Roast Penguin Chronicles is a savory, eclectic stew, unlike anything ever written about Antarctica. With echoes of Anthony Bourdain and characters painted with a Monty Pythonesque brush, it explores the author's adventures over eight seasons living and working there.

Part adventure tale, part cookbook, and part engrossing history of doomed expeditions and food-fueled endurance, it is strikingly original and vividly entertaining.

Antarctica, the last place on Earth, is not famous for its cuisine. Yet it is famous for stories of heroic expeditions in which hunger was the one spice everyone carried. At the dawn of Antarctic cuisine, cooks improvised under inconceivable hardships, castaways ate seal blubber and penguin breasts while fantasizing about illustrious feasts, and men seeking the South Pole stretched their rations to the breaking point.

Today, Antarctica's kitchens still wait for provisions at the far end of the planet's longest supply chain. Scientific research stations serve up cafeteria fare that often offers more sustenance than style. Jason C. Anthony, a veteran of eight seasons in the U.S. Antarctic Program, offers a rare workaday look at the importance of food in Antarctic history and culture.