Books about food.

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I was just wondering if anyone with any gastronimic experience had any suggestions for me. For my job, I occasionally have to write pieces on restuarants, not really reviews as a lot of the resturants are advertsing in the paper I work for; mainly descriptions of meals and dishes, the ambience and history of the restaurant/ chefs etc. So far most of the articles have gone down well, along with some great food.

The problem is that I really know nothing about most food, except Thai and a lot of these resaurants are Italian, Japanese, Vietnamese, etc etc. I just wondered if there were any readable books about world cooking and cuisine to add a bit more colour and knowledge to my writing. Not cook books, I am no chef (save for a mean green curry or corned beef hash), just good writing about good food. Does anyone here know of such a book or books?

― Paul Kelly (kelly), Friday, 3 June 2005 09:38 (twenty-one years ago)

Get one Anthony Bourdain (Cook's Tour really).

― Liz :x (Liz :x), Friday, 3 June 2005 09:43 (twenty-one years ago)

Anthony Bourdain - Kitchen Confidential

http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/0747553556/qid=1117795321/sr=8-1/ref=sr_8_xs_ap_i1_xgl/026-5357309-0638804

Gonzo style biog' about his experiences working in catering, at points the testoserone becomes a bit much and how much of it is coke fueled exageration/self mythologising is uncertain but it's clear he loves food and it's worth a read.

― Jarlr'mai (jarlrmai), Friday, 3 June 2005 09:44 (twenty-one years ago)

I've not read A Cooks Tour but it looks like more of the same with Bourdain as the punter this time.

― Jarlr'mai (jarlrmai), Friday, 3 June 2005 09:46 (twenty-one years ago)

Yeah, I thought the punterish side would be more apt ffor this porpoise.

Also, Nigel Slater does actually write about cooking, but embedded in some splendidly voluptuous slavering over food itself. I recommend.

― Liz :x (Liz :x), Friday, 3 June 2005 09:48 (twenty-one years ago)

Thanks a lot, I'll look into those. The amazon link is a bonus too; Bangkok bookshops are poorly stocked I find.

― Paul Kelly (kelly), Friday, 3 June 2005 09:53 (twenty-one years ago)

Bourdain gives alot of insider info into the catering business in KC so if you like eating out and "trade secrets" this may be the book for you.

― Jarlr'mai (jarlrmai), Friday, 3 June 2005 09:55 (twenty-one years ago)

len deighton wrote a couple of really good, really funny cook books

― lukey (Lukey G), Friday, 3 June 2005 10:00 (twenty-one years ago)

Haha really? That's funny. Oh yes, here we go.

This dude Steingarten gets a lot of props. Not read him yet though.

― Liz :x (Liz :x), Friday, 3 June 2005 10:10 (twenty-one years ago)

I'm rather partial to this one.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/0091878217/qid=1117796320/sr=1-18/ref=sr_1_0_18/026-2705405-5366032

Also, this is essential. Not many cookery books belong in every kitchen, but this is probably the best qualified candidate. (NB - not a recipe book, despite the reputation it has)

http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/0600602354/qid=1117796432/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_3_1/026-2705405-5366032

― aldo_cowpat (aldo_cowpat), Friday, 3 June 2005 10:10 (twenty-one years ago)

Jeffrey Steingarten is great if you really want to learn about the science of food. For instance, in a magazine piece about steak he attempted to dry-age a side of beef in his NYC apartment!

For food as fuel for elegant autobiography try M.F.K. Fisher. The Art of Eating is a good place to start.

IMHO Jonathan Gold of the LA Weekly is the best working restaurant critic in the US right now.

― m coleman (lovebug starski), Friday, 3 June 2005 10:17 (twenty-one years ago)

OTM regarding Nigel Slater... I can't read one of his descriptions of something without immediately wanting to try it!

― Chewshabadoo (Chewshabadoo), Friday, 3 June 2005 10:21 (twenty-one years ago)

Ruth Reichl

― dan bunnybrain (dan bunnybrain), Friday, 3 June 2005 11:11 (twenty-one years ago)

i wish i had the new yorker piece on mario batali..it was a classic...

― dan bunnybrain (dan bunnybrain), Friday, 3 June 2005 11:21 (twenty-one years ago)

Second Steingarten. Unrivalled depth of knowledge of a subject, immense passion and a fantastic prose style makes him pretty much unbeatable.

For a reference work Alan Davidson's Oxford Companion to food is thorough and very readable, though perhaps a little pricey. Ideal if you want to discover the history of eating rats, dogs or humans.

― Billy Dods (Billy Dods), Friday, 3 June 2005 11:33 (twenty-one years ago)

Second The Art of Eating. Such a pleasure.

More food science: Russ Parsons, How To Read a French Fry.

― Rock Hardy (Rock Hardy), Friday, 3 June 2005 12:48 (twenty-one years ago)

i wish i could get a job as a food writer.

― AaronK (AaronK), Friday, 3 June 2005 13:04 (twenty-one years ago)

Steingarten has had me laugh out loud on several occasions. Bourdain is a fun writer, but I secretly hate him for living my dream. M.F.K. Fisher is a masterful writer. I've read several of her books and they are all exquisite.

― M. White (Miguelito), Friday, 3 June 2005 14:19 (twenty-one years ago)

I heary Anthony Bourdain. Actually any time I read a book that I really enjoy, I always find out later on the blurb it's described as 'gonzo' and sometimes in the most random places.

― Nellie (nellskies), Friday, 3 June 2005 15:04 (twenty-one years ago)

The very droll A. J. Liebling takes a break from writing about boxing to discuss matters gastronomic.
The wonderful Raymond Sokolov writes about food history, culture, and cooking.
The indispensable scientist Harold McGee writes with humor and charm about the techniques and materials.

― Hemoglobin Hummingbird (HemoHum), Friday, 3 June 2005 15:28 (twenty-one years ago)

I read Between Meals earlier this year. Quite lovely.

― M. White (Miguelito), Friday, 3 June 2005 16:02 (twenty-one years ago)

Elizabeth David - Much more than cookbooks.

― Ben Dot (1977), Saturday, 4 June 2005 23:59 (twenty-one years ago)

Harold McGee's On Food and Cooking is amazing. I think a new edition came out recently.

― mikef (mfleming), Sunday, 5 June 2005 00:15 (twenty-one years ago)

Check out here http://books.guardian.co.uk/top10s/top10/0,6109,364201,00.html...Anthony Bourdain's top 10 books about food. Might be helpful.

I could only think of novels about food, like Laura Esquivel's Like Water For Chocolate. Her descriptions are great, if you're interested.

― VegemiteGrrl (VegemiteGrrl), Sunday, 5 June 2005 00:20 (twenty-one years ago)

i just got "the georgian feast" by darra goldstein in the mail yesterday. about 40% of it is just about georgian culture and food, and then the rest is actually recipes with a little background. it's pretty awesome...the problem is that it's specific to georgia, which surely won't do you much good. (she also wrote "a taste of russia," which is the same kind of thing and equally useless.)

― Maria (Maria), Sunday, 5 June 2005 04:21 (twenty-one years ago)

that reminds me, check out 'the stalinist diet' by pk pushkovsky. good eats.

― it's like lenin sez, Sunday, 5 June 2005 04:27 (twenty-one years ago)

Last Chance to Eat is a great book. Lots of inside stuff about the food industry, and who really decides what we eat, and why. (Hint -- it's not about flavor.) And lots of lusty reminiscences of growing up in London in the 50's and learning what eating is really all about. And lots of complaining about how nobody really understands food anymore, how it's not the social activity it used to be, etc. And lots of myth-busting about what foods can make you sick. It's really, really worth a read.

― slightly more subdued (kenan), Sunday, 5 June 2005 04:33 (twenty-one years ago)

Steingarten has had me laugh out loud on several occasions.

Oh, all the time! He's a treat.

― slightly more subdued (kenan), Sunday, 5 June 2005 04:34 (twenty-one years ago)

(((And lots of lusty reminiscences of growing up in London in the 50's and learning what eating is really all about.

I feel I should explain this further, because it sounds weird. Her parents were American, and made a point of *not* eating like the British ate in the 50's. They ostentatiously and garishly ate things like eggs. So she learned to appreciate much through deprivation.)))

― slightly more subdued (kenan), Sunday, 5 June 2005 04:55 (twenty-one years ago)

mfk fisher and clement freud, some of the most poetic and erotic writers of the 20th century, w/o any of the other nonesense

― anthony easton (anthony), Sunday, 5 June 2005 09:30 (twenty-one years ago)

The Raw & The Cooked by Jim Harrison is a top, top book, Maybe not exactly what you're asking for, but read it anyway

― DJ Mencap0))), Sunday, 5 June 2005 11:42 (twenty-one years ago)

Calvin Trillin's stuff on food is timeless and hilarious.

― Rickey Wright (Rrrickey), Sunday, 5 June 2005 11:55 (twenty-one years ago)

The History of Food is a good reference book. I forget the author, who is of course, French.

― Orbit (Orbit), Sunday, 5 June 2005 15:57 (twenty-one years ago)

Peter Mayle is also good if you like France and Food together as topics.
Calvin Trillin OTM- he's classic.

― Orbit (Orbit), Sunday, 5 June 2005 16:02 (twenty-one years ago)

The main difference between Trillin and Steingarten is that you feel like you could give Calvin Trillin a big hug.

― slightly more subdued (kenan), Sunday, 5 June 2005 16:24 (twenty-one years ago)

M.F.K. Fisher's translation of Brillat-Savarin's Physiognomy of Taste is a bit of a funny-once — check out from the library, don't buy.

― Rock Hardy (Rock Hardy), Sunday, 5 June 2005 16:53 (twenty-one years ago)

Wow, I'll take a look at a few of those...thank you all very much.

― Paul Kelly (kelly), Monday, 6 June 2005 02:51 (twenty-one years ago)

I revisited Steingarten last night, and decided that he is one of my heroes. While standing on line for sushi in New York, he informs the people from Colorado who are on line with him that if people from Colorado would stay in Colorado, New Yorkers would not have to stand on line. They had heard about New Yorkers who openly insult tourists, but had never encountered one. This was very exciting for them, Steingarten concludes. Like seeing the Statue of Liberty.

And while sitting next to a woman at a banquet dinner who was picking the parmesan cheese out of her salad (apparently to prevent heart disease and because she has become uneasy with dairy products), he informs her that the difference between people who have food phobias and people who have sex phobias is that people who fear sex will likely seek help for their problem, while food-phobes are more likely to blame their neurosis on imagined allergies or bogus science. The rest of the essay is a tirade full of facts from scientific studies: less than two percent of the population have real, histamine-releasing food allergies, and no one is so lactose intolerant that they cannot drink a glass of milk. Also, cheese is unrelated to heart disease, and contains little to no lactose.

Anyway. His main point, if I may paraphrase, is that Americans have a twisted relationship with food, treating it like it's the leading cause of death instead of one of the best reasons to be alive. I actually want to hug him *more* than I do Calvin Trillin, but I would be very afraid to.

― slightly more subdued (kenan), Monday, 6 June 2005 17:34 (twenty-one years ago)

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