Super Short Summary

The Third Plate by Dan Barber is a 2014 novel about cooking and its relationship to ecology by contemporary chef Dan Barber. Barber argues for a new way of thinking about food that will shape the future of dining in America. By tracing the evolution of American food from industrial, meat-heavy plates to organic greens, he proposes a "third plate" rooted in natural, seasonal cycles that integrate whole grains and smaller amounts of free-range meat, aiming to improve human health and environmental sustainability.