For the past twenty years, Michael Pollan has been writing books and articles about the places where the human and natural worlds intersect: food, agriculture, gardens, drugs and architecture.

He is the author of the bestsellers In Defense of Food: An Eater’s Manifesto and The Omnivore’s Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals, which was named one of the ten best books of 2006 by The New York Times and The Washington Post.

In a sold-out lecture at Elmhurst College on Sunday, April 28, Pollan will present Cooked: A Natural History of Transformation. The talk begins at 7:00 p.m. and will be held in Hammerschmidt Memorial Chapel. Pre-purchased tickets are required for admission and none will be sold at the event. Doors will open at 5:30 p.m. and the presentation will begin promptly at 7:00 p.m. A book-signing will follow the lecture. For more information, call (630) 617-3390.

In his just-released book Cooked: A Natural History of Transformation, Pollan explores the previously uncharted territory of his own kitchen. Here, he discovers the enduring power of the elements of fire, water, air and Earth to transform animals and plants into things to eat and drink. He discovers that the cook occupies a special place in the world, standing squarely between nature and culture.

Michael Pollan is the author of six previous books, all New York Times bestsellers. A longtime contributor to The New York Times, he is also the Knight Professor of Journalism at the University of California-Berkeley’s Graduate School of Journalism, and the director of the Knight Program in Science and Environmental Journalism. In 2010 Time magazine named him one of the 100 most influential people in the world.