And to Think it all Started with a French Cookbook: Forty Years of Chez Panisse
Alice Waters often said that Elizabeth David’s French Provincial Cooking started the whole thing, meaning Chez Panisse the restaurant. And of …
Category Archives: Cookbooks
What was French about Mexican Cuisine?
When you bite into a chicken taco or scoop up guacamole, you probably won’t be thinking about France. Yet, France …
Couscous in France: It’s a Long Story
To look at all the Maghrebi/North African restaurants in Paris, you might be tempted to think the food they serve …
Léon Isnard: Bringing the Cuisines of Africa to France
“It seems that the word couscous is a Gallic version of “rac keskes,” which means “crushed small.” ~ Leon Isnard …
Parsleyed Ham and Kitchen Breezes: The Letters of M. F. K. Fisher and Julia Child
Sometimes words, both spoken and written, take on terrible power. Use the wrong word and, at the sound, someone’s heart …
Fatéma Hal, Queen of Moroccan Cuisine in France
Fatéma Hal, a Moroccan chef with a penchant for busting female stereotypes, cooks traditional Moroccan food at her Parisian restaurant, …
The Cookbooks on Their Shelves: The First English-Language French Cookbooks in the United States, or, Who was Sulpice Barué?
Much has been made of Thomas Jefferson’s influence on the “Frenchification” of cuisine in the young United States and in …
Auguste Escoffier: Le Guide Culinaire, Revised
New, revised version of Escoffier’s premier work, unabridged fourth edition from 1921. In English, glory be. Translated from the 1921 …
Will Verral’s Masterpiece of 1759: A Complete System of Cookery
The English could never catch a break in the kitchen. Why, as early as 1759, in A Complete System of …
Why Bother with Culinary History?
A friend recently asked me, “Why is culinary history important?” Actually, her words came out of her mouth a little …
