Home Back

Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 641.013
EAN: 9780020322207
ISBN: 0020322208
Label: John Wiley & Sons
Manufacturer: John Wiley & Sons
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 768
Publication Date: May 09, 1990
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
Studio: John Wiley & Sons

---

Related Items:

• The Gastronomical Me
• The Man Who Ate Everything
• The Physiology of Taste (Penguin Classics)
• Two Towns in Provence
• Long Ago In France: The Years In Dijon (Destinations)
• see more

---

Editorial Review:

Amazon.com Review:
A collection of essays by one of America's best known food writers, that are often more autobiographical or historical than anecdotal musings on food preparation and consumption. The book includes culinary advice to World War II housewives plagued by food shortages, portraits of family members and friends (with all their idiosyncrasies) and notes on her studies at the University of Dijon, in France. Through each story she weaves her love of food and passion for cooking, and illustrates that our three basic needs as human beings--love, food and security--are so intermingled that it is difficult to think of one without the others. The book won the 1989 James Beard Cookbook Award.

Product Description:
The Art of Eating "…only wise men know the art of eating." —Brillat-Savarin "There is a communion of more than bodies when bread is broken and wine is drunk. And that is my answer when people ask me, Why do you write about hunger, and not wars or love?" So M. F. K. Fisher begins The Gastronomical Me, one of the five memorable volumes collected together here in The Art of Eating. The five books cover an eclectic array of thoughts, memories, and recipes, from World War I vignettes of frugality at the table to a consideration of the social status of vegetables. Her recipes range from those for all manner of oysters, dressed and undressed, to Cold Buttermilk Soup, and are accompanied by the remarks and observations that provoked W. H. Auden to say, "I do not know of anyone in the United States today who writes better prose." "M. F. K. Fisher evokes the magic that shimmers just beneath the surface of the most commonplace, everyday experiences in prose you can wrap around your soul." —Richard Sax, Chocolatier "M. F. K. Fisher is one of the best food writers. She makes you laugh, tells you stories, intrigues your mind, gives you an appetite, takes you on her travels. She is witty, wise, and unpretentious." —Jane Grigson "One of the world's finest food writers and, in the eyes of many, the grand dame of gastronomy…M. F. K. Fisher has remained our guiding light, the source of infinite gastronomic and philosophic wisdom, the model of what a truly refined food writer should strive for." —James Villas, Bon Appétit




Rating: - Style and Substance: Like a Good Meal
No other writer combines a knowledge of cuisine, history, and social place with such lyricism and panache. If you want some obscure recipe in its unadulterated, early 20th century form, it is here. If you want an account of life under the hardships of war, described through the gastronomic difficulties of rationing and scarcity, look no further. But if you want all that and a style that is as beautiful in its choice of word and phrase as it is in its theme and moral, then you have arrived at the ... Read More

---

Rating: - A mid-century perspective on food
I thought this book was interesting. Our book group also read "The Omnivore's Dilemina". She brings a post WWII perspective to food.
The tomato soup cake was OK.

We had our meeting and each made something from the book. The author had an interesting life and has written many other books so it was a good discussion.

---

Rating: - The Art of WRITING ABOUT EATING
This is an excellent volume and great value for money as it comprises several of Fisher's best-known texts.

---

Rating: - Defines the word "classic"
"The Art of Eating" recountss the tale from post World War I to World War II France in gastronomic terms. This is a collection of several books. "Serve It Forth," first published in 1937, is a history of gastronomy. In "Consider the Oyster" written in 1941, Fisher finds her voice. "How to Cook a Wolf" published in 1942, when wartime shortages were at their worst includes recipes for stretching the smallest of ingredients to meet nutritional needs and the needs of the spirit. "The Gastronomical ... Read More

---

Rating: - Delicious, with a Wee Aftertaste
Even in paperback this is a thick and heavy book, which is a compilation of several of MKF Fisher's individual works offering different aspects of her thoughts on food in terms of origin, recipes, culinary preparation, and history. In addition, it divulges her own observations on the whole dining experience that we as humans go through in terms of customs, etiquette, ambience, socializing and so forth. But what makes this book stellar is the eloquent, imaginative, and sometimes even haunting style of ... Read More

---

Arts & Photography • Biographies & Memoirs • Business & Investing • Children's Books • Comics & Graphic Novels • Computers & Internet • Cooking, Food & Wine • Entertainment • Gay & Lesbian • Health, Mind & Body • History • Home & Garden • Law • Literature & Fiction • Medicine • Mystery & Thrillers • Nonfiction • Outdoors & Nature • Parenting & Families • Professional & Technical • Reference • Religion & Spirituality • Romance • Science • Science Fiction & Fantasy • Sports • Teens • Travel •