James Villas, Between Bites

[Wilfrid]

I have been reading Between Bites, a memoir by James Villas, for many years the food and wine editor of Town and Country magazine. The title is dangerously close to the immortal Between Meals, and Villas is no Liebling. He is, though, pleasant company in a mannered, old school kind of way. His tastes and his views on dining are definitely old school - one chapter inclues a paean of praise for the Veau D'Or!

The first chapter recounts his chance meeting with Alexandre Dumaine while studying in France. Thereafter, he seems to have stumbled almost unwittingly into a succession of encounters with major chefs and food writers. He makes it all seem very casual. There are some funny stories - the rare interview with MJK Fisher he conducted while retching from the after effects of oyster-poisoning - and the portraits of the editors he worked for are entertaining. And he deals with his lively private life - his, er, confirmed batchelorhood - candidly but with a light hand.

I particularly wanted to mention some opinions he expresses on topics we've discussed here. He believes that customers do indeed have some obligations to the restaurants they patronize (he is thinking upscale restaurants, of course):

1. Dress decently.

2. Never pour your own wine.

3. Ask the captain's name (anyone do that?).

4. Smile occasionally, and say thank you.

5. Show an intelligent interest in the menu and wine list.

He also claims that palming the captain a $10 or $20 bill will certainly get you better service ($10??!!); and that waitstaff particularly appreciate being handed a (cash) tip with an expression of thanks, although he acknowledges that this rarely happens.

Another of his themes caught my attention: the ascension of celebrity chefs and concomitant decline of great restaurateurs. He acknowledges Maccioni, the Massets and Tony May in New York, and says nice things about Danny Meyer; but he misses the days of Soule, Baum, and the other great dictators.

Finally, in the chapter describing his undercover stint as a captain at Le Perroquet in Chicago, he points out some service rules, two of which I memorably recall seeing broken recently: never turn your back on the customers (Cello) and never, ever, touch the table (La Grenouille).

The book is only slightly frustrating in that, having read the genesis of many of his articles, one would then like to read them.

[Liza]

I read a collection of his...what's the name now...and enjoyed the pieces. Yes, to old world tastes - his descriptions of his many crossings on the QEII make me wish I was older, richer, and much older and richer than that.

[helenas]

Wonderful book written by a very stylish person. True, it reminds of "Between Meals",

as well as of "Reflexions", but somehow i find both too depressing (sorry, Wilfrid).

Very interesting chapter on Paula Wolfert: quite unexpected image, and now i like her even more. And Frank Zachary: what a person!

[Wilfrid]

Wonderful book written by a very stylish person. True, it reminds of "Between Meals",

as well as of "Reflexions", but somehow i find both too depressing (sorry, Wilfrid).

Reflexions?

[helenas]

Richard Olney's...

[Wilfrid]

Oh yes. And I haven't read that yet, so thanks.

[CathyL]

Oh yes.  And I haven't read that yet, so thanks.

I did, and almost wish I hadn't. Richard Olney is a hero of mine, and his autobiography makes him out to be mean-spirited, catty and difficult. Although I still admire his work, the sour taste of Reflexions lingers. It's risky to learn too much about the private person behind the public face!

[helenas]

Cathy, you're so right about Reflexions, that's why i stopped reading before my image of Olney got ruined completely.

Tha's why reading Villas is so rewarding: i guess he had a lot negative to say about certain people, he just didn't bother, and wrote about people who he loved.

[CathyL]

There's a wonderful story about Arthur Koestler: A woman accosted him at a party, gushing about how much she adored his writing and how thrilled she was to meet him. Koestler replied, "Madam, to like a writer and then meet the writer is akin to liking foie gras and then meeting the goose."

[gknl]

What do (the collective) you think about his old school taste? Is it simply him being caught in a time warp and unable to appreciate new cooking? Some of the stuff he described as being awful sounded pretty good.

I enjoy his writing, American Taste, the oddly titled Villas at Table, and the My Mother's Southern trilogy are all good.

I do envy many of his food experiences, that's for sure.

[Priscilla]

I am very interested to read Richard Olney's memoir...I don't mind cranky, catty, etc. Flawed--don't mind flawed. Everyone is flawed.

Also I know I tend to cut thought leaders I admire loads of slack, so maybe it's a don't-ask-me situation. The only thing that's kept me from Reflexions so far is I have not, in the perhaps-feeble attempts, found it. Can't remember if I checked the library, will do so today.

Hard to know, really. Seems to me, for instance, Craig Claiborne's autobiography, A Feast Made for Laughter, bespeaks a nice person, as does the rest of his work I've read. And yet, after he died, there were lesser lights giving their thoughts all over the place about how CC was not so "nice."

[Liza]

The December 2002 Saveur has a review of "Between Bites" which notes that "the chief excitement here is electrifying gossip that pulls no punches". The review is included in the list of editor's favorite new books...

A Villas piece AND a piece by Steven A. Shaw are included in Best Food Writing 2002.

[IrishCream]

Long live James Villas. I enjoy his writing thoroughly, old-fashioned though it may be. I'll never forget his description of the young French socialite (in a trendy bistro) who orders sardines and proceeds to savor them, alternately slathered with butter and mustard. I had never eatan a sardine, but that passage inspired me...just as MFK Fisher inspired me to try my first oyster on the half shell.

[helenas]

Villas' book is out (Crazy for Casseroles : 275 All-American Hot-Dish Classics )

[Priscilla]

Reading Between Bites just now. While generally unfamiliar with his work, and specifically unfamiliar with Town and Country mag, I have always harbored good feelings about James Villas after he wrote, I forget where, Gourmet, perhaps, an appreciation of Craig Claiborne after his CC's death.

And, lots of good stories with just an inordinate number of superultracasual pass-bys of the likes of Tom Wolfe and Princess Grace and so forth. In fact I do keep thinking of Wolfe as I read, what with the Southernness and the blonde hair and the endless parade of bespoke English suits. Would have liked to read Wolfe on Villas, in fact.

Can't remember a Wolfe nonfiction piece on the food world, although it seems a tight good fit, doesn't it? Maybe it's yet to come, if he can for a moment take his nose out of those gigantic sprawling ass-kicking novels he's been writing two of.

[Wilfrid]

I wish Brett Easton Ellis would write something about food. The satire of 1980s New York dining sprinkled between atrocities in American Psycho was priceless. He has written about menswear (non-fictionally) I believe.

[Priscilla]

Wilfrid! I am shocked-comma-all-caps-SHOCKED. You mean, worth alloting reading time to?

Tom Wolfe's long-ago essay on British tailors, what of that.

[Wilfrid]

My memory of that Wolfe piece is dim. Personally, I think it's worth reading the whole of American Psycho once, although I won't defend every blood-soaked page of it. Then it's worth going back endlessly and re-reading the chapters about food, music, New York social manners and so on which occur between the horrors. Immensely funny (and frighteningly contemporary in parts).

[Vanessa]

What a strange coincidence: bought the James Villas book cheap by chance today, remembering there had been a thread on it some time. Come home, log on, and find that the old thread has just been resurrected. Having only read the first few pages on the bus on the way home, my first impressions are just: what a name-dropper, who hates purple potatoes for some strange reason, and doesn't believe in the seriousness of food. Will post anon when I've got through the book - he certainly has a pleasant style of writing. I do have a couple of his cookbooks that seem to be in homage to his mum and Southern cooking. This'll make me go back and look at them again.

v

[Priscilla]

Vanessa, I agree about the namedropping.

I will confess to finding it interesting, the see-sawing battle for preeminence between the Names in the Food World and the Food in the Food World, and which Names also care about the Food and which do not so much.

[Priscilla]

Following myself! Can this be?

Anyway, I liked this book very much, not least because he James Villas puts the credit where (I feel) it's due and praises Craig Claiborne's huge, honest, sophisticating influence on American eating and cooking.

Interesting the variety among American food writers, really -- those that are not redundant hacks. Not much variety among redundant hacks, although I suppose among TYPES of redundant hacks there is variety, but who gives a flying fig.

And he James Villas mentions complimentarily the late Chef Louis Szathmary, of the late Bakery in Chicago, whom I admired but haven't found others who even know who he is.

And his first meeting with M.F.K. Fisher, who seems to come off way better on her own turf than when she's abroad, as pictured in Richard Olney's Reflexions. I suppose we are all of us made up of good as well as bad impressions, aren't we.

[kpurvis]

And he James Villas mentions complimentarily the late Chef Louis Szathmary, of the late Bakery in Chicago, whom I admired but haven't found others who even know who he is.

Priscilla -- it's a bit off the subject, but I just came across Chef Louis last week. The culinary archives and food museum at Johnson & Wales' main campus in Providence, R.I., was started with the chef's collection. I was told that the curator. Barbara Kuck, is also his daughter. She didn't mention that on the tour, for whatever reason, but I came away impressed with her knowledge of food history.

I've been reading this post with interest, but had avoided joining in because I know Jim. His mother, the venerable Martha Pearl, is a neighbor of mine. I run into her in the supermarket regularly and she still gets out to the farmers markets on the occasional summer morning. For those of you who have read Jim's books about his mother: She is exactly as described. She's in her late 80s and as feisty as ever.