The Gastronomical Me

Description

Beginning with her first food memory - the greyish-pink fuzz of her grandmother's strawberry jam - M.F.K. Fisher takes us on a voyage of gastronomical discovery, from her childhood in America to her arrival in Dijon as a young woman, where she tasted real French cooking for the first time. As she embarks on a whole new way of eating, drinking and living in Europe, Fisher recounts memorable meals shared with an assortment of eccentric characters, set against a backdrop of mounting pre-war tensions. In exquisite prose, both convivial and confiding, Fisher shows how food unlocks memories of life's most significant moments, from family celebrations and tensions, to falling in and out of love, to great and dramatic journeys across continents. As she reveals the secret to ordering well, how to cook for those you love, and the true art of eating alone, Fisher proves that when there is food in the bowl, more often that not, there is nourishment in the head and heart.

Mary Frances Kennedy Fisher (1908-1992) is considered one of the greatest American writers of the twentieth century. In 1929, the newly married Fisher sailed to Dijon with her husband and tasted real French cooking for the first time. It inspired a lifelong interest in eating and living well, which she documented in her prolific writing career. She is the author or 27 books of food, memoir and travel including Serve it Forth and With Bold Knife and Fork, and a recently rediscovered novel, The Theoretical Foot.