The Art of Eating
by M. F. K. Fisher

List Price: $19.95
Our Price: $3.99
You Save: $15.96 (80%)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Buy Used: from $0.22 (click here)
Category: Book
See more book details and other editions

Book Summary Information

Book Reviews of The Art of Eating

Book Review: In the Kitchen, by fermed
Summary: 5 Stars

There are two types of cookbook authors: those who did not follow a drive to become apothecaries and instead wound up in a kitchen. Now they issue a prescriptive formulary of carefully controlled measures, procedures, times, weights, and ingredients (no substitutions, please) in precise, neat, humorless texts: recipes by edict, if you will; and those who under other circumstances would have become poets or novelists, but instead wound up in the kitchen, from whence they issue lyrical prose as well as exquisite dishes. Their recipes are often vague, permissive, infuriating, but tolerant of errors. There are many who fit the first category and few (MFK Fisher among them) the second.

There are two ways of comparing cookbooks: by following recipes for highly complex dishes (beef Wellington, say) and tasting the results, or by following extremely simple recipes from each book and making gustatory comparisons (scrambled eggs, for instance). Scrambled eggs, according to general culinary wisdom, requires that eggs be beaten together "until the white and yolks are completely combined" (Joy of Cooking) or to be whisked briskly (Fanny Farmer).

Ms. Fisher starts by addressing the state of mind of the cook before embarking in the scrambling of the eggs: "This concotion" she comments "is obviously a placid one, never to be attempted by a nervous, harried [person], one anxious to slap something on the table and get it over with...I love this recipe, for its very gentleness, and for the demands it makes upon one's patience, and the homage it deserves from its slow tasting."

I have used her recipe many times, and my guests become awestruck by the results. I cook the eggs even slower than she suggests (it takes me at least 45 minutes or even a little longer, when she recommends 30 minutes). You and your guests will never want to eat beaten scrambled eggs, ever again, after tasting MFK Fisher's version of this dish.

If you ever cook, do read this book.

Summary of The Art of Eating

"There is a communion of more than bodies when bread is broken and wine is drunk. And that is my answer when people ask me, Why do you write about hunger, and not wars or love?" So M. F. K. Fisher begins The Gastronomical Me, one of the five memorable volumes collected together here in The Art of Eating. The five books cover an eclectic array of thoughts, memories, and recipes, from World War I vignettes of frugality at the table to a consideration of the social status of vegetables. Her recipes range from those for all manner of oysters, dressed and undressed, to Cold Buttermilk Soup, and are accompanied by the remarks and observations that provoked W. H. Auden to say, "I do not know of anyone in the United States today who writes better prose." "M. F. K. Fisher evokes the magic that shimmers just beneath the surface of the most commonplace, everyday experiences in prose you can wrap around your soul." ?Richard Sax, Chocolatier

"M. F. K. Fisher is one of the best food writers. She makes you laugh, tells you stories, intrigues your mind, gives you an appetite, takes you on her travels. She is witty, wise, and unpretentious." ?Jane Grigson

"One of the world's finest food writers and, in the eyes of many, the grand dame of gastronomy...M. F. K. Fisher has remained our guiding light, the source of infinite gastronomic and philosophic wisdom, the model of what a truly refined food writer should strive for." ?James Villas, Bon App?tit

Culinary Arts & Techniques Books

• Books > Subjects > Cookbooks, Food & Wine
• Gastronomy > Essays