Culinary Memoirs: What’s the Point?
They usually start by describing a kitchen from that vast desert common to all of us: memory. Filled with nostalgia, …
Category Archives: Cooking
Recipes from the White Hart Inn: An 18th-Century Cookbook for Today’s Cook
The writing of cookbooks often becomes fraught with injured egos and accusations bordering on the libelous. William Verral’s Recipes from the …
An Imam in Paris: Al-Tahtawi’s Visit to France (1826–1831) by Rifa’a Rafi’ al-Tahtawi, Translated by Daniel L. Newman
“For readers interested in early encounters between European and Arabic culture, An Imam in Paris: Al-Tahtawi’s Visit to France (1826–1831) provides an alluring …
La Tour d’argent poinct ne leurre*, or, Pressed Duck, Blood and Guts and All
What is sauce for the goose may be sauce for the gander but is not necessarily sauce for the chicken, …
War. Cook. Eat. Love.
Annia Ciezadlo, author of Day of Honey* (Free Press, 2011) , isn’t the first person to cook her way through …
Prometheus Unbound: New Evidence on Humans’ Early Use of Fire
I woke up this morning fully intending to end my two weeks of silence on this blog – due to …
Un vrai canard: Duck and French Culinary Traditions
Do you associate ducks, along with snails and frogs, with traditional French cuisine? If so, you’re hardly alone. I do, …
The Surprising French Kitchen
One of the best things about owning a lot of books is that I tend to forget what I have. …
Tasting France in Senegal
The ocean there, it’s infinite, a place where horizon and water meet like a seam in a dress, a little …
Who were the Cooks? What We Know (More or Less) about Kitchen Servants (1)
While studying The Complete Indian Housekeeper and Cook (Steel and Gardiner, 1888), I found the instructions concerning servants a fascinating …
