Best Food Profiles

[Chris Amirault]

To me, the classic is John McPhee's "Brigand de Cuisine," the 1979 New Yorker profile of "Otto," chef and owner of a small restaurant in upstate NY. (You can find it in his collection Giving Good Weight, though it has dozens of typos.) What's your favorite written food profile? Links are particularly appreciated.

[rotuts]

Wow. I was just thinking of this essay the other day and wondered if I could ever find it again.

many thanks. its one of my favorites as are most of McPhees works.

ill get it from the lib. now.

[Dave the Cook]

Bill Buford's take on Mario Batali, "The Secret of Excess" (also in the New Yorker) evolved into the best-selling Heat, but the book (which admittedly is less about Batali and more about Buford) wasn't as focused, energetic or evocative as the original:

. . . one of my last recollections is of Batali around three in the morning -- back arched, eyes closed, an unlit cigarette dangling from his mouth, his red Converse high-tops pounding the floor -- playing air guitar to Neil Young’s “Southern Man.” Batali had recently turned forty, and I remember thinking that it was a long time since I’d seen a grown man playing air guitar. He then found the soundtrack for “Buena Vista Social Club,” tried to salsa with one of the guests (who promptly fell over a sofa), tried to dance with her boyfriend (who was unresponsive), and then put on a Tom Waits CD and sang along as he went into the kitchen, where, with a machinelike speed, he washed the dishes and mopped the floor.