Description:
There is a special kind of person--a "foodie"--who not only loves to eat but harbors a fascination with food, cooking, and dining that no feast could satisfy. This obsession is not just about nourishing the body but about feeding the mind as well. Jeff Silverman proves himself a foodie of the highest order with The First Chapbook for Foodies, presenting an impressive and learned compilation of discourses on all things gustatory. Expertly feeding our intellectual hunger, he offers writings from some of the best-known culinary professionals--including James Beard, Craig Claiborne, and M.F.K. Fisher--as well as some unexpected contributors, such as Sigmund Freud, Erica Jong, and Cary Grant. Thirteen chapters organized by topic--"Food Is Love," "Food Is Lust," "On Revulsion," "On Food Snobbery," and "Simply Simple Food," to name a few--offer a clever mix of poetry, essays, tips, and folktales. Freud theorizes that dreams are simple wish fulfillment fantasies based on a recurrent dream he often had (whenever he ate salty foods before bed, he dreamt of drinking water). In "Gourmet with Garnish," Saveur editor Andrew Coleman masterfully dispels the myth of gourmet food. And Black Panther Party cofounder Bobby Seale's "Barbecue Bill of Rights" is both an amusing diatribe against the "overly commercial bondage of cue-be-rab" and an informative guide to achieving the perfect union of smoke and meat. Spicing up the text are recipes from across the ages, from Geoffrey Chaucer to Elizabeth David. While few readers are likely to tackle the Clambake for 500 Guests or Alice B. Toklas's Hashish Fudge, the coveted recipe for Chasen's celebrated chili (made world-famous when Elizabeth Taylor ordered 10 quarts to be delivered to her in Rome while she was filming Cleopatra) may be incorporated into the repertoire of many a reader. At once informative, entertaining, and thought provoking, The First Chapbook for Foodies offers a veritable banquet of musings on food tasty enough to satisfy even the hungriest foodie minds. --Robin Donovan
| 
