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224th out of 381 books
—
440 voters
The Supper of the Lamb: A Culinary Reflection
From a passionate and talented chef who also happens to be an Episcopalian priest comes this surprising and thought-provoking treatise on everything from prayer to poetry to puff pastry. In The Supper of the Lamb, Capon talks about festal and ferial cooking, emerging as an inspirational voice extolling the benefits and wonders of old-fashioned home cooking in a world of fa...more
Paperback, 284 pages
Published
July 2nd 2002
by Modern Library
(first published October 1st 1989)
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This book is a fantastic addition to any chef's collection of quasi-entertaining, good-food-in-general, why-don't-we-as-a-society-stop-and-eat-together-more, with glimmers of faith shining through. It's more than about food; it's about sacrament and good times with friends. Among his more interesting assertions is that for 'a serious dinner party', one must have 3/4-1 bottle of wine per guest. Needless to say, he had my attention. Beyond the wine, he shows the reader how he or she can create 4 s...more
Mar 05, 2013
Phil
rated it
5 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Recommends it for:
Matthew Green
This quirky little book (a much re-read one in our house, I should add) is a reflection not only on food and eating, but on life, God and everything in between. Father Capon's writing is witty and full of verve, starting with his address to an onion and ending on the subject of heartburn (the lesser and greater). In between, he discusses such things as tin fiddles (useless, but well marketed substitutes for useful tools), a lot of culinary technique, dieting and the joys of almost a well organiz...more
I believe this is the only time I will get to tag a book on both my "Christianity" and "cookbooks" shelves.
This book was recommended to me by my pastor when I told him I like cooking, and given to me by my dad and stepmom as an early Easter present.
The book is nominally framed by an extended recipe ("Lamb for Eight Persons Four Times"), but this recipe primarily serves as a jumping-off point for various digressions on food and, a bit less frequently, spirituality. Capon writes in a style that I...more
This book was recommended to me by my pastor when I told him I like cooking, and given to me by my dad and stepmom as an early Easter present.
The book is nominally framed by an extended recipe ("Lamb for Eight Persons Four Times"), but this recipe primarily serves as a jumping-off point for various digressions on food and, a bit less frequently, spirituality. Capon writes in a style that I...more
Every once in awhile I read a book that I know has altered me in some way, and not necessarily for the better or for the worse. This is one of those books.
It's hard to even know where to start with this book. I supposed you start by saying it is a cookbook, a life altering cook book. Yet this is not the typical utilitarian cookbook that gives you a couple hundred choices as to what to have for dinner tomorrow, instead it gets to the very heart of cooking. Yet it goes beyond the heart of cooking,...more
It's hard to even know where to start with this book. I supposed you start by saying it is a cookbook, a life altering cook book. Yet this is not the typical utilitarian cookbook that gives you a couple hundred choices as to what to have for dinner tomorrow, instead it gets to the very heart of cooking. Yet it goes beyond the heart of cooking,...more
I was eager to read "The Supper of the Lamb" because Tamar Adler mentions it numerous times in her wonderful "An Everlasting Meal." While I'm glad I finally have read "The Supper of the Lamb," it's not something I plan on returning to, which is not how I'd characterize the way other food writers like Adler and MFK Fisher have affected me. Robert Farrar Capon describes many of the approaches to cooking and living that I generally agree with and try to practice on a regular basis: cooking simply f...more
I was giddy by the time he finished the work on the onion in chapter one. You feel like you are sitting at an large old wooden table in the Farrar kitchen, while he cuts into a red onion and simply, easily, beautifully cuts into the secrets of life. Oh and the chapter on wine will make you dizzy. A beautiful and hearty book on everything from the view of your kitchen table.
I bought a used, sparsely underlined, and I had to shake my head sadly at what the former owner thought was important. Capon's observations on the mechanics of food are no doubt helpful, but his inspired ruminations on food and spirituality are the real meat on this bone. It was distressing to see that someone could read this book and completely miss the point.
This is, of course, a book about food. More than that, though, it's a book about food as a testament to the "unecessariness" of creation...more
This is, of course, a book about food. More than that, though, it's a book about food as a testament to the "unecessariness" of creation...more
The NYT review blurb, presumably from 1965 the year this book was first published, described "The Supper of the Lamb" as "awesomely funny, wise beautiful, moving, preposterous..." Preposterous it is. The meditation on cutting onions could be dropped into any anthology of food writing or Christian meditation.
However, 1965 keeps getting in the way. Capon's advice on cigars at a dinner party while presumably spot on for the need of good quality cigars feels like a missive from another planet. There...more
However, 1965 keeps getting in the way. Capon's advice on cigars at a dinner party while presumably spot on for the need of good quality cigars feels like a missive from another planet. There...more
This book is about the desubstantialization of modern life from the focus of how to properly cook a leg of lamb. I have learned much about both life and lamb.
Magnificent. The prose is very reminiscent of Chesterton, with the same playfully bemused, grandfather smoking a pipe in his easy chair feel.
In Consideration of the Cookbook
Don’t get me wrong; I love cookbooks. But they are a hollow medium. At its core, a cookbook is an instruction manual—many more pretty pictures, but an instruction manual nonetheless.
A successful cookbook inspires you to cook.
First, a succulent picture heats your metaphorical oven. The food—photographed to cut to the core of your carnal desires—rumbles your stomach and leads you toward the grocery store to collect ingredients.
Second, the text offers careful instruc...more
Don’t get me wrong; I love cookbooks. But they are a hollow medium. At its core, a cookbook is an instruction manual—many more pretty pictures, but an instruction manual nonetheless.
A successful cookbook inspires you to cook.
First, a succulent picture heats your metaphorical oven. The food—photographed to cut to the core of your carnal desires—rumbles your stomach and leads you toward the grocery store to collect ingredients.
Second, the text offers careful instruc...more
Jan 03, 2012
Racie
is currently reading it
This book is beautifully written. Its prose, while showing its age, speaks the truth of our culture's current relationship to food and prophesies the how and why our relationship will continue to deteriorate.
And yet, the book is not glum -it is a love story and the author writes about food as some write about art or their lovers. Understanding the true beauty behind food makes us better people and gives joy to life that can be found in no other relationship. And he writes all this while instruct...more
And yet, the book is not glum -it is a love story and the author writes about food as some write about art or their lovers. Understanding the true beauty behind food makes us better people and gives joy to life that can be found in no other relationship. And he writes all this while instruct...more
I began this book as a supplement to a class I was taking at church - Food, Creation, and the World. By the time class wrapped up, I was an enchanted half-way through, so I set it aside and anticipated an opportunity to return and finish it off.
What a delightful consomme-tion! (Forgive me my corny pun; I couldn't resist.)
First of all, I don't know what consistency there is within the various editions, but if you are into tactile connections the very weight of my edition is telling. It speaks to...more
What a delightful consomme-tion! (Forgive me my corny pun; I couldn't resist.)
First of all, I don't know what consistency there is within the various editions, but if you are into tactile connections the very weight of my edition is telling. It speaks to...more
A culinary reflection indeed. If God created the world and food is part of the world, then the theology of creation ought to bear out in how we approach our dinner plates (and the time in the kitchen beforehand). I had never thought of this before, and apparently neither have most other people, which is why the best description of the book is probably "surprising."
Another apt description is "funny." I laughed my way through the whole chapter on noodles and a good part of the rest of the book whi...more
Another apt description is "funny." I laughed my way through the whole chapter on noodles and a good part of the rest of the book whi...more
God and cooking ... is there a more sublime combination? No, not really. At least if you read The Supper of the Lamb, that is how you feel. Capon has a rare gift for taking the ordinary, like an onion, and peeling back the layers (like an ... onion), and showing us the reflections of creation, connection, and the infinite that exist within (yes, we're still just at the onion).
He does it all with a solid lick of common sense and human reality that is refreshing. Why has it taken me so long to pic...more
He does it all with a solid lick of common sense and human reality that is refreshing. Why has it taken me so long to pic...more
Nov 02, 2007
Auntie
rated it
5 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
a good cook!
Shelves:
theologyspirituality
I was facing a 9 hour flight to England this Fall and I brought along this new author. I'd read a glowing review in the magazine Christianity today and on impulse bought a few of Capon's books.
This particular book is a cookbook plus much more! Capon starts with the directive to buy an entire leg of lamb, from which a home cook with a good arm and excellent cleaver constructs 4 sections to be cooked in multiple ways for a total of 8 dinners.
But this is also a meditation on theology...and as he is...more
This particular book is a cookbook plus much more! Capon starts with the directive to buy an entire leg of lamb, from which a home cook with a good arm and excellent cleaver constructs 4 sections to be cooked in multiple ways for a total of 8 dinners.
But this is also a meditation on theology...and as he is...more
A delightful fusion of cookbook and theological mediation with the aim of igniting imaginative wonder and gratitude for the superabundant goodness of the Creator of food and all good things. Capon mixes one part kitchen chops and one part wit with poetic theological reflection sufficient to make the mouth water and the soul stir.
"Food is the daily sacrament of unnecessary goodness, ordained for the continual remembrance that the world will always be more delicious than it is useful."
"Food is the daily sacrament of unnecessary goodness, ordained for the continual remembrance that the world will always be more delicious than it is useful."
I was a little worried at the beginning that I'd be slogging through after I encountered a whole chapter on observing the details of an onion, but by the end I thought this book might be one of my favorite things I've ever read. His style is very engaging and the subject matter throughout the book is really varied. The blurb on the back of the book calls it a "thought-provoking treatise on everything from prayer to poetry to puff pastry." It was funny, inspiring, and mind- and heart-expanding.
So far, Capon is living up to all the praise I've heard about him. I thought it might be a problem that I've had the book summarized to me too many times, but he still manages to surprise me and keep my attention. Capon has that nice, relaxing, Anglican style that somehow pulls everything into theological abstraction, yet at the same time decries abstraction. Almost mystic, but more tongue-in-cheek.
All that so say, chapter 5 was pretty bad. It went on way too long, and Capon's gift is in prose a...more
All that so say, chapter 5 was pretty bad. It went on way too long, and Capon's gift is in prose a...more
This was okay....I learned quite a bit from this - mostly that Americans don't cook and that they need to get back to basics. Coming from a European background this was not news to me! I found his fawning over food a bit over the top - perhaps a tad mystical? However, I do agree with his premise that food is an incredible blessing. Too many moderns find food a necessary evil and the culprit for all sorts of maladies; from cancer to toothaches. Food will never save us - we should enjoy God's gift...more
Capon is both a chef and an Episcopal priest. This is a cook book with nuggets of theology sprinkled throughout. Or is it a theology book with recipes sprinkled throughout? Either way, it is one of the more entertaining books I have read in some time. Note: Capon is fantastic on the doctrines of creation and restoration, but much weaker on fall and redemption. Always quotable, often funny, always outrageous, Capon makes for a great read even when you don't agree with everything that he says. Plu...more
Could you peel an onion for an hour, study it, layer by precious layer? Do you have the patience, let alone the desire to sit there and cry... over an onion? I love that Mr. Capon requires this of us. He brings us back to the sanctity of food, reminding us that it's a process to be savored, not only that but to infuse life into this food whilst preparing it, with your heart and mind. Just read it. You will be glad you did.
If the mark of a good book is that, while reading, you regularly find yourself saying, wow, I would never think to say it that way, or, huh, that is really interesting, then this book is a winner. Capon is like Laurie Colwin meets Alton Brown meets a clergyman: at once an essayist and a culinary expert and a man of faith. Taking the reader through all the components of a lamb supper meant to serve eight people multiple ways, he covers stock and bread and the value of unprocessed foods. While his...more
I'm not sure what to make of this. I love food as inherent celebration and the communion of the table. But Robert Capon belabors many of his points to the point of annoyance. Leave pontificating to pontiffs, please! On the cooking side, the recipes seemed a little simplistic and dated (60s) to the point of being blah. The only herb in Eggplant Provencal is parsley. German Potato Salad calls for canned potatoes. I don't want to eat Boiled Lamb With Dill, cooked for two hours in water with salt an...more
A cookbook with only one recipe, and in the hands of Capon this one recipe embodies the meaning of food and eating. The chapter on cutting the onion alone is worth the price of the book. This book is charmingly funny and deeply spiritual (in a nondenominational way), and needs to be on your foodie shelf next to your MFK Fishers.
Three things about the title say it all: religious imagery, reflection and recipe book.
The last of the three is well-done, and is the least of what the book is. Capon, an Episcopalian priest, has written a liturgy of praise for the pleasures, both spiritual and sensual, to be found in honest eating. When I say he sets out a hymn to wine, I'm not being metaphorical. On the other hand, the sheer delight that leaps off the page when he talks of bread, lamb and wine, in their full physical sense, d...more
The last of the three is well-done, and is the least of what the book is. Capon, an Episcopalian priest, has written a liturgy of praise for the pleasures, both spiritual and sensual, to be found in honest eating. When I say he sets out a hymn to wine, I'm not being metaphorical. On the other hand, the sheer delight that leaps off the page when he talks of bread, lamb and wine, in their full physical sense, d...more
The author was very opinionated (and even arrogant at times) while remaining inviting and entertaining. What stuck with me most from this book was his take on seeing things as symbols as being idolatrous, and that we should strive to just see things as they are - that something exists is a miracle itself.
I found a 40 year old paperback copy at a book sale. This is both a cookbook and a manual on how one should eat (the author probably wouldn't think much of vegetarians; his few recipes for vegetables are meat-flavored) with reflections on spirituality and the fast paced world. Highly literate, recommended.
Taken alone, a great read with a great deal to ponder. Taken with the knowledge that his family and marriage crumbled and fell apart (he later divorced his wife and all his children are apostate) it is difficult to take him seriously. You can say it, but can you live it?
A wonderful combination of cookbook and theological essay. Chapter 2 alone, on the encounter with an onion, is worth the price of the book. (See my blog post "The Oblation of Onions" for more about it.)
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Robert Farrar Capon is a lifelong New Yorker and served for almost 30 years as a parish priest in the Episcopal Church. His first book, Bed and Board, was published in 1965 and by 1977 left full-time ministry to devote more time to writing books, though he continued to serve the church in various capacities such as assisting priest and Canon Theologian. He has written twenty books on theology, coo...more
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“Do you seriously envision St. Paul or Calvin or Luther opening bottles of Welch's Grape Juice in the sacristy before the service? Luther at least would turn over in his grave.”
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9 people liked it
“Every real thing is a joy, if only you have eyes and ears to relish it, a nose and tongue to taste it.”
—
9 people liked it
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04. August, 08:40 Uhr