The Expert (French) Cook in Enlightenment France: A Review
If you scrutinize sixteenth-century Dutch artist Pieter Aertsen’s painting, “The Cook in Front of the Stove,” you will see a …
Tag Archives: Cooks
Vivre en l’Outre-Mer, or, The Trials of Living in French Congo ca. 1923: Part III
Once settled into their bungalow overlooking Stanley Pool in Brazzaville, the Vassals faced the problem of hiring household help, especially …
Thomas Jefferson: The Francophile Who Became the First U.S. “Foodie”
Thomas Jefferson. President. Scientist. Writer. Man of many passions, some hidden, some not. In his writings and in his actions, …
Chartreuse and the Vallée du Désert: The Elixir of Life
While writing my brief “Gherkins & Tomatoes” blog post, “Cookbooks for a Desert Island, or an Autumn Afternoon,” I thumbed …
Ladies of the Pen and the Cookpot: Elizabeth David
Foxed, spotted, acid-rich, the paper crackles under the slightest touch of my hands. The book’s an old Penguin paperback, worth …
Ladies of the Pen and the Cookpot: The Other Mrs. (Lydia) Child
Events constantly reinforce the old saying, “History repeats itself.” Like the other Mrs. Child (Julia, that is), Mrs. Lydia Maria …
Ladies of the Pen and the Cookpot: The Other Mrs. (Abby) Fisher
Before M. F. K. Fisher, sometimes known as plain Mrs. Fisher, there was Mrs. Abby Fisher. And Abby Fisher’s personage …
Ladies of the Pen and the Cookpot: Patience Gray
HONEY FROM A WEED: Fasting and Feasting in Tuscany, Catalonia, the Cyclades and Apulia, by Patience Gary (Harper & Row, …
Ladies of the Pen and the Cookpot: Edna Lewis
Who was Edna Lewis? Why call her an American Idol? Before she wrote The Edna Lewis Cookbook, The Taste of …
Ladies of the Pen and the Cookpot: M. F. K. FISHER
Anyone who reveres food and eats oysters, who yearns for security and longs for love, and who seeks out experiences and thinks much must discover M. F. K. Fisher. Just who was M. F. K. Fisher and why did James Beard, that gentle giant of the food world, call her a national treasure? And why did John Updike refer to her as “the poet of the appetites”?
