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 …
Tag Archives: Food
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.
‘Nuff Said: Stereotypes of France and its Food
Stereotypes, caricatures, clichés, symbolism, what-have-you abound in our world and cause us to essentially dehumanize others. These photos provide examples …
FRANCE — HOW THE LOVE AFFAIR BEGAN*
Man is nostalgia and a search for communion. ~ Octavio Paz, The Labyrinth of Solitude ~ “We began our lunch …
MORE THAN MEETS THE PIE
The other day I saw another sign of autumn: a smashed pumpkin lying along the side of the …
Hildegard von Bingen, First Female Food Writer in the West?
You may have come a long way, baby, but it’s taken a while. Food historians generally agree that Sabina Welserin …
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”?
