The Tenth Muse

Starred review from July 9, 2007
The title of this testament to one woman’s appetite comes from Brillat-Savarin, who wrote of a 10th muse—Gasterea, goddess of the pleasures of taste. Many food writers would argue that this 10th muse is actually Judith Jones. For nearly half a century, Jones, an editor of literary fiction and a senior vice-president at Knopf, has served as midwife to some of the most culturally significant cookbooks of our time, introducing readers to newly discovered talents like Julia Child, Marcella Hazan, Madhur Jaffrey and Claudia Roden, to name but a few. In this quiet, spare memoir, set against the shifting landscape of modern cookery in America, Jones reveals herself to be every bit as evangelical about good food and honest cooking as her authors, locating the points where her relationships with these writer-gastronomes and her own gustatory education converged. She ran an illegal restaurant in Paris, learned from Julia Child to de-tendon a goose (a set of maneuvers involving a broomstick), received a tutorial in fresh-bagged squirrel from Edna Lewis and counted James Beard among her mentors. At the end, the book is tinged with sadness over the decline of serious home cooking and the current fixation on dishing up fast and easy mediocrities. But Jones’s belief in the primordial importance of cooking well is ultimately inspiring, and it fires these pages as it has fired her life.

October 15, 2007
Jones (coauthor, "The L.L. Bean Game and Fish Cookbook"; "The Book of New New England Cookery") is a longtime editor and friend to many culinary celebrities, including Julia Child, James Beard, and Chuck Williams (of Williams-Sonoma fame). Jones traces the interesting history of American trends in food during recent timesfrom prepared food to ethnic foods to vegetarian fare and beyond. Her stories of Child reinforce our notion that she was indeed a colorful and talented cook; we also find out how Beard came to be known as a bread-making wizard. There are useful, straightforward recipes for hermit bars, "Frenchified" meatloaf, bread pudding, frozen maple mousse, flummery, and some harder-to-find dishes. In addition to mouthwatering descriptions of various dishes, Jones offers an inside scoop on the publishing world. The story of her life is enjoyable in itself, and the added tales of the famous are the frosting. For most public libraries and academic libraries with a special interest in cookery.Elizabeth Rogers, CEF Lib. Syst., Plattsburgh, NY

Copyright 2007 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from December 15, 2007
In her entertaining, wondrously informative remembrance of her rich life, written with not a paragraph or even a word of pretension or boastfulness, cookbook editor Jones recounts experiences that food and book lovers will admire andenvy and, when the book is finished, wish took uptwice as many pages. Jones reaches back into her childhood for clear memories of signs and indications that food and its preparation would always be a source of delight. Clearly woven into her remembrances, like a bright thread, is her abiding interest in things French; in fact, after college, she journeyed there and took up long-term residence, meeting the man who would becomeher husband andabsorbing the Gallic delight in scents and sauces. Once back living in New York, she worked as an editor at Knopf, sort of falling into editing cookbooks. Her crowning achievement was the acquisition of the manuscript to what would be calledMastering the Art of French Cooking, by the unknown Julia Child.Other important cookbook acquisitions followed, reflecting Americas growing sophistication in the kitchen, and the last 100 pages of the bookcontain many of Jones favorite recipes.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2007, American Library Association.)