habits, family dynamics and much else. Along the way, she skillfully introduces us to the people who helped make refrigeration a key feature of everyday life and who now work at the chilly front lines of the modern economy." -- Wall Street Journal "Just the fact that we can keep things cold--food, ourselves, drink--changes everything about the way we live . . . It's smart and it's fun . . . A book about cold is the perfect summer book." -- Science Friday , Best Science Books of Summer 2024 "Twilley's style weaves storytelling with a series of well-timed narrative combination punches . . . This is bravura technique. You read through once, not unappreciatively, and then--boom--you go back and read it again, your mind racing to embrace the ramifications . . . Still, Frostbite wears its politics lightly, trusting the reader to conjure their own indignation. The style is accessible, informative and infectiously readable. Yet all the time, the book is quietly inspiring a desire for change. You will not know you've been evangelised but you will reach a point where you walk into the fruit and veg aisle on your weekly shop, look at a carton of 'fresh' orange juice or pick up a vac-packed chicken and feel ​overcome with a kind of despairing nausea." -- Financial Times "Twilley's Frostbite is one of the best-informed and most entertaining examples of food or science journalism published since the emergence of the field . . . One cannot help but admire Twilley's determination to learn from the people who made and maintain this complex modern marvel and share her enthusiasm for the subject of refrigeration. In her research for this book, she consulted the right sources, talked to the right people, and visited the best archives available, but it is Twilley's first-person experiences that make reading Frostbite so much fun." -- Science "[Twilley's] engrossing book combines lucid history, science and a thoughtful consideration of how daily life today is both dependent on and deformed by this matrix of artificial cold . . . I found this book hard to put down. The startling statistics--the cold chain preserves almost three-quarters of the food Americans eat; American households open the fridge door an average of 107 times a day--separate tales of unsung scientists . . . Read this book at your own risk; grocery shopping will not be the same." -- The New York Times Book Review "A fascinating look at how refrigeration shapes different facets of society, including our economy. Going back to the earliest days of the 'cold chain' when ice was harvested from New England lakes and packed into rail cars, refrigeration shrunk the world and drove industries to scale, especially meat. It was refrigeration that enabled centralized stockyard