Mushrooms | Gherkins & Tomatoes

Mushroom: A Global History – New book coming out

April 28, 2013 by Cynthia Bertelsen

I am thrilled to announce that my new book about the culinary history of mushrooms is due out in September 2013. A sneak preview: Known as the meat of the vegetable world, mushrooms have their ardent supporters as well as their fierce detractors. Hobbits go crazy over them, while Diderot thought they should be “sent back to the dung heap where they are born.” In Mushroom, Cynthia D. Bertelsen examines the colorful history of these divisive edible fungi. As she reveals, […]

Categories: Agriculture, Books, Cookbooks, Cooking, France, Local foods, Mushrooms, Photography, Reference • Tags: Mushrooms, Reaktion Books

Street criers of Paris (Art credit: Francois Gerard, 1700)

Cris de Paris: The Street Criers of Paris in Bygone Days

November 4, 2011 by Cynthia Bertelsen

Mushrooms abound in the markets of France in October and early November. And since I found stalls bursting with all sorts of mushrooms, I began to wonder if there were any “street cries” or market songs or whatever you might wish to call them peculiar to mushrooms. Associated with various métiers (or trades) dating back to the Middle Ages, these cries/songs provide some hints about foods sold and the way people like ambulatory vendors advertised their wares in days before […]

Categories: France, French Cooking, Mushrooms, Photography • Tags: France, Mushrooms, Oysters, Paris, Pleurottes

Grits, Georgia, and Escaoutoun on My Mind

July 7, 2011 by Cynthia Bertelsen

Big Hominy Grits (Photo credit: James Bridle) These days, when you drive through the endless piney woods of low-country Georgia and South Carolina, you will see fields of corn, and not so much cotton. And, if you’re lucky when you stop for breakfast, there will be grits on the menu. Not just any old grits, not instant, God forbid, but the real deal: stone-ground little bitty bits of corn flecked with chaff and germ. People who grew up with grits […]

Categories: African Cooking, American Cooking, French Cooking • Tags: Arthur Barlowe, Escaoutoun, Espelette pepper, Florence Fabricant, France, French Cooking, Gascony, Grits, Hélène Darroze, Maize, Mushrooms, Périgord, Southern cooking, Walter Raleigh

Scenes from La France Profonde

April 1, 2011 by Cynthia Bertelsen

Categories: Agriculture, Cattle, France, French Cooking, Mushrooms, Photography • Tags: Cattle, En plein air, Food Photography, France, French cuisine, Mushrooms, Restaurants

Renoir's "Luncheon of the Boating Party"

FOOD FOR ART’S SAKE: Eating with the Impressionists

February 7, 2011 by Cynthia Bertelsen

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.

Categories: Art, Bibliographies, Food Columns, French Cooking, Mushrooms, Pies--Savory, Potatoes, Recipes • Tags: Artists, Claude Monet, Cuisine Francaise, Fish, Food, France, French Cooking, Impressionism, Luncheon of the Boating Party, Mushrooms, Potato, Quiche, Recipes, Salon des Refusés, Shrimp

Scenes from La France Profonde

January 23, 2011 by Cynthia Bertelsen

[Unless otherwise noted, all photos by C. Bertelsen]

Categories: Art, Chicken, Cooking, France, French Cooking, Mushrooms, Photography • Tags: Chanterelles, Cuisine Francaise, France, French Cooking, Mushrooms, Pomegranates