[jaybee]

My favorite "food" book is Blue Trout and Black Truffles by Joseph Wechsberg. It is irresistable. Ludvig Bemelmens wrote some beauties. Beer is one that comes to mind. What other writers (and titles) would you recommend in the league of Leibling, Fisher, Wechsberg, et. al?

edited to remove "about food" which was redundant and nonsense.

[Liza]

I enjoyed James Villas' "Villas at Table" but up there with Liebling? Hmm. I'd put put Calvin Trillin in that group.

[Wilfrid]

I loved that Wechsberg book, and liked Dining at Le Pavillon even better. But I don't think, as a writer, he's in the class of Liebling. One guy who is, is Liebling's New Yorker pal Joseph Mitchell, who rarely wrote about food itself, but seemed to manage to bring food into most of his greatest stories.

John Arlott wrote a handful of wonderful food pieces.

[Sandra Levine]

Laurie Colwin was showing promise, but died too young.

[Jaymes]

Great food writers:

I loved "Tender at the Bone" by Ruth Reichl. Really funny, evocative memories. I laughed myself silly.

Oh, and Tommy of course.

[jaybee]

Quote

One guy who is, is Liebling's New Yorker pal Joseph Mitchell, who rarely wrote about food itself, but seemed to manage to bring food into most of his greatest stories.
John Arlott wrote a handful of wonderful food pieces.

Yes, I agreed with you on Mitchell on another thread. Gritty, wonderfully detailed stuff. I love the story of the rich old lady who used to visit the restaurant in the "old hotel" periodically. She was a Van Rennselaer (or some such Dutch family). Her family used to own most of downtown New York.

Where might one find Arlott's writings?

As regards, Tender at the Bone I enjoyed it a great deal. But her sequel was a big disappointment.

[Wilfrid]

Jaybee, I don't believe there is a collection of Arlott's food writings. His career as a journalist was devoted mainly to sport and wine, but he strayed from the latter into food from time to time. Arlott on Wine is a good collection of his wine writings. My favorite of his food pieces, "The Hungry Travellers" can be found in an anthology, Another Word From Arlott. But there's a lot of cricket in there too.

[helenas]

jaybee, on Jul 15 2002, 01:08 PM, said:

As regards, Tender at the Bone I enjoyed it a great deal.  But her sequel was a big disappointment.

At least i made an effort to find pictures of Colman Andrews after reading her apples book. He really looks attractive

[it aint easy being cheesy]

Mark Kurlansky

History of Salt Cod
&
History of Salt

are interesting and solid writing.

[Toby]

Colette wrote some lovely short pieces on food and eating. Four of them are included in a collection of her autobiographical writings, Earthly Paradise: Recriminations; Wines; Cheese; and Truffles.

[Sandra Levine]

One of my favorite books in any category: Beautiful Swimmers -- Watermen, Crabs and the Chesapeake Bay

[yvonne johnson]

it aint easy being cheesy, on Jul 15 2002, 02:46 PM, said:

Mark Kurlansky.....Cod and Salt

Couldn't agree more. I just mentioned Kurlansky's "Cod: A Biography of the Fish That Changed the World" on another thread. It's now out in paperback. I've just dipped into his "Salt: A World History", but it loooks good too.

[Liza]

Sandy,
Who's the author?

[Sandra Levine]

Oops. William Warner.

[Liza]

Merci. And thanks, of course of course!

[jaybee]

My librabry will enjoy an expansion. Keep 'em coming.

[John Whiting]

Kurlansky's two books are a wonderful read, but they show signs of having been written by a journalist rather than a scholar. Now, that's a good thing when it contributes to readability, but it's unfortunate when it makes for incompleteness or inaccuracy in a work which is liable to become an authoritative classic.

_Cod_ pays a lot of attention to Gloucester, Mass, which it should, but not to the exclusion of Cape Cod -- especially Provincetown -- and Martha's Vineyard. You won't learn from him that Provincetown was the principal whaling port in the early part of the 19th century, or that it was the principal cod port for many years thereafter. It's as though Kurlansky went to Gloucester, spent enough time to get a large body of material, and then closed his files. It's the pattern of a journalist with a deadline.

I haven't read _Salt_ carefully, but I've seen enough to learn that, in bringing it up to date, he makes no mention of the part that excessive use of salt plays in various major world health problems. Now, I don't want a diatribe on its evils, but there should at least be an acknowledgement of the fact that it has become, for many, a harmful addiction. It would be like writing a book on the social history of alcohol without even mentioning alcoholism.

[helenas]

jaybee, on Jul 15 2002, 04:03 PM, said:

My librabry will enjoy an expansion.  Keep 'em coming.  

Do you want my copy of Brenner's "Fourth Star"?

[jaybee]

Quote

It's the pattern of a journalist with a deadline.

Now I think I understand your comment on the China article.

[Fat Guy]

Another vote for Tommy here.

[John Whiting]

Quote

Now I think I understand your comment on the China article.

That wasn't really intended as a criticism. One expects different things from a newspaper article and from a meticulously assembled book.

[Fat Guy]

Can I vote for Tommy twice?

[CathyL]

John Thorne, especially 'Serious Pig' and 'Pot on the Fire.'

[yvonne johnson]

John Whiting, on Jul 15 2002, 04:04 PM, said:

Kurlansky's two books are a wonderful read, but they show signs of having been written by a journalist rather than a scholar. Now, that's a good thing when it contributes to readability, but it's unfortunate when it makes for incompleteness or inaccuracy in a work which is liable to become an authoritative classic......I haven't read _Salt_ carefully, but I've seen enough to learn that, in bringing it up to date, he makes no mention of the part that excessive use of salt plays in various major world health problems.

About the omission of discussion of health-related problems in "Salt." I was at a Kurlansky book reading a few months ago, and someone asked him specifically about this and he was almost unwilling to broach the subject. What I remember him saying was that he was not a health expert and he'd prefer to leave that topic to others. He also suggested that the medical picture wasn't clear.

As for errors, K. maybe overextends his thesis that salt is everywhere to be found in language. For instance he argues the salacious comes from "salt" as at one time salt was a fertility symbol, but this may be incorrect etymologically.

As for Cod, I enjoyed it very much as his own experience of working on trawlers comes through, and I valued the history on the Basques.

[John Whiting]

Quote

As for Cod, I enjoyed it very much . . .

So did I, as I said at the offset. It's a wonderful read. But food historian Andy Smith -- who also likes the book -- says there are a number of factual errors that more careful scholarship would have corrected. I didn't have time to ask him to go into detail.

Quote

About the omission of discussion of health-related problems in "Salt." I was at a Kurlansky book reading a few months ago, and someone asked him specifically about this and he was almost unwilling to broach the subject. What I remember him saying was that he was not a health expert and he'd prefer to leave that topic to others. He also suggested that the medical picture wasn't clear.

That disappoints me -- it's a copout. As the author of such a wide-ranging overview, it was his job to make himself enough of an expert to deal with those disciplines which were essential to his subject.

[John Whiting]

As I've often said, I'm partial to those books whose literary style embodies an integral relationship between a location, its people and its cuisine -- in which "terroir" includes not only the land, the flora and the fauna, but also the native inhabitants who make distinctive foods out of what is around them. Four come immediately to mind, two from France and two from Italy.

Peter Graham, _Mourjou: The Life and Food of an Auvergne Village_, 1998, Viking

James Bentley, _Life and Food in the Dordogne_, 1986, New Amsterdam

Patience Gray, _Honey from a Weed: Feasting and Fasting in Tuscany, Catalonia, the Cyclades and Apulia_, 1986, Prospect Books

Elizabeth Romer, _The Tuscan Year: Life and Food in an Italian Valley_, 1984, Weidenfeld and Nicolson

These are all noteworthy for the ways in which they do *not* resemble the slick condescention of Peter Mayle's various Provence rip-offs. Each of the latter, of course, has sold many more copies than the first four put together, thus proving whatever you like about the great reading public and the infallibility of the market.

[Steve Plotnicki]

John - I think there are so few good books in this category that when I saw the various lists and additions, I couldn't think of any to add off the top of my head. But then you added the Elizabeth Romer book which I forgot about and is a fantastic book. But I wonder why you needed to take that gratuitous shot at Peter Mayle in your last post since his books have nothing to do with this topic? Can't you just reconcile that his audience was the million dollar villa crowd and the audience for the books you mentioned was the fishing pole with an ugly cod hanging from the end of it crowd? Each one has merit to it. For Peter Mayle told a tale of how to escape the rat race in order to live somewhere beautiful. Not how to catch cod and to salt it.

[g.johnson]

Steve Plotnicki, on Jul 15 2002, 08:22 PM, said:

Can't you just reconcile that [Mayle's] audience was the million dollar villa crowd

Since Mayle's books were best sellers in the UK and were made into a TV series this characterization seems typically wide of the mark.

[Steve Plotnicki]

G. - Do you not see that I purposely exagerated EACH example in order to make the point? It's an American thing to make sure we communicate the point properly. It works well but is a real flytrap for pedants.

[g.johnson]

Steve Plotnicki, on Jul 15 2002, 08:32 PM, said:

G. - Do you not see that I purposely exagerated EACH example in order to make the point? It's an American thing to make sure we communicate the point properly. It works well but is a real flytrap for pedants.

Plotters: You got me. I fell for it. I really did think that you were serious in your posts. Now I realize that no one could be that dim. You are the supreme ironist. Congrats.