Mary Frances Kennedy Fisher's writings span over sixty years, exploring themes of family, food, and travel with remarkable candor and wit. This collection offers a chronological selection of her work, showcasing her reflections on diverse topics such as childhood memories, travel experiences, and personal challenges like aging and health. Edited by Dominique Gioia and introduced by Ruth Reichl, this volume serves as both an introduction for new readers and a deeper exploration for long-time fans, highlighting Fisher's unique voice and perspective in American literature.
Featuring over 140 beloved recipes, this celebrated work by a renowned food writer combines simplicity with sophistication. Each recipe is infused with her signature wit and engaging anecdotes, making cooking both accessible and enjoyable. The collection showcases a range of dishes, appealing to both novice cooks and culinary enthusiasts, while emphasizing practicality in the kitchen.
In "The Gastronomical Me," M.F.K. Fisher reflects on her transformative journey from American cuisine to the vibrant flavors of French cooking in 1929 Dijon. Through memorable meals with intriguing characters, she explores her evolving palate and the development of her unique culinary voice amidst pre-war tensions.
The book features comprehensive bibliographical references and an index, enhancing its scholarly value and making it a useful resource for research. These elements provide readers with the tools to explore the topics in depth and locate specific information easily.
Exploring culinary history, M. F. K. Fisher's first book vividly recounts her experiences with food from the Greeks and Romans to the influence of Catherine de Medici, who transformed French cuisine. Through engaging essays, she shares personal anecdotes, including a memorable hunt for snails and truffles, showcasing her distinctive taste and imaginative storytelling. Fisher's contrarian perspective and rich narratives blend memory and culinary art, making this a captivating read for food enthusiasts and history lovers alike.
Whether the subject of her fancy is the lowly, unassuming potato or the love life of that aphrodisiac mollusk the oyster, Mary Frances Kennedy Fisher writes with a simplicity that belies the complexities of the life she often muses on. She is hailed as one of America's preeminent writers about gastronomy. But to limit her to that genre would be a disservice. She was passionate and well–traveled, and her narratives fill over two dozen highly acclaimed books. In this collection of some of her finest works, we learn that Fisher's palette was not only well trained in gastronomical masterpieces, but in life's best pleasures as well. Love in a Dish . . . and Other Culinary Delights by M.F.K. Fisher is an instructional manual on how to live, eat, and love brought together by prolific researcher and culinary enthusiast Anne Zimmerman. With great care she has selected essays that sometimes forgive our lustful appetites, yet simultaneously celebrate them, as in "Once a Tramp, Always . . . " and "Love in a Dish," which guides us down the path to marital bliss via the family dining table. It is through this carefully chosen selection, which includes two essays never before collected in book form, that we encounter Fisher's bold passion for cuisine and an introduction to her idea of what constitutes the delicious life.
From A for (dining) alone to Z for Zakuski, 'a Russian hors d'oeuvre', An Alphabet for Gourmets takes us through a selection of food essays by the incomparable M. F. K. Fisher, alighting on long-time obsessions and idiosyncratic digressions to wholly charming effect.
M.F.K. Fisher's personal, intimate culinary essays are well-loved American classics, combining recipes with her anecdotes, reminiscences, cultural observations and passionate storytelling. Auden, Fisher saw eating as inextricably bound up with living well. Whether reflecting on an epic lunch served by a fanatical waitress, the life-giving properties of wine, quails whose glorious smell 'would rouse Lazarus' or how the love of food can save a marriage, each piece is a perfectly-crafted work of art.
The book presents a fascinating collection of unconventional remedies and cures gathered by Fisher over the years. It explores various treatments for ailments ranging from common colds to more peculiar issues like insect bites and mating season injuries. Through a series of engaging essays, Fisher shares the origins and uses of these unique recipes, blending nostalgia and humor with insightful observations. The work serves as both a historical account and a whimsical look at the world of folk medicine.
