what book do you recommend?

I am almost done with Michael Ruhlman's The Soul of a Chef. I've really enjoyed reading his books. I just read The Reach of a Chef as well as The Making of a Chef. In the past I've read Kitchen Confidential, The Man Who Ate Everything, It Must've Been Something I Ate, Julie & Julia, and Heat. I would recommend these books to anyone. They're entertaining and you come to the last page before you know it. Does anyone have any other suggestions for leisure reading? I was contemplating The Omnivore's Dilemma, but it's thickness seems daunting...would love to hear what food books you've enjoyed! Thanks!

Here's an old thread with lots of suggestions:

http://www.lthforum.com/bb/viewtopic.php?t=3766

If you've liked chef memoirs/biographies, you might enjoy one of the books I recommended in it, Life a la Henri, by Henri Charpentier, who was one of the earliest celebrity chefs in America (in New York in the 20s and 30s, then L.A. in the 40s and 50s, though the book is more about his apprenticeship days around the turn of the century). Very interesting to see what has-- and hasn't-- changed in that world.

I've been dodging Ominvore's Dilemma for the same reason, but if you want something historical, I enjoyed Near a Thousand Tables by Felipe Fernandez-Armesto.

Anything by MFK Fisher?

Also, you might want to get in on the LTH Bookgroup.

crrush wrote:I've been dodging Ominvore's Dilemma for the same reason, but if you want something historical, I enjoyed Near a Thousand Tables by Felipe Fernandez-Armesto.

Anything by MFK Fisher?

Also, you might want to get in on the LTH Bookgroup.

I'm always happy to see "Near a..." recommended(I've done so a time or two on the forum myself); concise, readable, intelligent, and highly opinionated...much of his writing seems intended to get the dogmatic, myopic, self-righteous, cuisine nannies all athither...I love it.

Two of my favorite food authors are Calvin Trillin and John T. Edge. Edge's "American" quartet are a bit light, but enjoyable (kind of like donuts, the subject of one of the books). Trillin is just genius.

I just came across the winners of LibraryThing's "cooking bookpile" photo contest. These will appeal to folks following this thread.

It's an old book, and I'm not sure it's still in print, but I've always liked James Beard's Beard on Food. It's a compilation of his old newspaper columns (and reportedly, most weren't actually written by Beard), but it's an interesting look into what was the cutting edge of the food scene 30 - 35 years ago.

edit for typos

I found Omnivoure's Dillemma very readible. He wrote the book to prove a point, not just entertain, but I found it a quick read. Not at all intimidating once you get into it. It is set up as three separate threads - one about industrial food, one about small farm agriculture, and then a story about a meal for which he hunts/gathers/prepares all the food himself, so the size might seem a little more intimidating than it is. Not on the pure entertainment level of Bourdain or Steingarten, but well worth reading. In fact more worth reading I would say.

For a taste of the book, Michael Pollan recently wrote an article for the NY Times magazine. It will give you a feel for his style.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/28/magaz ... 57&ei=5088

In a different theme, I was won over by Jacques Pepin's "the Apprentice." I had thought it would be a cute little memoir of life on PBS, so avoided it for years, but in fact he has had a fascinating life with lots of interesting ups and downs. A very quick and fun read and not at all intimidating.

nr706 wrote:It's an old book, and I'm not sure it's still in print, but I've always liked James Beard's Beard on Food. It's a compliation of his old newspaper columns (and reportedly, most weren't actually written by Beard), but it's an interesting look into what was the cutting edge of the food scene 30 - 35 years ago.

Ah, Beard on Food.

I first read it back in '73 or perhaps '74 while serving in the U.S. Army Field Band in Washington, D.C. as a trombonist. I had become quite the amateur cook, frequently entertaining friends and family and spending every moment of my off time prowling the D.C./Baltimore corridor for every possible new restaurant discovery, gourmet shop, and ethnic grocery. Some things never change...I'm still doing the exact same stuff, only now here in Chicagoland.

Playing Sousa for a living was starting to get very old. You can only play "El Capitan" or "The Stars and Stripes Forever" or "Ruffles and Flourishes" so many times...I had sort of a fantasy idea of becoming a professional chef. The touque, the immaculately starched white jacket, the glass of chilled white wine beside me, and...grating nutmeg into my bechamel.

I applied to The C.I.A. and left the army in 1979 to begin this strange and wonderful career journey into the reality of the professional kitchen. I learned what it meant to work the A.M. shift of the full service restaurant in a busy downtown hotel kitchen, peeling and slicing a hundred pounds of onions at a time, standing over an electric flat top stove flipping eggs for hours, then going directly into lunch service getting hammered with burgers, Reubens, Monte Cristos and more. Making ratattouille in a giant tilt skillet. Doing enough French onion soup at a time to fill up a giant white rubbermaid trash can. I graduated to sauteeing veal and making sauces. Witnessing how prime rib for 2400 is done. And tons of rubber chicken! Somehow, I landed on my feet and things have worked out, but let me tell you, it hasn't exactly been a cake walk. But I'd do it again exactly the same way if given the opportunity to do it all over again.

And I still pick up Beard on Food from time to time. I have copies in my office at the club, and also at home. I literally taught myself to cook from it. Everything from his Chicken with 40 Cloves of Garlic to the recipe for Cheddar-Chile Cheese Spread.

Just purchased this book. Vogue magazine recommended it. Has anyone already read it or knows of anyone that has? Thanks!

MrsF's had "The United States of Arugula" on her nightstand for a while, reading it in small chunks. I'm waiting for her to finish it before I dig in. She's read me a number of interesting passages, sounds like a good read.

You've read "Kitchen Confidential" -- Tony B's latest "The Nasty Bits" is really much softer -- he's almost heartwarming in a couple of tales, and definitely worth a read. He's got a great "voice" to his writing, which is basically the same as his on-screen persona -- kind of a "My Favorite Asshole"

On books not worth the bother: The Official Iron Chef guide. Too much on the chefs and statistics, not enough on the food.

I have read The Nasty Bits. I actually liked Kitchen Confidential more. He compromised his usual blunt, critical, unsympathetic tone in several of his short essays, which I thought was uncharacteristic of him. Although it's possible that he's changed after a few years and has truly in fact "softened up" as you said.

The two Ruth Reichl memoirs are great, fun reads -- Tender at the Bone is the first, then Comfort Me With Apples. Also, Appetite for Life, a biography of Julia Child by Noel Riley Fitch is compelling. BTW, I write a weekly food column for the Illinois Times, an alternative weekly in Springfield. Last month I had a one on one interview with Anthony Bourdain-- and, yes, he has mellowed somewhat, but there's still a lot of piss and vinegar there. If anyone's interested, my column about AB is currently online at www.illinoistimes.com Unfortunately, I had to leave some of the most interesting stuff out because of space considerations and the need to tell the folks here who I was writing about.

realcuisine wrote:The two Ruth Reichl memoirs are great, fun reads -- Tender at the Bone is the first, then Comfort Me With Apples. Also, Appetite for Life, a biography of Julia Child by Noel Riley Fitch is compelling. BTW, I write a weekly food column for the Illinois Times, an alternative weekly in Springfield. Last month I had a one on one interview with Anthony Bourdain-- and, yes, he has mellowed somewhat, but there's still a lot of piss and vinegar there. If anyone's interested, my column about AB is currently online at www.illinoistimes.com Unfortunately, I had to leave some of the most interesting stuff out because of space considerations and the need to tell the folks here who I was writing about.

Of the recent plethora of Julia tomes available, the Fitch---I had the pleasure of reading it years ago---is my favorite(it's also a great example of the biography form, period).

realcuisine - there are actually currently 3 Ruth Reichl memoirs - the last is Garlic and Sapphires.

spiffytriphy - from your recent reading list, you'd probably really like The Devil in the Kitchen by Marco Pierre White.

Louisa Chu wrote:realcuisine - there are actually currently 3 Ruth Reichl memoirs - the last is Garlic and Sapphires.

... if you want to read about Ruth Reichl playing dress-up ...

Evil Ronnie--are you depicted in the pix from the CTA concert at the First Congregational? If so, which of the depictions represents you??

Geo

Calvin Trillin is definitely the author who originally got me interested in food writing (which now makes up the vast majority of my book purchases). I recommend The Tummy Trilogies, a compilation of three of his books, or Feeding a Yen, the most recent). I also love Ruth Reichl's books, though I think my favorite was definitely the most popular--Garlic and Sapphires. Just kind of fun to get a different perspective on dining out.

United States of Arugula was very interesting in some respects, but a little disappointing overall. Kind of slavishly devoted to Beard, Child, and Claiborne, and I would have liked more perspective on other contributions, and on various ethnic contributions, not just French to California to New American. But that's just the result of where my own interests lie, I think. It all comes down to what you consider "gourmet" to be.

Geo wrote:Evil Ronnie--are you depicted in the pix from the CTA concert at the First Congregational? If so, which of the depictions represents you??
Geo

Geo,

In the picture beneath the CTA bus, I'm located in the upper left corner.

Huh. You don't look so Evil, Ronnie! Kind of benign, in fact--can't see the horns, I guess that's it!

Onward, nonetheless!

:^)

Geo

Has anyone read Barbara Kingsolver's Animal, Vegetable, Miracle yet? I liked most of her other books and food features prominently in many of them.

I also really enjoyed one of Pollan's other books, The Botany of Desire

I just finished reading a charming book:
Life, Death & Bialys: A Father/Son Baking Story (Hardcover)
by Dylan Schaffer (Author)

It's an emotional, but very funny book on a father and son taking a bread baking class at the French Culinary Institute in New York. It has some interesting information on the Institute (nothing as detailed as Ruhlman's book on the CIA) and the challenges and joys of bread baking.

A great summer read.

Jyoti

I've finally gotten to a Christmas gift from last year: The Wilder Shores of Gastronomy-The Petit Propos Culinaires anthology

The depth, vitality, and diversity of topics is fascinating as well as the peek inside a fairly exclusive, academic club. Tho' the editors and participants are at length to take the piss whenever possible(something I appreciate).

Of interest, there's also the PPC's connection to the Oxford Symposium kultur.

I got Marion Nestle's What to Eat out of the library and have spent the last three weeks plowing through it. It's a big thick book but easy to read and very engaging. I was able to go quickly through some of the nutrition sections, having read the same information, at a slower pace, in Andrew Weil's Eating Well for Optimum Health. Alas for Ms. Nestle's royalty prospects, I am ready to return What to Eat to the library, and I don't feel that I need to buy it. I just don't have the shelf space for it right now. But I do really like it and recommend it to anyone who's interested in spending money wisely on healthy food.

Diannie wrote:Has anyone read Barbara Kingsolver's Animal, Vegetable, Miracle yet? I liked most of her other books and food features prominently in many of them.

I just bought the book yesterday and started reading it a bit. I'm a fan of Kingsolver's books and the topic interests me. I was debating between this one and a book by Alisa Smith and JB Mackinnon called Plenty: One Man, One Woman, and a Raucous Year of Eating Locally. I heard the couple on NPR and was interested in their idea--but for me, it came down to the fact I like Kingsolver's writing style and "trusted" her. I'll post more when I finish.

Sharona

There's a helpful review essay-- "Eating the Environment: A Literary Kitchen Cornucopia" -- covering a number of new food-related books in today's New York Times: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/15/books/15food.html?_r=1&ref=books&oref=slogin
It may require free registration for access.

Trying to learn as much as I can about memoir and non-fiction food writing as possible, I've read the Bourdains, just finished Ruhlman's The Soul of a Chef, read Heat, what do you think is the next logical step?

MFK Fisher or Ruth Reichl? A case of chicken and the egg?

I'm also probably going to order The Reach of a Chef while I'm at it, but wanted to know your thoughts on what would be a good progression of reading.

Thanks!

If you want something more issue oriented about the food and farming industry, Omnivoure's Dillemma is excellent (also see the link to the NYT article on my previous post. The article is about nutrition, un-related to the book.)

If you want a memoir, Jaques Pepin's The Apprentice.

Finishing up with Insatiable, Tales from a Life of Delicious Excess, Gael Greene's memoir right now. It's...umm...interesting. The food writing is definitely lush and hunger-inducing, but it's first and foremost a memoir, and I've never really known much about Gael Greene, so I doubt I would have read it if it weren't for the food parts. She's an interesting, bold woman, and the book is not for the faint of heart, to put it mildly.

I also got The Omnivore's Dilemma out of the library, and I've been trying (and failing) to plow through it. Am I the only one who finds all the corn-talk to be mind-numbingly boring? Does it get better than that? Am I making a mistake by reading it at bedtime, when I'm already tired? My law casebooks made for more stimulating bedtime reading, to be quite honest.

Just picked up Soul of a Chef and Julie & Julia at the bookstore, and I'm looking forward to those...I loved Ruhlman's other "Chef" books, and I think this one will bridge the other two together.

If anyone's looking for fiction that will leave them drooling, I recommend The Last Chinese Chef, by Nicole Mones. Kind of a sappy, cliched love story, but the food writing left me ravenously hungry for good Chinese food.

So that's the rundown of what I've been reading instead of my outlines for the bar exam.

Unlike, GardenofEatin, I am really enjoying The Omnivore's Dilemma. I find the information about corn and the scientific/technical aspects of things to be interesting. However I would not recommend it to just anyone, and can see how people would find it boring, or sleep inducing if read right before bed.

I am learning a lot from it though and it is changing the way I think about food and I will be working on making changes in my purchasing habits because of it.