3.5
Choice Cuts
ByPublisher Description
“Every once in awhile a writer of particular skills takes a fresh, seemingly improbable idea and turns out a book of pure delight.” That’s how David McCullough described Mark Kurlansky’s Cod: A Biography of the Fish That Changed the World, a work that revealed how a meal can be as important as it is edible. Salt: A World History, its successor, did the same for a seasoning, and confirmed Kurlansky as one of our most erudite and entertaining food authors. Now, the winner of the James Beard Award for Excellence in Food Writing shares a varied selection of “choice cuts” by others, as he leads us on a mouthwatering culinary tour around the world and through history and culture from the fifth century B.C. to the present day.
Choice Cuts features more than two hundred pieces, from Cato to Cab Calloway. Here are essays by Plato on the art of cooking . . . Pablo Neruda on french fries . . . Alice B. Toklas on killing a carp . . . M. F. K. Fisher on the virility of Turkish desserts . . . Alexandre Dumas on coffee . . . W. H. Auden on Icelandic food . . . Elizabeth David on the downward march of English pizza . . . Claude Lévi-Strauss on “the idea of rotten” . . . James Beard on scrambled eggs . . . Balzac, Virginia Woolf, E. M. Forster, Chekhov, and many other famous gourmands and gourmets, accomplished cooks, or just plain ravenous writers on the passions of cuisine.
Choice Cuts features more than two hundred pieces, from Cato to Cab Calloway. Here are essays by Plato on the art of cooking . . . Pablo Neruda on french fries . . . Alice B. Toklas on killing a carp . . . M. F. K. Fisher on the virility of Turkish desserts . . . Alexandre Dumas on coffee . . . W. H. Auden on Icelandic food . . . Elizabeth David on the downward march of English pizza . . . Claude Lévi-Strauss on “the idea of rotten” . . . James Beard on scrambled eggs . . . Balzac, Virginia Woolf, E. M. Forster, Chekhov, and many other famous gourmands and gourmets, accomplished cooks, or just plain ravenous writers on the passions of cuisine.
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Meet readers like you in the Fable For You feed, designed to build bookish communitiesChoice Cuts Reviews
3.5
“Its tough to review this book as a single piece of work, as it is actually a compendium of food writing from throughout the centuries. The author organized each chapter under a theme (fat, fruit, dessert), provided short introductions, and in some instances, translated the works into English. The best thing about a compilation such as this is that because it features so many voices from across time and place, it stays fresh. From the Ancient Romans, through 15th century Italy, into present day America,
there is a different experience with food, even if the ingredients are the same. The chapters are short enough that they do not drag, and the selections themselves are for the most part tantalizing. I was even inspired to purchase one of the cookbooks (Cross Creek Cookery), loving the narrative style of the writer, and not owning any books that highlight Floridian cuisine. If you are someone who enjoys food writing and food history, this is a book worth checking out.”
“There were a few things that I skiped in here, but there were lots of bright moments, and overall I enjoyed it!”
About Mark Kurlansky
Mark Kurlansky is a columnist for Food & Wine magazine and is included in Best Food Writing 2000. Winner of the James Beard and Glenfiddich Awards, he is the author of Salt: A World History; The Basque History of the World; the New York Times bestseller Cod: A Biography of the Fish That Changed the World; A Chosen Few: The Resurrection of European Jewry; A Continent of Islands: Searching for the Caribbean Destiny; a collection of stories, The White Man in the Tree; and a children’s book, The Cod’s Tale. He lives in New York City.
Other books by Mark Kurlansky
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