About: A mishmash of foodie writers dispute, humorously or more self-seriously, the pros and cons of cooking and dining alone. While eating by oneself can be the busy worker’s greatest pleasure, as Colin Harrison notes of his solitary Manhattan lunches during a work day (”Out to Lunch”), and mother Holly Hughes (”Luxury”) agrees is a secret but too rare pleasure, other writers see it as depressing or shameful. In “The Lonely Palate,” Laura Calder quotes Epicurus as saying, “we should look for someone to eat and drink with before looking for something to eat and drink”—then offers a recipe for Kippers Mash. Eating is an act of love, thus prompting Jonathan Ames (”Poisonous Eggs”) to dine out and flirt with the waitress. “Table for One” by Erin Ergenbright records how the single diner is perceived uneasily by the wait staff. And M.F.K. Fisher relishes solitary dining (”A Is for Dining Alone”) as a way to escape “the curious disbelieving impertinence of the people in restaurants.” The collection is named after an essay by Laurie Colwin, who found a dozen different ways to cook eggplant on her two-burner hot plate while living alone in a tiny Greenwich Village flat. (From Publishers Weekly, July)
My thoughts: Although I love food writing, I probably would not have read this particular collection of essays had my friend Nina not given it to me as a gift. When scanning the shelves at my local library, I usually pick out food memoirs and books analyzing food systems or nutrition. So, thanks Miss Adventure for broadening my horizons!
Alone in the Kitchen with an Eggplant is an entertaining enough read because the essays are short, snappy and often humorous. My favorite piece of the bunch was “The Legend of Salsa Rosa” by Ben Karlin of The Daily Show and The Colbert Report fame. That dude is hilarious.
One of the major drawbacks of a compilation of essays on an ultra-specific subject like eating alone is that after a couple of reads, the tales of self-pity and triumph start blending together, making it impossible to differentiate (and remember) one writer’s experience from the next. While some of the essayers relished eating alone, the bulk felt sad and lonely. As a result of the pervading blue mood, the recipes that followed the essays didn’t sound at all appealing.
And speaking of eating alone…
When I’m chowing for one, it’s usually breakfast staples like toast, eggs and pancakes. I’ll spare you a self-indulgent essay about it.
About: Appetizers are everyone’s favorite part of dinner. People who really love a restaurant’s appetizers often order two of them instead of one appetizer and one entrée. For anyone who has ever wished their appetizer was a main course comes Appetizers by Shane Osborn.
About: With Julia Child’s death in 2004 at age 91, her grandnephew Prud’homme (The Cell Game) completed this playful memoir of the famous chef’s first, formative sojourn in France with her new husband, Paul Child, in 1949. The couple met during WWII in Ceylon, working for the OSS, and soon after moved to Paris, where Paul worked for the U.S. Information Service. Child describes herself as a “rather loud and unserious Californian,” 36, six-foot-two and without a word of French, while Paul was 10 years older, an urbane, well-traveled Bostonian. Startled to find the French amenable and the food delicious, Child enrolled at the Cordon Bleu and toiled with increasing zeal under the rigorous tutelage of éminence grise Chef Bugnard. “Jackdaw Julie,” as Paul called her, collected every manner of culinary tool and perfected the recipes in her little kitchen on rue de l’Université (”Roo de Loo”). She went on to start an informal school with sister gourmandes Simone Beck and Louisette Bertholle, who were already at work on a French cookbook for American readers, although it took Child’s know-how to transform the tome—after nine years, many title changes and three publishers—into the bestselling Mastering the Art of French Cooking (1961). This is a valuable record of gorgeous meals in bygone Parisian restaurants, and the secret arts of a culinary genius - Publishers Weekly
