STEAK. Nothing that humans have ever put into their mouths in the name of nourishment has been the subject of such devotion, such flights of gastronomic ecstasy, or such grave connoisseurship as this most adored of meats. Now Mark Schatzker, an award-winning food and travel writer, takes readers on an odyssey to four continents, across thousands of miles, and through hundreds of cuts of steak, prepared in dozens of ways, all in a quest for the perfect piece. Steak is an impassioned, funny, and enlightening look at the fate of this beloved food.

A lively argument from an award-winning journalist proving that the key to reversing America's health crisis lies in the overlooked link between nutrition and flavor: "The Dorito Effect is one of the most important health and food books I have read" (Dr. David B. Agus, New York Times bestselling author).

We are in the grip of a food crisis. Obesity has become a leading cause of preventable death, after only smoking. For nearly half a century we've been trying to pin the blame somewhere--fat, carbs, sugar, wheat, high-fructose corn syrup. But that search has been in vain,...