The Culinary Imagination

Right now, Life is clawing away, making exorbitant demands on my time. Think 24/7 with no let-up in sight. That said, I wanted to share a delicious find with you, something to really sink your teeth into, not balm for the brain but ballast instead.

Grab yourself a copy of Sandra M. Gilbert’s The Culinary Imagination: From Myth to Modernity (W. W. Norton, 2014). Now. Don’t wait for your birthday. Or a holiday. Forget pleading impecuniosity.

In preparation for another project, I’ve spent the better part of several days reading Gilbert’s erudite take on the culinary world that’s been constructed over the centuries. I find it such an exciting piece of work, something with such much depth that I can only say this:

Read. It. Now.

Granted, it’s a bit overly Eurocentric. But that’s OK. Someday someone else will write the tome celebrating the arts of the world’s different regions and how these pertain to the food of the same. For now, you have Gilbert and her well-written take on food and culture. And a delectable feast it is, indeed.