Writing About Food Writing
Anybody who has ever seen me eat lunch at a desk knows that I love food writing. Nothing improves a quick plate of macaroni and cheese more than reading about some cream-poached pheasant or oxtail marmalade. I was raised on cooking shows and cookbooks, and while their influence on my technique was not always apparent (Hamburger Helper was about all I cooked for the first year I lived in New York), I have always held in high esteem those who eat to write.
I appreciate good recipes, but I am particularly drawn to restaurant reviews; the tense air of the opening paragraphs and the rhapsodic highs (or devastated lows -- though I'm not a huge fan of the new British Schadenfreude review method) of the first course are like a well-crafted mystery to me. I love reviews because the authors are, first and foremost, not chefs but writers. If I want a chef's idea of good food, I'll eat it. When I'm reading, I turn to Sietsema and Bruni, whose strength as artists is convincing me to drool. For those of you who are as obsessed with food writing as I am, here are two things to check out:
First, Adam Gopnik has a great review of food writing in last week's New Yorker. He covers Rudolph Chelminski's book about Bernard Loiseau, who committed suicide in 2003 after having lost his third Michelin star; Ruth Reichl's memoir of experiences as the New York Times chief food reviewer (a nice bit of meta-writing, reviewing reviewers reviewing their reviews); and two quasi-academic volumes on the art and science of eating. In two pages, he sold me four books.
Also, via A Full Belly (which I read daily), I discovered Saute Wednesday's list of Nominees for the 2005 James Beard Foundation Journalism Awards. All scandals set aside, their selections of the best food writing in the country are pleasantly mouthwatering -- spend half a minute with Dara Moskowitz's review of Levain and you'll be hydrated for the rest of the day. If I could write about food half as well as these people, I'd be well-fed and happy.
I'm going to start writing more reviews of what I eat, if only to remind myself that an economical culinary life does not have to mean the laptop, a bowl of mac and cheese, and panhandling in front of the Time Warner Center for a dinner at Masa.
Posted by tangentialist at April 7, 2005 05:43 PM | more tangentialism
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