Home cooking
by Laurie Colwin
[Book]
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Although Laurie Colwin is best known for her novels, she was also a gifted food writer, perhaps because her novelist’s sensibility provided a lively and unusual perspective on the trials and joys of “ordinary” home cooking. To name just three of the essays—Stuffed Breast of Veal: A Bad Idea; Repulsive Dinners: A Memoir; Easy Cooking for Exhausted People—is to show that here is a writer staking out her own delightfully opinionated territory. And the recipes are as rewarding to make as the prose is to read.
Reviewed by Matt
Tagged: Food, Non-fiction
An Omelette and A Glass of Wine
by Elizabeth David
[Book]
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This collection of essays originally published in British newspapers and magazines allows easy entry into the writing of one of the greatest food writers of all time. Her books are glorious but dense; but here she touches deftly and lightly on all manner of culinary topics, from what makes a true sardine to the pleasures of cooking French food in your own little holiday kitchen in France. There are recipes throughout, but read this book for its witty, evocative, clear-eyed prose.
Reviewed by Matt
Tagged: Food, Non-fiction
Hungry planet : what the world eats
by Peter Menzel and written by Faith D’Aluisio
[Book]
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A photo-chronicle that visits families in twenty-four countries in every inhabited continent, each photographed amidst their weekly food purchases. The accompanying text details food-intake lists with costs noted; provides typical family recipes; and draws on this data to produce such illuminating essays as “Diabesity,” about the worldwide epidemic of obesity and diabetes.
Reviewed by Matt
Tagged: Food, Non-fiction
American Food Writing : An Anthology with Classic Recipes
by Molly O’Neill
[Book]
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This wide-ranging collection of essays, journal entries, excerpts from novels, and selected recipes spans three centuries of American eating, in prose that is often as appetizing as its subjects. Even dedicated readers of food writing will find much here that is completely unfamiliar, and those new to the genre will put the book down with a fresh respect for and delight in our astonishing culinary largess.
Reviewed by Matt
Tagged: Food, Non-fiction
Cod: A Biography of the fish that Changed the World
by Mark Kurlansky
[Book]
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This book will, of course, teach you a fair amount about codfish, but it will also teach you a great deal about history. As it turns out, the history of cod fisheries and the the trade in salted cod have had an enormous impact on world events, playing a crucial role in the slave trade, the exploration of the New World, and the American Revolutionary War. Mr. Kurlansky’s writing is engaging; he will make you excited about cod.
Reviewed by Ben
Tagged: Food, History, Non-fiction
