The Art of Eating
by M. F. K. Fisher 
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Description
This comprehensive volume of essays on culinary and other pleasures of life comes from the legendary and widely traveled writer "whose artful personal essays about food created a genre" (The New York Times) and who writes "practically, often profoundly, and always beautifully" (San Francisco Chronicle). Spanning from the autobiographical to the historical, it compiles her works Serve It Forth; Consider the Oyster; How to Cook a Wolf; The Gastronomical Me; and An Alphabet for Gourmets.Tags
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Member Reviews
Five books collected in one volume. Strange and wonderful; the genesis of what we think of as food writing today. Intensely personal without being embarrassing; focused and precise; opinionated; generous; enlightening.
Why the hell didn't I read this 20 years ago?
Why the hell didn't I read this 20 years ago?
This is an omnibus of five works by M.F.K. Fisher. I will review each work separately, since I have different reactions to her different writings.
"Serve it Forth" - ****Now I understand why this woman is one of the most popular food writers ever. The first book I read by her did not leave me with this understanding, but this one was delightful. A collection of thoughts on eating throughout history and places. She muses about things, each chapter its own little essay. I love her use of the language, her considerations of food and eating and people and what it all means. Her sly and sneaky, understated humor. Very pleased with this read.
"Consider the Oyster" - *****This was a delightful, relaxing and amusing read. It triggered many happy show more family moments with my grandmother, mother and brother. The little casserole of oyster stuffing at Thanksgiving for those few of us who loved it, and the massive one of sausage dressing for the rest. The wonderful canned, smoked oysters in my stocking for Christmas, which were mine to eat alone and not share! The breakfasts and lunches with my brother and mother of Hangtown Fry, or simply fried oysters (made the way my grandmother made them, dipped in flour, beaten eggs and crushed cracker crumbs, then fried quickly in butter, never overcooked). Especially the vacation in Baja California where mom and grandma (the only ones to appreciate raw oysters) plucked them out of the sea and we feasted on scallops (which my brothers brought back from diving) and oysters. So, like a great meal is more than the food eaten, this book was more than the words in it. The author's remembrances would bring back my own and we could mingle and enjoy them together.
"How to Cook a Wolfe" - Read and reviewed elsewhere.
"The Gastronomical Me" - ****This is a very personal book. She alludes to many things without saying them, but after I read her bio on Wikipedia, the puzzles clicked into place and made for a rather sad story. How she managed to write through that sadness is amazing to me. This is also a woman who holds no punches in how she sees others. Each chapter is based on her food experiences in the very trying times of her life, each leads to growth and change.
"An Alphabet for Gourmets" - *** A miscellany of thoughts on food and the eating thereof. I don't think I would enjoy cooking many of her recipes, but I like the way she talks about food. I must say that she contradicts herself frequently though. She talks about plain and simple food being the best, then complains when others serve it. She laments seldom being invited to dine with others because she is intimidating to them, then proceeds to dissect others and their way of cooking and eating and pass harsh judgment upon them, seemingly never pleased. I'm afraid much of that may be what the "style" of wit and writing in her day demanded. show less
"Serve it Forth" - ****Now I understand why this woman is one of the most popular food writers ever. The first book I read by her did not leave me with this understanding, but this one was delightful. A collection of thoughts on eating throughout history and places. She muses about things, each chapter its own little essay. I love her use of the language, her considerations of food and eating and people and what it all means. Her sly and sneaky, understated humor. Very pleased with this read.
"Consider the Oyster" - *****This was a delightful, relaxing and amusing read. It triggered many happy show more family moments with my grandmother, mother and brother. The little casserole of oyster stuffing at Thanksgiving for those few of us who loved it, and the massive one of sausage dressing for the rest. The wonderful canned, smoked oysters in my stocking for Christmas, which were mine to eat alone and not share! The breakfasts and lunches with my brother and mother of Hangtown Fry, or simply fried oysters (made the way my grandmother made them, dipped in flour, beaten eggs and crushed cracker crumbs, then fried quickly in butter, never overcooked). Especially the vacation in Baja California where mom and grandma (the only ones to appreciate raw oysters) plucked them out of the sea and we feasted on scallops (which my brothers brought back from diving) and oysters. So, like a great meal is more than the food eaten, this book was more than the words in it. The author's remembrances would bring back my own and we could mingle and enjoy them together.
"How to Cook a Wolfe" - Read and reviewed elsewhere.
"The Gastronomical Me" - ****This is a very personal book. She alludes to many things without saying them, but after I read her bio on Wikipedia, the puzzles clicked into place and made for a rather sad story. How she managed to write through that sadness is amazing to me. This is also a woman who holds no punches in how she sees others. Each chapter is based on her food experiences in the very trying times of her life, each leads to growth and change.
"An Alphabet for Gourmets" - *** A miscellany of thoughts on food and the eating thereof. I don't think I would enjoy cooking many of her recipes, but I like the way she talks about food. I must say that she contradicts herself frequently though. She talks about plain and simple food being the best, then complains when others serve it. She laments seldom being invited to dine with others because she is intimidating to them, then proceeds to dissect others and their way of cooking and eating and pass harsh judgment upon them, seemingly never pleased. I'm afraid much of that may be what the "style" of wit and writing in her day demanded. show less
This is a fabulous compendium of several separate books by the essayist M.F.K. Fisher. There is Serve It Forth, her first collection of essays, The Gastronomical Me, a touching autobiography, How To Cook a Wolf, essays on living through post-War food rationing, and An Alphabet For Gourmets, another collection of essays. Fisher's prose is stellar and to read her is to be welcomed into the spacious mind and heart of an old friend.
All 5 books included are great treats for food lovers who are willing to allow other opinions to blossom. In one of the last sections of the very last book I was greatly amused to learn the salt free steak had been soaked in soy sauce, but I expect it was as delicious as stated. I learned much about oysters and about the region of Burgundy and the Lake Leman area of Switzerland and was filled with longing to have been there when. Best read when lightly hungry with bread and cheese - good bread and cheese - at hand and a glass of light wine would be welcome.
This is one of my favorite books. It contains several of MFK Fisher's classic (and IMO, best) books about food, from How to Cook a Wolf to An Alphabet for Gourmets. Even now, 25 years after discovering her, I can still dip into any one of these books and get lost for a while in MFK Fisher's delightful world of food and travel and occasionally, making do. Just one word of advice: Don't make the War Cake from How to Cook a Wolf. Seriously.
I really did enjoy this book, but there are times when ANY book on ANY subject running for 700+ pages is a bit tough to get through. I'm thrilled to finally be done, but also highly recommend this to anyone who would like a witty and unique look at food and also the 1930's and 1940's. M.F.K. Fisher is fascinating, with an interesting way of viewing the world. I imagine she would have been an exciting but exceedingly difficult person to know.
This book is not a cookbook (though it does contain some great recipes). And it isn't really just a memoir. Rather, it is 5 books by one of the greatest writers about food collected in one volume. Whether you choose to read the essays over a period of time, or stuff yourself silly by reading as much as possible in one go, if you are the type who loves to read about food, you are in for a treat.
Fisher covers great meals she has had and great meals she plans to have; she covers cooking from the highly expensive levels of decadence to true home economy (yes, you can live off sludge); she explores eating both as a social pastime and as an intimate, individual pleasure.
If like me some of your favourite books have earned that title due to the show more authors ability to write about the meals it contains, you are sure to salviate at this tome. A wonderful read for all foodies... show less
Fisher covers great meals she has had and great meals she plans to have; she covers cooking from the highly expensive levels of decadence to true home economy (yes, you can live off sludge); she explores eating both as a social pastime and as an intimate, individual pleasure.
If like me some of your favourite books have earned that title due to the show more authors ability to write about the meals it contains, you are sure to salviate at this tome. A wonderful read for all foodies... show less
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Author Information
272+ Works 9,383 Members
Born July 3, 1908, in Albion, Michigan, M.F.K Fisher was raised primarily in Whittier, California, where she enjoyed cooking meals for her family. Encouraged in literary pursuits by her parents, she combined her favorite pastimes-cooking and writing-and began writing about cooking as early as 1929 when she moved to Dijon, France, with her first show more husband, Alfred Fisher. Fisher was educated at Illinois College, Occidental College, the University of California at Los Angeles, and the University of Dijon. She has written under the names Mary Frances Parrish, Victoria Bern, and Victoria Berne. A prolific author, her work is primarily autobiography and memoir. Her long list of publications includes Dubious Honors (1988) and Stay Me, Oh Comfort Me: Journals and Stories, 1933-1945, (1993). She also contributed articles to widely known magazines, including the New Yorker, Vanity Fair, and Gourmet. Fisher died of Parkinson's disease on June 22, 1992, in Glen Ellen, California. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
M. F. K. Fisher has a Legacy Library. Legacy libraries are the personal libraries of famous readers, entered by LibraryThing members from the Legacy Libraries group.
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Common Knowledge
- Original publication date
- 1954
- Important places
- Dijon, Côte-d'Or, Bourgogne-Franche-Comté, France; California, USA (southern)
- First words
- There are two kinds of books about eating: those that try to imitate Brillat-Savarin's, and those that try not to.
- Last words
- (Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)In the main, though, I prefer the category of Two: a white-maned literate male who is past wanting me, a beautiful woman who would not want, a man who would . . . above all the company of One other, making the rarest kind of Two . . . and for lack of that, granted that in my own time I can gracefully eat alone if I am meant to do so, I would choose, at spaced deliberate intervals, the excitement and the whetting, the conflict and the intricate patterns, of a Perfect Dinner for the Six of us.
- Blurbers
- Reichl, Ruth; Child, Julia; Waters, Alice; Angelou, Maya; Pepin, Jacques; Fussell, Betty (show all 17); Villas, James; Hesser, Amanda; Loomis, Susan Herrmann; Shoemaker, Jack; Moran, Marsha; Moran, Patrick; Ferrary, Jeanette; Barr, Norah; Parrish, Anna; Golden, Kennedy Friede; Grigson, Jane
Classifications
- Genres
- Food & Cooking, Nonfiction, General Nonfiction, Biography & Memoir
- DDC/MDS
- 641.013 — Applied Science & Technology Home economics & family management Food, Cooking & Recipes / Meals, Picnics standard subdivisions Philosophy and theory [formerly: Epicurism]
- LCC
- TX633 .F515 — Technology Home economics Home economics Nutrition. Foods and food supply
- BISAC
Statistics
- Members
- 2,020
- Popularity
- 10,311
- Reviews
- 22
- Rating
- (4.35)
- Languages
- English, German, Spanish
- Media
- Paper, Audiobook, Ebook
- ISBNs
- 14
- ASINs
- 15