The Art of Eating (50th Anniversary Edition)

by M. F. K. Fisher, Joan Reardon

Overview

RUTH REICHL
"Mary Frances [Fisher] has the extraordinary ability to make the ordinary seem rich and wonderful. Her dignity comes from her absolute insistence on appreciating life as it comes to her."

JULIA CHILD
"How wonderful to have here in my hands the essence of M.F.K. Fisher, whose wit and fulsome opinions on food and those who produce it, comment upon it, and consume it are as apt today as they were several decades ago, when she composed them. Why did she choose food and hunger she was asked, and she replied, 'When I write about hunger, I am really writing about love and the hunger for it, and warmth, and the love of it . . . and then the warmth and richness and fine reality of hunger satisfied.' This is the stuff we need to hear, and to hear again and again."

ALCIE WATERS
"This comprehensive volume should be required reading for every cook. It defines in a sensual and beautiful way the vital relationship between food and culture."

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780764542619
Publisher:	HarperCollins
Publication date:	03/05/2004
Edition description:	50th Anniversary Edition
Pages:	784
Sales rank:	294,364
Product dimensions:	6.12(w) x 9.25(h) x 2.05(d)

About the Author

Culinary historian, cookbook author, and biographer Joan Reardon is the author of M.F.K. Fisher, Julia Child, and Alice Waters: Celebrating the Pleasures of the Table, M.F.K. Fisher Among the Pots and Pans, Poet of the Appetites: The Lives and Loves of M.F.K. Fisher, and Oysters: a Culinary Celebration. Reardon, who has a PhD in English literature, won an IACP Award for culinary writing, publishes and edits a quarterly newsletter for Les Dames d’Escoffier Chicago, and serves on the advisory board of Gastronomica magazine.

Table of Contents

	The Art of Eating: In Celebration	x
	Thoughts About M. F. K. Fisher and Her Work	xvi
	One More Time	xxvi
	Appreciation	xxviii
	Introduction	xxx
	Serve It Forth
	To Begin	5
	When a Man Is Small	7
	Greek Honey and the Hon-Zo (3000 B.C.-100 A.D.--Egypt, the Orient, and Greece)	12
	The Curious Nose	17
	Let the Sky Rain Potatoes	22
	Borderland	26
	Garum (100 A.D.-400 A.D.--Rome)	29
	Fifty Million Snails	34
	Meals for Me	40
	Dark Ages and the Men of God (1000 A.D.-1400 A.D.--Europe)	45
	I Arise Resigned	47
	In Sinistra Parte, Johannus Baptista (1100 A.D.-1450 A.D.--England)	52
	Pity the Blind in Palate	57
	A Pigges Pettie Toes (Elizabethan England)	60
	The Standing and the Waiting	64
	Catherine's Lonesome Cooks (1533 A.D.-1810 A.D.--France)	75
	Two Birds Without a Branch	80
	The Pale Yellow Glove	83
	The Brothers	89
	Set-piece for a Fishing Party (1810 A.D.-1900 A.D.--France)	91
	On Dining Alone
	Sing of Dinner in a Dish	100
	Shell-Shock and Richard the Third (1900 A.D.--Europe and America)	107
	The Social Status of a Vegetable	111
	Cesar	116
	To End	121
	Consider The Gyster
	Love and Death Among the Molluscs	125
	A Supper to Sleep On	129
	R is for Oyster	135
	The Well-dressed Oyster	139
	Take 300 Clean Oysters	144
	A Lusty Bit of Nourishment	146
	Pearls Are Not Good to Eat	160
	Those Were Happy Days	166
	Soup of the Evening, Beautiful Soup	170
	Love Was the Pearl	175
	My Country, 'Tis of Thee	178
	As Luscious as Locusts	181
	How To Cook A Wolf
	Introduction to Revised edition	187
	How to Be Sage Without Hemlock	189
	How to Catch the Wolf	195
	How to Distribute Your Virtue	198
	How to Boil Water	207
	How to Greet the Spring	223
	How Not to Boil an Egg	229
	How to Keep Alive	240
	How to Rise Up Like New Bread	245
	How to Be Cheerful Though Starving	252
	How to Carve the Wolf	257
	How to Make a Pigeon Cry	277
	How to Pray for Peace	286
	How to Be Content with a Vegetable Love	296
	How to Make a Great Show	300
	How to Have a Sleek Pelt	305
	How to Comfort Sorrow	310
	How to Be a Wise Man	320
	How to Lure the Wolf	323
	How to Drink to the Wolf	329
	How Not to Be an Earthworm	335
	How to Practice True Economy	343
	Conclusion	350
	The Gastronomical Me
	Foreword	353
	The Measure of My Powers	354
	A Thing Shared	356
	The Measure of My Powers	359
	The Measure of My Powers	364
	The First Oyster	368
	The Measure of My Powers	378
	The Measure of My Powers	382
	Sea Change	385
	The Measure of My Powers	393
	To Feed Such Hunger	408
	The Measure of My Powers	419
	Noble and Enough	427
	The Measure of My Powers	435
	The Measure of My Powers	446
	Sea Change	455
	Sea Change	463
	Sea Change	469
	Define This Word	474
	The Measure of My Powers	483
	Once I Dreamed	501
	I Remember Three Restaurants	502
	Sea Change	510
	The Lemming to the Sea	518
	The Flaw	526
	The Measure of My Powers	536
	Feminine Ending	552
	An Alphabet For Gourmets
	Foreword	575
	A is for dining Alone	577
	B is for Bachelors	584
	C is for Cautious	589
	D is for Dining out	594
	E is for Exquisite	600
	F is for Family	605
	G is for Gluttony	613
	H is for Happy	618
	I is for Innocence	623
	J is for Juvenile dining	628
	K is for Kosher	634
	L is for Literature	640
	M is for Monastic	645
	N is for Nautical	650
	O is for Ostentation	658
	P is for Peas	663
	Q is for Quantity	670
	R is for Romantic	678
	S is for Sad	682
	T is for Turbot	687
	U is for Universal	693
	V is for Venality	701
	W is for Wanton	706
	X is for Xanthippe	713
	Y is for Yak	720
	Z is for Zakuski	727
	From A to Z: The Perfect Dinner	736

Editorial Reviews

This 50th anniversary paperback reprint contains what Julia Child referred to as "the essence of M.F.K. Fisher." Fisher (1908-1992) was one of this country's earliest food writers; her eloquent yet unostentatious prose has charmed generations. The 784-page collection brings together five works originally published under separate titles: "Serve it Forth," "Consider the Oyster," "How to Cook a Wolf," "The Gastronomical Me" and "An Alphabet for Gourmets." There are also recipes scattered throughout. (Washington Post, April 28, 2004) —

From the Publisher

This volume combines five of Fisher's popular cooking titles (Serve It Forth, Consider the Oyster, How To Cook a Wolf, The Gastronomical Me, and An Alphabet for Gourmets) for one low price. Look for Joan Reardon's Poet of the Appetites: The Lives and Loves of M.F.K Fisher, from North Point: Farrar in October. Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.

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