New Clothes Always Help
Today Gherkins & Tomatoes / Cornichons & Tomates begins its fourth year of blogging by donning a new look. The …
Category Archives: Food writing
Celebration! With Champagne …
Gherkins & Tomatoes / Cornichons & Tomates celebrates an anniversary in a couple of days, and I would like to …
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 …
Dining Alone – Not the Loneliest Number that You’ll Ever Do: Just Ask Louis XIV
King Louis XIV did it. M. F. K. Fisher did it. The faceless man in Edward Hopper’s painting, “Nighthawks,” did …
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 …
The Duke of Newcastle’s Pique, or, A Good Chef is Hard to Find
The diarist Samuel Pepys, no mean observer of human foibles that relieve the monotony of day-to-day human life, recorded — …
Monkfish: A Little Love, French-Style
I first gazed on his ugly mug in French-influenced Morocco, more precisely at the fish market in Rabat. And like …
FOOD FOR ART’S SAKE: Eating with the Impressionists
In celebrating art, the Western world owes a tremendous debt to France. Once a mecca for Impressionist artists and others, France nurtured both their souls and their bellies. And in France, art goes back a long way, back to the time of Cro-Magnon man who left his indelible marks on the dim damp walls of the caves of Lascaux in the Dordogne area of southwestern France.
A Nobleman, a Saint, and LSD: The Lingering Legacy of St. Anthony’s Fire and Ergot du seigle (Ergot of Rye) in France
Imagine this: Lying on your filthy straw bed, one rat running pell-mell over your burning toes (or what’s left of …
Gifts of French Food: Blogs to Hold in Wonder
With each gust of drafty air from the front door, the candles shimmer, and the flickering light scintillates off blood-red …
