The Oxford Encyclopedia of Food and Drink in America, originally published in September 2004 and with 5,000 copies sold to date, covers the significant events, inventions, and social movements that have shaped the way Americans view, prepare, and consume food and drink. Entries range across historical periods and the trends that characterize them, from the extravagant feasts of the Gilded Age to the diet fads of the nineties. The thoroughly updated new edition captures the shifting American perspective on food and ensures that this title is both the most authoritative and the most current reference work on American cuisine.

The second edition of the Encyclopedia reflects the many changes in American food consciousness during the twenty-first century. Once a niche market, food television has become ubiquitous, as are websites devoted to all sorts of regional cuisines. New health consciousness has spawned obesity taxes, transfat and calorie-count laws, the slow food movement, and locavorism. Ethnic foods and the fusion of these have led to new crazes for such cuisines as Southwestern sushi and Filipino hamburgers. These timely trends and topics have been newly incorporated into the new edition of the Encyclopedia, adding one volume and over 300 new entries on these and other subjects such as food science and nutrition, molecular gastronomy, genetically-modified foods, food controversies, regional foods, the volatile nature of food prices, and food traditions of major American cities. Entries from the Oxford Companion to American Food and Drink, also edited by Andy Smith, have been added, as have a substantial number of biographies of culinary personalities. All bibliographies and non-historical entries have been revisited for updating.