Villas at Table: A Passion for Food and Drink

Rating:
Summary: More Great Food Writing from an Old School star columnist
Review: `Villas at Table' is the seventh James Villas book I have reviewed and I need to recant a bit my opinion of Villas' essays in my review of `Stalking the Green Fairy'. In this piece, I said Villas' writing might not have quite the durability of similar writers such as John Thorne and Edward Behr. While I find in `Villas at Table' the same interest in the contemporary culinary scene as we see in his other collections of essays, I wish to loudly proclaim that Villas has something most other food columnists do not have. This is, I believe, the kind of strong opinions based on a thorough knowledge of his subject that provokes thought and discourse.

This is not to say I always agree with Villas or that there are no statements in his writing which are dated. But, even the dated material that has been proven wrong by the course of time is an interesting basis for discussion. One favorite discovery in this book is in Villas interview with M.F.K. Fisher where they opine that buying fast food will make home cooking extinct. Since this was said in 1978, we have had the success of the Food Network and its roster of popular shows on cooking at home, the Slow Food movement, the success of supermarkets specializing in organic and seasonal produce, and a strong interest in healthy eating which can only be done within a reasonable budget by cooking and eating at home. The irony is that a similar culinary apocalypse was predicted in the late 1950s. This trend was simply not as deep as pictured by its critics and it was reversed by the appearance of Julia Child and the rise of interest in things culinary typified by Villas himself.

But there is much, much more here than aging `causus bellum' statements. I experienced a minor epiphany upon reading the reaction of restaurateur Pearl Byrd Foster upon receiving a Virginia ham. In order to evaluate this seemingly magnificent cured thigh of pig, she proceeded to prepare it in her jambalaya recipe to see how it tasted when so cooked. This may seem to be an utterly simple act, yet the numerous references in `Cooks Illustrated' to testers doing similar experiments to evaluate a product never made an impression on me in the way it did when a very practical professional cook did the same thing.

One of Villas' favorite complaints about modern celebrity chefs is that they spend so little time in their own kitchens actually preparing the food of which they speak on interview shows and on which they write in cookbooks based on their restaurant cuisine. In the abstract, I really discredit a chef for spending little time in his restaurant kitchen IF his staff faithfully recreates his recipes daily. If I ever happened to be so lucky as to actually get a reservation at Babbo, I would probably have a much more memorable experience if I ran into Mario Batali and had a few words with him than if Mario and not sous chef Andy Nusser were doing the cooking or manning the expediter's station. Mario and his book writing colleagues such as Charlie Trotter, Tom Colicchio, Alice Waters, Alfred Portale, and Jamie Oliver are reaching more people with their suggestions on good cooking than they ever would if they were working the saute station at their restaurants. I have no problem giving a greater respect to those chefs who do work their own kitchen, but I will not necessarily fault Wolfgang Puck for not working the line at Spago.

One mystery this book does not solve is Villas' admiration for Emeril Lagasse and the dislike he commonly expresses of Wolfgang Puck. The closest I can come to figuring this out is that Lagasse is an important student of the great New Orleans cuisine, while Puck offends Villas' love of the traditional with his California pizzas and his concentration on business rather than food.

One of Villas' major contributions to an appreciation of culinary pleasures is to give equal time to the pleasures of liqueur and mixed drinks against the tide of talk about wine. A similarly important contribution is his celebrating the pleasures of a long sit-down restaurant dinner. I simply have no interest in going to a local Italian or Chinese restaurant of small distinction when I could have much more fun teaching myself how to make semolina gnocchi or lo mein at home. The opportunity to select a mediocre meal from a large selection of dishes without the work of shopping for ingredients, doing all the prep work, having all the right pots and pans on hand, and doing the cleanup simply does not counter the joyless encounter with the modestly skilled restaurant staff. Having a meal at a French or French influenced restaurant with an ample wine list and a wait staff which does not address us as `You guys' and which caters to your occupying a table for up to three hours is a very uncommon pleasure. Villas reminds us of how fine an experience this can be.

Villas is definitely `old school' culinary journalism. His heroes are James Beard, Craig Claiborne, and M.F.K. Fisher. Not once does the name of current stars, Shirley Corriher, Jeffrey Steingarten, John Thorne, or Tony Bourdain, leave his pen. This is a bit unfortunate, as I would really like to know what Villas thinks of contemporary culinary stars such as Thomas Keller, Frank Stitt, and Patrick O'Connell. Villas' main contribution to contemporary culinary thought may be that he gives us a picture of the way things used to be and from where we have come. The modern culinary scene may not be in as much of a change as the revolution happening in the music distribution world, but things are changing, and Villas is a fine gauge of what has changed.

Highly recommended to foodie readers.