foodie books!

Erin · Posted: Fri Jan 07, 2005 4:25 pm Post subject:

I will have to find that cookbook, it sounds great. Let's cook!!
_________________
"It's watery....and yet there's a smack of ham."

"It's hot ham water."

Barbara · Posted: Tue Jan 18, 2005 9:55 pm Post subject:

While browsing my bookshelves this morning I came across a book I read several years ago which is part of the Modern Library Food Series. The series has been edited by Ruth Reichl and lists 7 other foodie books. The one I have is called The Passionate Epicure By Marcel Rouff . It is an English translation of the original French. The main character Dodin-Bouffant is based loosley on Anthelme Brillat-Savarin.
_________________
Barbara

cmschma · Posted: Wed Jan 19, 2005 12:02 am Post subject:

Any of Toni Morrison's novels will make you hunger for the taste of down-home cooking! Food is such an integral part of the culture about which she writes.

Peruse the first chapter of Love and you'll read about a presentation of shrimp so elaborately described, you'll be on your way to the seafood market by the end of the chapter!

petitegourmande · Joined: 01 Jan 2005 Posts: 1 Location: nyc

My favorite foodie book is "When French Women Cook" by Madeleine Kamman, first published in 1976. It is a lovely and personal memoir of cooking through stories about the women who taught Madeleine to cook as a young girl (before and during the war). Their personalities come through in the recipes and stories they share. It truly is a remembrance of France of days gone by; I read it again and again. It's a shame not too many people seem familiar with this one. To read it is to savor it. What a treasure.

cigalechanta · Joined: 27 Dec 2004 Posts: 200 Location: cambridge, ma.

She is well known as hewr book. I met her when she had a restaurant here and was very snappy and I think that is why she left. Too bad her food was great.
_________________
Sharing food with another human being is an intimate act that should not be indulged in lightly
..................................MFK Fisher

Barbara · Posted: Wed Jan 19, 2005 2:06 am Post subject:

Petite gourmande - I've just ordered (from https://www.alibris.com) When French Women Cook. It is out of print but they have lots of second hand copies available. ...and not expensive. Thanks for the recommendation.
_________________
Barbara

lee_loreya · Joined: 30 Nov 2004 Posts: 30 Location: France

the harry potter books have great depictions of food.
And the movies as well. I remember when I saw the Sorcerer's Stone in the end of the afternoon and the halloween feast was unbearable:so many gorgoeous dishes...

StephanieJo · Joined: 26 Jan 2005 Posts: 1

Amanda Hesser wrote an entertaining novel/cookbook called Cooking for Mr. Latte. She was (is?) a food editor for a NYC newspaper.

cigalechanta · Joined: 27 Dec 2004 Posts: 200 Location: cambridge, ma.

Ruth Reichl has edited a wonderful book; "Remembrance of Things PariS, sixty years of writing from Gourmet."
Jaques Pépin's charming auto-biography, "The Apprentice."
_________________
Sharing food with another human being is an intimate act that should not be indulged in lightly
..................................MFK Fisher

mel p · Joined: 29 Sep 2004 Posts: 10 Location: hamburg, germany

what? no Elizabeth David fans? i love an omelette and a glass of wine, and her "real" cookbooks (french provincial cooking et al) are also very entertaining and readable.

"kitchen confidential", of course, jeffrey steingarten's books, "looking for flavour" by barbara santich- a real winner... mk fisher, of course,

i totally agree with the laura ingalls fans- i used to love the stories of rows of preserved fruit, tapping the maple syrup from the trees, etc. - so different from my own childhood.

bugger! there are heaps more favourites stored away in boxes back in australia. why can't i remember what they all are????

Lisa · Joined: 10 Feb 2005 Posts: 20 Location: New York City, USA

Mmmm, what a wonderful topic.

Here are some titles that come to mind as I wade happily though this thread. Theyre not all food books per se but they all brought me great joy when they spoke of food.

A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, Betty Smith. My favorite book ever and I can still remember the first time I read it, at age 11, a tattered library copy with an ad for war bonds on the back. Wonderful in a million ways, including the way she writes about food. Francie buying bread and seeing the old man with a toe poking through his shoe the amazing things her mother Katie can make with stale bread the way Francie sits with her hand around her cup of coffee throughout her meal and then pours it down the sink (her Aunt Sissy says theyre too poor to waste the coffee like that, and Katie says that if pouring a cup of coffee down the drain makes Francie feel rich for even a moment, she gets to have that).

Home Cooking, Laurie Colwin. Another fine memoir/cookbook. I felt so at home reading this Laurie wrote so lovingly about food but also believed it could be easy to have a life full of cooking and eating with people you love. Thats all I want really

The Namesake, Jhumpa Lahiri. There are great descriptions of food throughout the book, from the very beginning when Ashima tries to recreate a Calcutta snack food in her Boston kitchen during her pregnancy, to the Bengali food that she cooks throughout the book, to the wonderful descriptions of cooking and eating when Gogol is dating Maxine (in Chelsea and in New Hampshire).

Sassafrass, Cypress, & Indigo, Ntozake Shange. This book is magic. Theres nothing in it that didnt woo my senses its full of music and poetry, both literally and in the voices of the characters. Food plays a central role throughout and there are some incredible recipes has anyone ever tried any of them? I havent but always mean to

Dont Lets Go to the Dogs Tonight, Alexandra Fuller. Although Fullers voice is quite different from Shanges, theres something similar about them like, Im not sure you can write this way about a place unless you love it deeply. In this case its southern Africa, where Fuller grew up. There are great food passages throughout, from the bread and curling butter her mother offers to the earnest American missionaries to the Christmas pudding to the stew that a very poor family shares with Fuller. This was one of my favorite reads from last year, the sort that you mourn in finishing. I was so wrapped up in the world she lived in as a child and had quite a hard time closing the book and realizing I was in fact in New York City, not Rhodesia.

Ive yet to read any MFK Fisher and want to badly. Ive been enjoying the thread on her books as well. I cant wait to hear more suggestions from all yall!

Barbara · Posted: Sat Feb 12, 2005 6:55 am Post subject:

Wow Lisa I have not heard of any of those books. I'll be at the library when the doors open tomorrow morning. I particularly like the sound of the Alexandra Fuller book.

You will love MFK Fisher.
_________________
Barbara

ejm · Joined: 01 Feb 2005 Posts: 51 Location: Canada

I too really loved Laurie Colwin's books, especially "Home cooking" and Madeleine Kamman's "When French Women Cook A Gastronomic Memoir", as well as Steingarten and Bourdain.

Peter Mayle's books are terrific: "A Year in Provence", "French Lessons: Adventures with Knife, Fork, and Corkscrew", "Acquired Tastes", "Encore Provence" etc. etc.

And I also absolutely loved "Under the Tuscan Sun" by Frances Mayes (didn't see the movie of the same name though - I gather the screenwriters decided that her story wasn't interesting enough and changed it....)

Thanks to all of you for naming books I'm not familiar with - I have several on order now!

mel p · Joined: 29 Sep 2004 Posts: 10 Location: hamburg, germany

lisa: Sassafrass, Cypress, & Indigo!!! i'd totally forgotten about that book: it's great!

amazingly it's actually available at amazon in germany (lots of things are not). i'm so ordering one the next time i've got few spare euros!!!

Corey · Joined: 23 Feb 2005 Posts: 12 Location: Keene NH, USA

On Food and Cooking: Harold McGee: This is one of the most spectacular books ever writen on food. Well its writen on paper not on food, but anyway it delves deep into the science that is the foundation of the cullinary arts. It can be a challenge to get through at times, but I find it so enlightening that I keep checking it out from the library.

Any thing by Alton Brown, this man is my hero, and a large part of the reason that I developed my passion for food. All hail AB http://www.altonbrown.com
_________________
Whiped, Beaten, Denatured: Journey of an aspiring chef. http://denatured.greenkri.com