Between Bites: Memoirs of a Hungry Hedonist

Rating:
Summary: Reminiscence with Recipes
Review: James Villas has capped a brilliant career with this enthralling and entertaining biographical and gourmand journey. It is mouth-watering reading, in more ways than one. Villas is amoung two or three "foodies" who can write. I think of M.F.K Fisher and another North Carolinian like Villas, Jean Anderson (no relative).

Rating:
Summary: This kind of book appeals to me
Review: James Villas is somewhat older than me, but he has many of the same values and attitudes. This book is composed of loving tributes, chapter by chapter, to the big personalities who have made a contribution to the author's privileged life. I did not know most of these people, but after reading the book I wish I did. Sprinkled lightly within the book, as if another part of the portrait, are individual recipes that have important memories for the relationship between the author and the current chapter's subject. This is especially interesting to me: recipes as portraits of a person. It reminds me of Renee Taylor's "My Life On A Diet: Confessions of a Hollywood Diet Junkie."

I wish I were acquainted with Mr. Villas's earlier work, with Esquire and Town & Country. Some of the topics he covered sound interesting even now, thirty years later. He does seem to have a problem with Alice Waters and Wolfgang Puck, and it can be sort of nasty to read about that, there are other beautiful passages where an appreciation of great service in fine restaurants, classic French cooking, and living the high life on board the QE2 make up for any disagreeable parts.

It does seem tinged with sadness that James Villas does not appear to have a long term partner. If his trade-off for the life of fine dining that he has enjoyed to date was to do without a partner, then I am afraid it was a high cost too high.

Rating:
Summary: A delightful tray of bon mots
Review: Jim Villas might be described as an 'old school' American epicure, sharing many opinions and attitudes with James Beard and Craig Claiborne and less with American cuisine which can be traced to the influence of Julia Child and Elizabeth David by way of Alice Waters. He explicitly sides with Jeremiah Tower's version of the origins of California cuisine, versus the version whereby most of the credit is given to Chez Panisse in general and Alice Waters in particular. Were it not for his obvious respect for M.F.K. Fisher, Paula Wolfert, and Elaine Whitelaw, I would suspect him of the same misogeny I detected in Tower's memoirs.
His memoir, 'Between Bites' is one of the first books of essays on the culinary I have read and for that I owe to Mr. Villas my introduction to the importance of M. F. K. Fisher, Richard Olney, Elizabeth David, and Paula Wolfert as fellow writers in culinary journalism and education. For this I am very grateful. Villas also devotes sizeable chapters to Craig Claiborne, Paul Bocuse, Beard, and his mother, with whom he co-wrote two cookbooks. This was also the first book which really filled out for me the importance of Craig Claiborne to American culinary opinion when Claiborne was in his prime. For a second, similar opinion on Claiborne, see Jaques Pepin's memoir 'The Apprentice'.
I did find it a bit surprising that he had very kind words about Emril Lagasse and less than kind words about Wolfgang Puck. As Emril embodies the old New Orleans / Comander's Palace cuisine and Wolfgang embraces a version of the 'California Cuisine', this tends to confirm my view of his 'old school' orientation. I'm sure this had nothing to do with the fact that Emril provided a glowing blurb for the back of the book's dust jacket.
In addition to profiles of culinary luminaries, he recalls the story of how he arrived at his profession and his position as a columist at the magazine 'Town and Country' and a delightful story of how he worked as a table captain (waiter) at Chicago's Le Perroquet for a week. Very droll and very informative. He also includes one or more recipes in each chapter, from which I made southern buttermilk buscuits on at least a dozen different occasions. This biscuit recipe, especially made with White Lily flour and homemade baking power is very good, but, I suspect, not the very best. When I switched to Nick Malgieri's recipe which replaced shortening with butter, I found the results distinctly better. Maybe Villas was being kind by replacing lard with vegetable shortening.
This is an excellent read and I was sorry when I reached the last page.

Rating:
Summary: This kind of book appeals to me
Review: Jim Villas might be described as an `old school' American epicure, sharing many opinions and attitudes with James Beard and Craig Claiborne and less with American cuisine which can be traced to the influence of Julia Child and Elizabeth David by way of Alice Waters. He explicitly sides with Jeremiah Tower's version of the origins of California cuisine, versus the version whereby most of the credit is given to Chez Panisse in general and Alice Waters in particular. Were it not for his obvious respect for M.F.K. Fisher, Paula Wolfert, and Elaine Whitelaw, I would suspect him of the same misogeny I detected in Tower's memoirs.
His memoir, `Between Bites' is one of the first books of essays on the culinary I have read and for that I owe to Mr. Villas my introduction to the importance of M. F. K. Fisher, Richard Olney, Elizabeth David, and Paula Wolfert as fellow writers in culinary journalism and education. For this I am very grateful. Villas also devotes sizeable chapters to Craig Claiborne, Paul Bocuse, Beard, and his mother, with whom he co-wrote two cookbooks. This was also the first book which really filled out for me the importance of Craig Claiborne to American culinary opinion when Claiborne was in his prime. For a second, similar opinion on Claiborne, see Jaques Pepin's memoir `The Apprentice'.
I did find it a bit surprising that he had very kind words about Emril Lagasse and less than kind words about Wolfgang Puck. As Emril embodies the old New Orleans / Comander's Palace cuisine and Wolfgang embraces a version of the `California Cuisine', this tends to confirm my view of his `old school' orientation. I'm sure this had nothing to do with the fact that Emril provided a glowing blurb for the back of the book's dust jacket.
In addition to profiles of culinary luminaries, he recalls the story of how he arrived at his profession and his position as a columist at the magazine `Town and Country' and a delightful story of how he worked as a table captain (waiter) at Chicago's Le Perroquet for a week. Very droll and very informative. He also includes one or more recipes in each chapter, from which I made southern buttermilk buscuits on at least a dozen different occasions. This biscuit recipe, especially made with White Lily flour and homemade baking power is very good, but, I suspect, not the very best. When I switched to Nick Malgieri's recipe which replaced shortening with butter, I found the results distinctly better. Maybe Villas was being kind by replacing lard with vegetable shortening.
This is an excellent read and I was sorry when I reached the last page.

Rating:
Summary: Memoirs of an Old-fashioned Bon Vivant
Review: Memoirs can be thoroughly boring if not done particularly well. Fortunately this one is well-written indeed. The first half of it deals with the author's coming of age as an academic and transition into a food writer. The second half of the book mainly consists of accounts of famous chefs and famous diners whose lives have intersected with his.

Villas is a outspoken (and perceptive) critic of nouvelle cuisine, fusion and all of the unfortunate food-foolishness of the past couple of decades. He savages some big-time chefs like Wolfgang Puck and is simply dismissive of many more famous names.

The author is also a creature from another time, say the 1930s, and is a terrible(wonderful?) snob. More than anything he reminds me of Lucius Beebe, a mid-century American bon vivant who managed to live a gilded life and then write about it.

The book misses occasionally when Villas gets a little too bitchy, but perhaps these slight lapses are as revealing as the more elegant parts. An interesting and somewhat disturbing revelation is just how many food writers live lonely and seemingly desperate lives. Perhaps only the ones in New York are this way.

Rating:
Summary: A Fabulous Read
Review: What a great read! What a fascinating life (wow)! This is a literate, informed overview of the food world and home-and-restaurant cooking over the last few decades. I don't agree with all of Villas's opinions -- but I appreciate where he's coming from and enjoy his stand as a ballsy iconclast and traditionalist. Not a dull moment here. My wife gifted me with this book,so no fool I, I'm taking her out for dinner tonight to the restaurant of her choice (which just turns out to be our favorite classy bistro).