Essays Books - Page 13

Educating Peter: How Anybody Can Become an (Almost) Instant Wine Expert

Lettie Teague

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Editorial Review:

Lettie Teague knows wine. She has been the wine editor at Food & Wine magazine for almost a decade. The only question she is asked more than "Can you recommend a great wine for under $10?" -- great cheap white: Argiolas Costamolino Vermentino from Sardinia; great cheap red: Alamos Malbec from Argentina -- is "What is the best way to learn about wine?"

After many years of fielding these questions, Lettie was determined to debunk the myth that learning about wine is hard. She decided to find just one wine idiot and teach him a few fundamentals -- how to order off a restaurant wine list without fear, approach a wine merchant with confidence, and perhaps even score a few points off a wine snob.

Enter her neighbor, good friend and complete wine neophyte Peter Travers, Rolling Stone magazine's longtime film critic.

Peter Travers proved the perfect Eliza Doolittle to Lettie's Professor Higgins. As a film critic he made bold pronouncements ("This movie stinks," which could be readily translated to "This Cabernet tastes like Merlot") and exhibited a finely tuned visual sense ("The cinematography could be improved" could easily become "This wine is too white"). But, most important, Peter knew almost nothing about wine.

As Lettie begins their lessons, Peter puts down his ever-present glass of "fatty" Chardonnay and learns that there is a huge world out there full of all kinds of wine. He is taught to swirl his glass to release the wine's aromatic compounds -- or esters -- above the rim and vows, "I'm going to do that for Martin Scorsese next time I see him. I'll volatize my esters for him."

Thus Lettie enlightens her wine-challenged but film-savvy friend about the Facts of Wine: how to hold a glass; the vocabulary of wine; how wine is made; how to read labels; how to tell the difference between grape varieties; how to make sense of vintages; how to glean information about a wine simply by looking at the shape and color of the bottle; and an overview of the great wine regions of the Old World and the New.

Finally, after many fact-filled, hilarious lessons, Lettie takes Peter to the most famous American wine region of all, Napa Valley, where he hobnobs with wine and Hollywood royalty and finally puts his new skills to the test in the real world.

Part buddy movie, part serious wine tutorial, Educating Peter is as much a treat for oenophiles in on the joke as it is for beginners who think Chablis is a brand name of wine.

The Shameless Carnivore: A Manifesto for Meat Lovers

Scott Gold

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 15 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

The average American consumes 218.3 pounds of meat every year. But in the face of concerns about Mad Cow disease, dubious industrial feedlot practices, and self-righteous vegetarians, the carnivorous lifestyle has become somewhat déclassé. Now, Scott Gold issues a red-blooded call to arms for the meat-adoring masses to rise up, speak out, and reclaim their pride. 

The Shameless Carnivore explores the complexities surrounding the choice to eat meat, as well as its myriad pleasures. Delving into everything from ethical issues to dietary, anthropological and medical findings, Gold answers such probing questions as: Can staying carnivorous be more healthful than going vegetarian? What’s behind the “tastes like chicken” phenomenon?  And, of course, what qualities should you look for in a butcher? The author also chronicles his attempt to become the ultimate carnivore by eating thirty-one different meats as well as every part, cut and organ of a cow (including tasty recipes), describes hunting squirrels in Louisiana, and even spends an entire, painstaking week as a vegetarian.

From the critter dinners he relished as a child to his adult forays into exotic game and adventures in the kitchen, Gold writes with an infectious enthusiasm that might just inspire readers to serve a little llama or rattlesnake at their next dinner party. This is the definitive book for meat lovers.

Olives: The Life and Lore of a Noble Fruit

Mort Rosenblum

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 12 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Delightful book on all things olive 5 out of 5 stars.
11 of 11 people found this review helpful.

_Olives_ by Mort Rosenblum is a well-written, witty, and engaging book on all things olive, thorough in its coverage. Rosenblum became an olive aficionado after acquiring five acres of land in the Provence region of France, site of an abandoned farmhouse and two hundred half-dead and heavily overgrown century-plus olive trees, long neglected. From that point on he became not only committed to bringing his trees back to life but on becoming an expert on olives in general, traveling throughout France, Israel, Palestine, Spain, Italy, Tunisia, Morocco, Greece, the former Yugoslavia, California, and Mexico to speak to olive growers, those who press olives for their oil, government regulators, those involved in marketing table olives and olive oil, chefs, and nutritional experts. Though not a cookbook, _Olives_ even includes cooking, buying, and storage tips as well as recipes for such fare as eliopitta (a Cypriot olive bread) and imam bayaldi (the name meaning "the imam fainted," supposedly reference to a long-ago reaction to this eggplant and olive oil dish).

The origins of the domestication of _Olea europaea_ are lost in the mists of prehistory. The olive, a close relation to the lilac and jasmine, was maintained in groves in Asia Minor as early as 6000 B.C. Greeks, Phoenicians, and Romans spread olives to Sicily, the Italian mainland, France, Spain, and North Africa. Spanish missionaries in the 1500s brought the olive to California and Mexico. Today there are 800 million olive trees in the world. Though found on six continents, 90% of them are found in the Mediterranean (Spain has the most).

Olives have long been an important fixture in Mediterranean history and religion. Golden carvings of olives decorated ancient Egyptian tombs. Greeks used so much olive oil to lubricate their athletes that they invented a curved blade, the strigil, to scrape it off. Saul, the first king of Israel, was crowned by rubbing oil into his forehead. In Hebrew, the root word for "messiah" comes from "unguent," meaning that the messiah when he arrives will be slathered in oil. The fuel referred to in the miracle of Hanukkah was olive oil. The Old and New Testaments refer to olive oil 140 times and the olive tree 100 times. The Romans had a separate stock market and merchant marine dedicated just to oil.

Rosenblum vividly showed that olive oil is a nuanced as wine. There are seven hundred cultivated varieties, or cultivars, with some grown for pressing, others for eating, ranging from cailletiers (favored in salade nicoise) to malissi (the standard tree of the West Bank) to the hardy, wilder Moroccan picholine to the famous Greek Kalamata. Oils vary a lot in taste, from syrupy yellow oils of southern Italy to thin green Tuscan oils with a peppery after bite to the spicy and light oil of the Siurana region of Spain. Acidity and taste vary due to local cultivators, the weather that year, the presence or absence of pests, when the olives are harvested, and how long they sit around before pressing (as fermentation drives up acidity).

There are regional differences in harvesting olives. In Israel, Palestine, and France, they "milk" trees, the pickers using their fingers and dropping olives into a basket or a net under the tree. "Whackers" - prevalent in Spain, Italy, and Greece - use sticks to hit the branches to dislodge olives, faster and not requiring ladders, but tougher on the trees.

The actual process of pressing olives is extremely well-covered, Rosenblum vividly describing the one favored in most olive-growing countries, the modern continuous system (which uses linked centrifuges to grind up pulp), often highly automated, and the traditional method of using a tower press, which is a very interesting device (though labor-intensive and on the decline outside of niche markets). There are considerable debates in the industry over exact methods, particularly on the use of water and its temperature.

Olives are big business; an industry producing about $10 billion a year as the world consumes nearly 2 million metric tons of olive oil each year. In some areas consumption is quite high; the average per capita consumption annually in Greece is five gallons of oil. Though Spain produces 37% of the world's oil compared to Italy's 19 % and Greece's 17%, it only has a 16% share of the American market (compared to Italy's 70% and Greece's 3%). Ten brands dominate the American domesticate market; most labels are small, sold only regionally or instead growers sell their olives to Italy to produced blended oils for export as a "Product of Italy" despite being grown perhaps in Tunisia, Greece, or Turkey. Rosenblum investigated the corruption that existed in the industry, from waning Mafia influence in Italy to adulterating olive oil with seed oil to cheating in some areas to gain EU agricultural subsidies.

Sales in olive oil have grown a great deal, particularly in the United States, thanks to a growing consensus on its healthfulness. Monounsaturated, olive oil drives out bad cholesterol without reducing the good. Rich in antioxidants, it has been shown to reduce the risk of breast cancer.

The author provided some valuable education to the consumer about oils. Extra-virgin for instance means that the amount of free fatty acids - mostly oleic acid - is below 1 percent, with the organoleptic properties (aroma, taste, and body) rating high. Virgin oil, rarely found for sale, has up to 2 percent acidity. Both are produced by "first-press" or "cold-press" methods. Plain olive oil, (or "pure"), is refined inferior oil used mainly for frying, treated with steam and chemicals and mixed with some better oil for a little flavor and aroma. Pomace oil comes from the first-press leavings, refined to bring it below the 3.5 percent acidity level that designates lamp oil, though often pomace is instead used to make soap (the oil for soap may have 40% acidity). "Lite" oil has the same number of calories (125 per tablespoon), simply being a refined olive oil with less extra virgin added, a clearer color, cheaper to make, and inferior.

Editorial Review:

Winner of the James Beard Award

Until one stops to notice, an olive is only a lowly lump at the bottom of a martini. But not only does a history of olives traverse climates and cultures, it also reveals fascinating differences in processing, production, and personalities. Aficionados of the noble little fruit expect miracles from it as a matter of course. In 1986, Mort Rosenblum bought a small farm in Provence and acquired 150 neglected olive trees that were old when the Sun King ruled France. He brought them back to life and became obsessed with olives, their cultivation, and their role in international commerce.

Auberge Of The Flowering Hearth

Roy Andries De Groot

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 11 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Extraordinary 5 out of 5 stars.
8 of 8 people found this review helpful.

This is, without a doubt, the most extraordinary book on food and gastronomy ever. Brilliantly written, a true snapshot in time.

open your eyes, to a whole new world! 5 out of 5 stars.
3 of 3 people found this review helpful.

this book, published in the early 70's takes on a new meaning for serious cooks seeking inspiration. when you read this book be prepared to be transported to a world before mass transport, the specter of iqf (individual guick freezing) and strawberries year round... this relates a tale of two strong women putting great regional food out; not because it is the trendy thing to do, but because it is the only option. instead of being repetitious, it shows the durability of the classics. read this book as a primer for alice waters and local eating.

Goes to the core of things 5 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

This book goes to the core of things. As a former chef, now lawyer, myself, I understand fully the reviewer who commented that he made all the chefs in his restaurant read this book -- not for the recipes, but for the understanding.

Those familiar with de Groot's other cookbooks will realize that some of the recipes in this book are repeated nearly verbatim from earlier books. But this is not a drawback, because can you really write book after book of entirely different but equally inspired recipes? Cookbooks that do that turn into compendiums of random recipes, some good, some less good. It appears that the actual menus of the Auberge are to some extent fictionalized, but based on an interview I heard with de Groot it is clear that the underlying facts are true -- de Groot said that after eating at the Inn his entire viewpoint on cooking changed, and anyone who reads the book will find their own viewpoint equally changed.

What this book teaches is that it does not matter if you can list 40 recipes for zucchini; rather, there is at least one particular thing you can do with zucchini that is incredibly good. This is a book of treasures.

By the way, de Groot's earlier book, Feasts for all Seasons, is similar in bringing a mystical understanding to the seasonal cycle of foods. It too has many treasures in it, including a three page description of how to poach an egg. The treasures remain, but unfortunately many of the recipes seem to be laden with salt pork, fat back, pints of cream, pounds of butter, and generally harder to digest than they were for many of us forty years ago.

If you love food, buy the book.

The Tummy Trilogy

Calvin Trillin

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 13 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Fats Goldberg lives! 5 out of 5 stars.
4 of 5 people found this review helpful.

I seriously doubt when Calvin Trillin was knocking out this purple prose back in the early `70s that he ever considered himself a "food writer." I expect no one at the time save the M.F.K. Fishers and Elizabeth Davids of the world even considered that label for themselves. Besides, Mr. Trillin was--indeed, still is--funnier than hell about his gastronomical habits and so was likely slotted under "Humor" in disco-era bookshops--a fate, I'm sure, worse than literary death. I mention all this as a eulogy to how far we've come, category-wise; Mr. Trillin is indeed a food writer and a great one to boot. And even though he's been at this over thirty years his essential approach--*bon vivant* foodie, not frustrated chef or that hideous modern invention, "food critic"-- remains unique.

So how is it that someone scribbling about *eating* (not, mind you, *cooking*) can have me laughing out loud? And wouldn't a self-confessed "big eater" feel at least some desire to whip up what he puts away? Part of the answer lies in that essential dichotomy: Trillin seems vaguely aware that writing about consumption is ridiculous, but he lets us in on the game and, like any good comedian, takes his craft *very* seriously. Most of the stories in these three hilarious volumes have long been published elsewhere but taken together (they can easily be consumed in any order) they betray a level of culinary detail that I doubt any European 3-star Michelin grader could approach.

From the first pages a wonderful informality reigns; Trillin seems to write like I'd imagine he speaks, which in this context is near-perfect. Being invited to the kind of BBQ joints, Chinese restaurants, and fried chicken houses that he describes *demands* this kind of chatter and rather than rambling, the author's language almost seems made for his venues. (Starting with "the best restaurants in the world are, of course, in Kansas City. Not all of them; only the top four or five.") The folksiness not only serves the purpose; when it comes to food, Trillin makes it clear: it *is* the purpose.

Another delightful device is familiarized repetition: bringing back an issue (the paralyzing fear that unreadable Chinese on menus hides unimaginable gastronomic delights, for example) from a previous story helps us identify with Trillin's angst--but also betrays his quiet confidence that we *read* the previous part and know its importance. Bringing whole characters (e.g., Fats Goldberg, the pizza baron) back into the mix regularly is even more fun.

To be sure, after nearly four hundred pages the author has a few overlaps (at least a few titles start with "Confessions of ..."), but they're minor compared to his comic genius. Reading `The Tummy Trilogy' was delicious from start to finish and the only dated portions--best exemplified by continual slams against "continental cuisine" (exemplified by `La Maison de la Casa House')--still rang somewhat true, even playing to a thinly-disguised inverse snobbery.

My only regret after this satisfying meal was not getting a better picture of the author himself, despite his occasional family references. Perhaps that's not all bad; I doubt Mr. Trillin and I would get along. From his recent writing, he appears to be indulging in political fever-swamping (especially against Mr. Bush) which is a tragic waste of talent. While he admits his days as a "sausage-eating crank" may be behind him, I can only fervently wish otherwise.

Editorial Review:

In the 1970s, Calvin Trillin informed America that its most glorious food was not to be found at the pretentious restaurants he referred to generically as La Maison de la Casa House, Continental Cuisine. With three hilarious books over the next two decades—American Fried; Alice, Let’s Eat; and Third Helpings—he established himself as, in Craig Claiborne’s phrase, “the Walt Whitman of American eats.” Trillin’s three comic masterpieces are now available in what Trillin calls The Tummy Trilogy.

M. F. K. Fisher among the Pots and Pans: Celebrating Her Kitchens (California Studies in Food and Culture)

Joan Reardon

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 1 Average rating: 3.0 of 5

A different view of MFK 3 out of 5 stars.
9 of 10 people found this review helpful.

As a person who has spent half a lifetime reading anything and everything on or about MFK Fisher, I eagerly awaited the arrival of this book. Although I found it enjoyable,for the most part it was mostly a lot of information lifted from MFK's own writings about her kitchens, and the many places that she lived. The newer material was good, describing a bit more in depth what Mary Frances was going through during times of upheaval and illness, and there were some wonderful photos of the places that she had lived. The illustrations were lovely. All in all, it was a nice read- and makes one want to go to the bookshelf and pull down one of MFK's own, and read them again- they never go out of style!

Editorial Review:

From her very first book, Serve It Forth, M.F.K. Fisher wrote about her ideal kitchen. In her subsequent publications, she revisited the many kitchens she had known and the foods she savored in them to express her ideas about the art of eating. M.F.K. Fisher among the Pots and Pans, interspersed with recipes and richly illustrated with original watercolors, is a retrospective of Mary Frances Kennedy Fisher's life as it unfolded in those homey settings--from Fisher's childhood in Whittier, California, to the kitchens of Dijon, where she developed her taste for French foods and wines; from the idyllic kitchen at Le Paquis to the isolation of her home in Hemet, California; and finally to her last days in the Napa and Sonoma Valleys. M.F.K. Fisher was a solitary cook who interpreted the scenario of a meal in her own way, and M.F.K. Fisher among the Pots and Pans provides a deeply personal glimpse of a woman who continues to mystify even as she commands our attention.

Cooking with My Sisters: One Hundred Years of Family Recipes, from Bari to Big Stone Gap

Adriana Trigiani, Mary Trigiani, Lucia Anna Trigiani, Antonia Trigiani, Francesca Trigiani

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Total reviews: 13 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

For the Trigianis, cooking has always been a family affair–and the kitchen was the bustling center of their home, where folks gathered around the table for good food, good conversation, and the occasional eruption. Example: Being thrown out of the kitchen because one’s Easter bread kneading technique isn’t up to par. As Adriana says: “When the Trigianis reach out and touch someone, we do it with food.” Like the recipes that have been handed down for generations from mother to daughter and grandmother to granddaughter, the family’s celebrations are also anchored to the life and laughter around the table. We learn how Grandmom Yolanda Trigiani sometimes wrote her recipes in code, or worked from memory, guarding her recipes carefully. And we meet Grandma Lucia Bonicelli, who never raised her voice and believed that when people fight at the dinner table, the food turns to poison in the body.

Adriana Trigiani’s voice springs to life from the first page of Cooking with My Sisters, a collection of beloved family recipes that the Trigianis have been enjoying for generations. But there’s much more here than just the food. Peppered with hilarious family anecdotes, poignant letters, and exquisite color photographs, Cooking with My Sisters draws us into the warm and witty world of the Trigiani clan. Each recipe has a story behind it, and each chapter has tips from different sisters, reflecting the unique personalities of the latest generation of Trigiani women.

Here are mainstay meals, featured in sections such as “The Big Life” and “The Big Wow,” which include the chapters “Pasta, or as We Called It, Maccheroni” and “Food We Hated as Kids but Love to Serve Now.” Accessible to any cook, the recipes range from Chicken and Polenta, Zizi Mary’s Rice Soup, and Gnocchi to favorite desserts like Grandmom’s Buttermilk Cake–and all the delectable dishes are geared toward bringing your family together.

Written with Adriana Trigiani’s trademark humor and verve, this wonderful book will appeal to anyone who values the bonds that food, community, and cultural tradition can provide.


From the Hardcover edition.

Coming Home to Eat: The Pleasures and Politics of Local Foods

Gary Paul Nabhan

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 13 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Great topic--but why so much Spam? 3 out of 5 stars.
6 of 7 people found this review helpful.

I completely honor the impulse behind this book and believe in the importance of eating local. I also applaud Nabhan for thinking and writing about these issues before so many others (yet I'm also happy for the influx of recent local eating books and articles from Pollan, Kingsolver, McKibben, Alisa Smith & JB Mackinnon, and the blog by "No Impact Man"). Some scenes are powerful: eating ripe peaches, the short Thanksgiving section, reconnecting with family. The history and science sections are good too.

What surprised me, though, is that it seemed like throughout much of the book, Nabhan was in his Blazer, on a plane, or somewhere nowhere near home. Although he carried his fried grasshoppers and tortillas with him, I was longing to read more about the actual practices of growing and preparing local food (there is, however, plenty on roadkill). What surprised me more: the continual references to Spam, especially in relation to the sunset:

"As a Spam-colored sunset blanketed the western sky, the sweat on my back chilled" (40).
"At dusk they [mechanized dairy farms] took on a sickly greenish cast, the color of modly Spam" (158).
". . . each afternoon until the sun went down, gaudy as a thin slice of Spam" (276).

Why so much Spam? He buys a can of Spam in another odd section of the book where he spends $50 on a strange combination of food for a brunch that he and his partner, Laurie, don't eat. In another section, he throws a bunch of food in the compost bin because it uses cactuses in the advertising but doesn't contain cactus juice. I was puzzled by the waste. Why not eat the food and not buy it again? (Or in the supermarket venture, why not buy foods suitable for a decent brunch?)

In terms of the time in the Blazer and the time away from home, I understand that Nabhan's work and activism demand travel--and sometimes you see "home" more clearly when you're away from it. But I can't think of any reason for all the Spam.

Editorial Review:

Issuing a "profound and engaging...passionate call to us to re-think our food industry" (Jim Harrison, author of "The Raw and the Cooked"), Nabhan reminds readers that eating close to home is not just a matter of convenienceQit is an act of deep cultural and environmental significance.

The Oldways Table: Essays & Recipes from the Culinary Think Tank

K. Dun Gifford, Sara Baer-sinnott

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 1 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Wonderful essays and good recipes 4 out of 5 stars.
20 of 21 people found this review helpful.

"The Oldways Table" is less of a cookbook and more of a guide to finding and enjoying the most healthy, delicious, and fine foods the world has to offer. The mission of Oldways is "to help consumers make wise choices about eating, drinking, and lifestyle," and to emphasize "the traditional pleasures of the table." In some ways this makes it a rather gourmet book with sections on imported cheeses, wines, olive oils, and more, which might make it seem inaccessible to poorer sections of the populace. However, there's also a great deal of information of use to anyone, discussing various aspects of sustainable food production (ensuring we make food choices that contribute to the availability of food in generations to come), healthy diet and more, all couched in terms of delicious food rather than dense scientific terms.

"The Oldways Table" includes many memoir-like interludes filled with enjoyable tales of rustic clambakes or authentic meals in historic cities, and it certainly makes a leisurely and fascinating read. I know far more than I did before about the production of cheese, the difference between processed cheese, unprocessed cheese, and unpasteurized cheese, and so on. It's interesting to know exactly what goes into making the best of the cured meats of Italy, and what makes them different from region to region.

The recipes themselves are largely simple and quite delicious. There's a dish of edamame beans, olive oil and sea salt that is positively alchemical in its simple and luscious taste. An eggplant-based soup made us sigh with delight. Unfortunately, while the tastes were delicious, it definitely helps to have plenty of kitchen experience when you make these recipes, as some of them don't appear to have had much kitchen-testing. For example, the "creamy vanilla bread pudding with cherry compote" is absolutely divine, but the instructions have a few... issues. For starters, the first direction is to preheat the oven, but then before using it you complete another several steps that take about an hour and a half. The recipe calls for "4 to 5 cups cubed white bread (enough to fill a 9 by 13-inch pan)", yet 4-5 cups of bread wasn't even close enough to "fill" a 9 x 13 pan, so I had to guess whether the amount was the important part or the filling the pan was the important part (I decided to almost-fill the pan, and it worked out well).

Since the recipes are the lesser part of the book by volume and quality-control, I'd primarily recommend this book to those interested in reading and learning about healthy, sustainable food choices and practices. If you have the experience in the kitchen to trouble-shoot any mistakes you find, then certainly do make the recipes--they're quite delicious and enjoyable!

Editorial Review:

Early in the 20th century, as Americans climbed into their Model-Ts and took to the open road, American manufacturers and retailers discovered miles and miles of new advertising space, and the audaciously over sized billboard was born. For a century, billboards have recruited, congratulated, teased, sold, and seduced the American nation, promoting everything under the sun, from hosiery to war bonds, presidential candidates to rock shows. "Great American Billboards" not only offers a lively look back at changing styles, products, and tastes, but is also an important visual record of this largely unheralded yet ubiquitous American art form.

Chicken A La King And The Buffalo Wing: Food Names And The People And Places That Inspired Them

Steven Gilbar

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 1 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Appetite-Whetting 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

What fun to find out the etymology of all these dishes and foods named after people and places.
And so nicely designed and packaged--and so well priced for a hardcover book! I am going to give this little culinary delight to my foodie/wordie friends for Christmas

Editorial Review:

We all know that "sandwich" and "eggs benedict" are named after people and that "Dover sole" and "Irish stew" are named after places. But how about the "Granny Smith" apple or the "Bing cherry", the "Bermuda onion" or "Anaheim chile?" For readers who have always been curious about the origin of the names of certain foods, dishes and beverages, this fun and informative reference is set forth like a menu--first dinner, then lunch and breakfast, where readers are free to gorge themselves on the literary dainties inside. Bon appetit!