Choice Cuts

November 4, 2002
James Beard Award–winning author Kurlansky (Cod; Salt), brings together a banquet of historical and modern writings on food. Divided into such chapters as "Memorable Meals" and "Eating Your Vegetables," the book covers the range of writings from food notables to general authors and historians. All the masters are covered, including the father of American food writing, James Beard, with his comments on radishes and hot chocolate; the doyenne of the British post-war kitchen, Elizabeth David, with her rail against the garlic press; as well as M.F.K. Fisher and her witty observations on "bachelor cooking." Kurlansky nicely balances specialist knowledge with just plain love of food, such as Hemingway's descriptive "Fish in the Seine," George Orwell's evocative "Paris Cooks and Waiters," and A.J. Liebling's writing on boxing and food, excerpted from Between Meals. Kurlansky does take readers out of the 20th century and back in history to the Roman Empire, with such writers as Pliny the Elder (writing about bees and honey), Plutarch and the witty poet Martial of Epigrams
fame. Folded in between are such food masters as Escoffier, Brillat-Savin, Hannah Glass and Taillevent. Insightful comments and explanations by Kurlansky precede each piece; the resulting volume provides a wide range of tastes certain to tempt any literary palate.

December 1, 2002
Having tackled the history of cod and salt, Kurlansky now surveys food writing in this tasty collection. As he explains, "Food, like sex, is a writer's great opportunity. It offers material that is both universal and intensely personal." Kurlansky's lively and informative introduction traces the genre's history: the ancient Romans and Greeks wrote about food primarily as "an embellishment to discussions of broader topic"; the earliest known cookbook (a German manuscript) appeared in the 13th century; and the 1825 publication of Brillat-Savarin's literary and philosophical meditation on food, The Physiology of Taste, paved the way for such classic 20th-century food writers and journalists as Elizabeth David and A.J. Liebling. Kurlansky then arranges his selections into thematic chapters: "Food and Sex," "Memorable Meals," "Favorite Restaurants," "Eating Your Vegetables," etc. While the usual culinary suspects (James Beard, M.F.K. Fisher) are well represented here, there are also unusual and intriguing surprises: "Herodutus on Egyptian Dining"; "W.H. Auden and Louise MacNiece on Icelandic Food," "Margaret Mead on the Meaning of Food." A good choice for food studies collections and where anthologies like Endless Feasts, edited by Ruth Reichl, are popular.-Wilda Williams, "Library Journal"

Copyright 2002 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

November 15, 2002
This historical overview offers the armchair reader prose and poetry about food from two millennia of the form. By entitling his introduction "Better Than Sex," anthologist Kurlansky acknowledges that passion and appetite are not readily separable in literature of any sort." Choice Cuts "tenders essays and extracts not found in similar collections, but many contributors' names are instantly recognizable to devotees of food writing: Brillat-Savarin, Artusi, Beard, Elizabeth David, M. F. K. Fisher, and A. J. Liebling. Kurlansky's distinguishing gift lies in uncovering food-writing extracts from authors not generally associated with the genre. Edna Ferber re-creates a vision of a Chicago victualler's shop window. Song lyrics by Louis Prima celebrate Italian American feasting and a pretty waitress. Pablo Neruda offers an ode to french fries. Tabitha Tickletooth, a nineteenth-century transvestite and gourmet, explains how to cook sole properly. By organizing these selections around topics rather than chronologically, Kurlansky has made his anthology more harmoniously literary than merely historical.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2002, American Library Association.)