Chilies to Chocolate: Food the Americas Gave the World originated from a 1988 symposium at the California Academy of Sciences. While not all lectures from the symposium are included in this volume, the editors have selected ten essays by eleven scholars that reflect on the foods from the Americas that have been incorporated into the world's cuisine. Native cultures in the Americas have contributed a number of food stuffs to the world. These essays explain the domestication and extension of these foods from the Americas to the rest of the world. Crops of Native origin include potatoes, tomatoes, chilies, cacao, amaranth, vanilla, maize, beans, quinoa, and oca (yams). The articles are highly readable and the authors have avoided using footnotes and technical jargon. The authors include Alan Davidson, Daniel K. Early, Patricia Rain, Walton C. Gallant, Lawrence Kaplan, Lucille N. Kaplan, Jean Andrews, Noel Vietmeyer, John A. West, John F. McCamant, and Gary Paul Nabhan. The final essay by Gary Nabhan draws readers' attention to the growing problem of bioengineering of seeds and the potential loss of plant diversity in the Americas. The book includes a list of the some of the food plants of American origin. The book includes a list of books for further reading and an index. Unfortunately the editors have not included illustrations of the plants discussed in the book. Nevertheless this book is an important addition to the literature on food plants that originated among the Native cultures of the Americas.