Publishers Weekly
James Beard Award-winning author Kurlansky (Cod; Salt), brings together a banquet of historical and modern writings on food. Divided into such chapters as "Memorable Meals" and "Eating Your Vegetables," the book covers the range of writings from food notables to general authors and historians. All the masters are covered, including the father of American food writing, James Beard, with his comments on radishes and hot chocolate; the doyenne of the British post-war kitchen, Elizabeth David, with her rail against the garlic press; as well as M.F.K. Fisher and her witty observations on "bachelor cooking." Kurlansky nicely balances specialist knowledge with just plain love of food, such as Hemingway's descriptive "Fish in the Seine," George Orwell's evocative "Paris Cooks and Waiters," and A.J. Liebling's writing on boxing and food, excerpted from Between Meals. Kurlansky does take readers out of the 20th century and back in history to the Roman Empire, with such writers as Pliny the Elder (writing about bees and honey), Plutarch and the witty poet Martial of Epigrams fame. Folded in between are such food masters as Escoffier, Brillat-Savin, Hannah Glass and Taillevent. Insightful comments and explanations by Kurlansky precede each piece; the resulting volume provides a wide range of tastes certain to tempt any literary palate. (Nov.) Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information.
Library Journal
This anthology of food writing, read by Josephine Bailey and others, dishes up observations, prejudices, reminiscences, and recipes-from desserts to dormice. All of us eat and everyone has opinions about food. Celebrated writers like James Beard or M.F.K. Fisher are outnumbered by less likely foodies such as Plato, Virginia Woolf, and Pablo Neruda, whose essays are woven into chapters like "Eating Your Vegetables" and "Memorable Meals." Each of the cassettes can stand alone, allowing the listener to skip across the centuries for a taste of foods, personalities, world cultures, and history in nibbles or in gulps. Kurlansky (Salt: A World History), winner of the James Beard Award for Excellence in Food Writing, culled these nuggets from essays, letters, diaries, biographies, and the occasional cookbook. He precedes most of the more than 200 essays with appetizers of his own comments or explanations. Readers who can musically pronounce the names of foods, towns, and restaurants around the world are beautifully matched to the topics. Any nonfiction collection would be augmented by this armchair gastronomy; recommended for all public and academic libraries.-Judith Robinson, Univ. at Buffalo, NY Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.
Kirkus Reviews
Bestselling food historian Kurlansky (Salt, 2002, etc.) collects writing from two millennia that describes with wit and zest cooks, cooking, and cuisines. Dividing the book into such sections as "Memorable Meals," and "Their Just Desserts," Kurlansky relies on a range of authors from Martial to Orwell. In his introduction, he suggests that writing about food has always been as much about culture, philosophy, and natural history, a way for writers to approach "the fundamental subjects of the human condition." Many of the selections in this comprehensive collection support his point. Celebrating the delights of mint sauce, new potatoes, brown bread, and marmalade, George Orwell characteristically adds that they are all splendid, if you can pay for them. Plutarch, profiling the great gourmand Lucullus, details how this once famous statesman and general in his declining years spent his days (and money) on ostentatiously extravagant feasts. Selections from familiar food writers like M.F.K. Fisher, Elizabeth David, and James Beard cover topics as varied as bachelor cooking, hot chocolate, and the garlic press, which David asserts is both ridiculous and pathetic. More unexpected are the extracts from Thoreau on cranberries and watermelon, Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings on okra and Hush Puppies, and Hemingway on fishing in the Seine. Early cookbook authors like Hannah Glass, Fanny Farmer, and Mrs. Beeton are frequently cited on apple pies, endives, and potatoes; commentators from the 14th, 15th, and 16th centuries add their observations on salt-making (Aobo Tu), olive oil (Platina), and spinach (Giacomo Castelvetro). There are essays on truffles, the preparing of a royal feast (at least 6,000 eggs foreach day of the feast), and the best chocolate (found in France according to Brillat-Savarin). Extracts describing the ordinary (bread and scrambled eggs) as well as the exotic (bird nest soup and stuffed dormice) complement more generalized writing on national tastes or the politics and meaning of food. An exhaustive and lively assemblage, best for snacking rather than gorging. Author tour
