Gourmet Magazine

How could a Francophile food writer not be intrigued by a collection of sixty years of food writing about Paris? I looked forward to reading this book with keen anticipation and on the whole it didn't disappoint. Compiled by Ruth Reichl, for many years the editor in chief in Gourmet Magazine, it's an anthology of dispatches to Gourmet Magazine from various columnists based in Paris. It covers a period of sixty years, spanning the years immediately post World War 2 to the early 2000s. As Ruth show more Reichl states in the introduction, there were several decades when Paris was "a shrine for everyone who believed that eating well was the best revenge" and it's the best of those years that are represented in this book.

Once Paris emerged from the doldrums of the war years and their associated privations, it didn't take long for it to reassert its rightful position at the pinnacle of the gourmet world and the essays in this book are a testament to that Paris and the magic it conjured. Several writers tend to predominate, obviously because they were correspondents for larger chunks of time and the book reflects the writing style of those writers pretty much to the exclusion of the others. In particular, essays by Naomi Barry and Joseph Wechsberg are gems of history and fascinating insights into a world that has largely been displaced by more recent developments. It's a reminder of a Paris we all probably still think of in a nostalgic mood, even while acknowledging that it's a world that belongs to yesterday. show less

I love France and I love food. So what can be better than a book devoted to both. This book is a collection of essays written over the past sixty years for Gourmet magazine and so many are a delight. A person has to be soulless not to be charmed by "The Christening" in which a Parisian mother brings the plans for the party to celebrate her child's entry into the church to the hospital with her as she is about to deliver her baby and one cannot help to sigh over "Paris's Haute Chocolaterie." show more And then there is the sensation of being born too late when one reads "After the War" written in 1947 when the author bemoans the fact that the average check a Maxim's is an outrageous $16.00 and that a meal in an average bistro has "increased tenfold" - to $1.00 (!!).

In our hard economic times when travel - well, at least my travel - has become extremely limited, a book like this one is a delicious bon bon to be consumed in little bites to savor over the days, or to be gorged upon in one big gulp. show less

You know, I'm not a bad baker and I have to say I was disappointed. Yes, this is a pretty book and interesting to look at but the recipes? Meh. Bland, structurally unsound, and all-over-the-place in terms of quantity (some recipes make 8 cookies; some make 8 dozen), this is one to read but not necessarily one to use. I did a whole bunch of these cookies for Christmas 2010 and just ended up going back to my tried-and-true cookbooks to make substitutions every time something didn't work out. show more Disappointing. show less

An eloquent but playful collection that appeals to the senses. Many of the authors in this book I have never heard of, but they contribute to a better understanding of flavour and the many ways we savour it. This is the book that drew me into food writing.