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22nd out of 469 books
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979 voters
The Art of Eating: 50th Anniversary Edition
A collection of essays by one of America's best known food writers, that are often more autobiographical or historical than anecdotal musings on food preparation and consumption. The book includes culinary advice to World War II housewives plagued by food shortages, portraits of family members and friends (with all their idiosyncrasies) and notes on her studies at the Univ...more
Paperback, 784 pages
Published
February 20th 2004
by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
(first published 1954)
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MFK Fisher is just so great - I'm humbled by the rightness of her writing and it sounds utterly corny to say that this is a book about love, life, and dignity. There is so much here - I read the Roman and Edwardian shopping lists of "Serve it Forth" to Jeff on our last road trip and we laughed like crazy, followed by her tips on how to keep your cat and dog fed when the chips are down. The quiet, powerful protest of the center book, "How to Cook a Wolf", was so touching to me - how to remain hum...more
even if you're not a foodie, this is a really wonderfull book. no one writes about food like MFK Fisher and no one writes about food better than MFK Fisher. it brings tears to my eyes. i mean, fuck Anthony Bourdin and Kitchen Confidential (even though i enjoyed it) because MFK was writing about offal and wolves long before Anthony Bourdin decided to start wearing Dead Boys tee shirts and taping television shows where he tries absinthe.
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This is my all time favorite book, I cannot live without it. I keep a copy at my bedside and take another copy travelling with me. I reread it constantly and reference it in conversation.
It is about life and food. How does that not relate to every single person in the world.
I first read this collection after returning from living several months in Borneo, where I finally built up the motivation to change my career path and continue my schooling overseas in England. Back home, I found the book on...more
It is about life and food. How does that not relate to every single person in the world.
I first read this collection after returning from living several months in Borneo, where I finally built up the motivation to change my career path and continue my schooling overseas in England. Back home, I found the book on...more
Having known for years I should not be putting off reading M.F.K. Fisher on the grounds that being a "food writer" was somehow intellectually provincial, I probably nonetheless did just that.
There is also probably no great insight to be gained from putting her in the context of what I have been reading lately, but I have been particularly enjoying the contrast between her unabashedly (and joyously) literary style and the coolly persuasive journalistic élan of Michael Pollan or Marion Nestle's s...more
There is also probably no great insight to be gained from putting her in the context of what I have been reading lately, but I have been particularly enjoying the contrast between her unabashedly (and joyously) literary style and the coolly persuasive journalistic élan of Michael Pollan or Marion Nestle's s...more
Listen to this and tell me you don't want to read these essays: "People ask me: Why do you write about food, adn eating and drinking? ...The easiest answer is to say that, like most other humans, I am hungry. But there is more than that. It seems to me that our three basic needs, for food and security and love, are so mixed and mingled and entwined that we cannot straightly think of one without the other."
If this book weren't a thousand pages thick (and consequently a little unwieldy on the pillow) it would be, hands down, my favorite-ever bedtime reading book. It's like curling up with your best friend - if your best friend were a snarky, sanguine, misanthropic but entirely passionate middle-aged foodie. Food writing has been seriously in vogue since Michael Pollan, but with the recent influx of it that's surfaced around Nora Ephron's impossibly self-satisfied new movie, you can't even open a ma...more
A thoroughly enjoyable collection of some of M.F.K. Fishers early works. I particularly liked "How to Cook a Wolf". Written in 1942, Fisher was writing for an audience facing wartime shortages and rationing. Sadly, quite a bit of the advice given is applicable today. But, ultimately her message is about making the best out of what you have (the best being defined by your own rules and no one else)and respecting the meals you create and enjoying them the same way you would in times of luxury.
I fo...more
I fo...more
The grand dame of food writing. In Gastronomical Me, you get to meet the young Mary Frances Kennedy and learn about her childhood and her first culinary awakenings. In Serve it Forth, you learn of the history of eating from ancient times to the present, interspersed with the author's own revelations. A celebration of life, if ever there was one. Also contains Consider the Oyster, How to Cook a Wolf, and An Alphabet of Gourmets. Warm, witty, and delightful.
According to poet W.H. Auden, M.F.K. Fischer wrote "the best prose in English" - no small achievement, given Auden's standards. This anthology contains her typically engaging mixture of food, culture, and personal narrative. One gets the feeling that Fischer could remember every meal she'd ever eaten, especially if there were engaging people present when it happened. The book includes her amazing tale of being "trapped" in a small restaurant, in the middle of nowhere, with an avidly enthusiastic...more
My rating and review are based only on "How to Cook a Wolf" and about a third of "The Gastronomical Me," because the book was due back at the library before I could get through the entire volume (and I couldn't renew it because there were 4 holds! I guess it's great that a bunch of other people are interested in MFKF).
"The Art of Eating" is a super thick volume containing five of MFKF's early books (written in the 1940s), and she writes about food in a voice that is rather unexpected for a woman...more
"The Art of Eating" is a super thick volume containing five of MFKF's early books (written in the 1940s), and she writes about food in a voice that is rather unexpected for a woman...more
I am a poor cook and honestly do not enjoy eating. However, the wonderful images Fisher conjures up throughout this collection of her gastronomic writings far transcend the mundane subjects of food and its preparation and consumption. She defines herself through her experiences with eating and cooking and at no time places the emphasis incorrectly. I treasure her story of seeing Feodor Chaliapin over a slice of pressed red caviar and envy her the moment. The story of her feeding Hindu Eggs to he...more
This book is comprised of essays largely un-connected to each other. This allows the book to spend a year on a table near where you often sit, so that every week or so you can pick it up and follow Ms. Fisher to France, or California, or out to sea. Ostensibly, she writes about food. But she does so in such a way that you learn what she's been learning--by sharing in her series of insights into herself, and relationships then humanity at large.
Also, this book will light a fire under your relati...more
Also, this book will light a fire under your relati...more
Read this juicy classic 15 years ago - a must read for the up and coming foodie.
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M.F.K. Fisher is a skilled writer, but the tone of her writing seems a little alien to today's point of view on nutrition and cooking. She is greatly influenced by French cuisine and epicurianism, but seems at times to slide into something verging on gluttony. It would be a mistake to view her with the eyes of today, but one cannot avoid feeling a vague malaise at the descriptions of tumblers of marc and ice-cold martinis. Nonetheless, since Fisher maintained a glamorous appearance, an active lo...more
The first book I read by M.F.K. Fisher was her last. It was a hodge podge of different pieces, not too many having to actually do with food. She likened being ill, to having a mouse in her lung that squeaked. And she wrote that she saw her soul when she was young as an orb outside of her body. Maybe it was her personality that came through her writing that drew me in. My sister found her other books in a compilation at the library. It was fun reading about her life in Paris and Switzerland and t...more
I finished this five-course meal last night and it took me two months to do it. Well worth it because I have a feeling that the flavors will remain with me for some time. This book is about eating, but it’s about so much more as M.F.K. Fisher herself admits on numerous occasions. To her, to write about food is to write about every kind of human hunger, from love to death to…everything. Food is the foundation of everything as far as she is concerned.
By the end of this book, I found myself wonderi...more
By the end of this book, I found myself wonderi...more
I love, love, love MFK Fisher. You will too, and you should get this volume because it is actually a collection of 5 of her books, which are all good enough on their own that if you read one, you will think, "Is the bookstore still open? What if they don't have another one in stock because they NEVER have what I want in stock?" Exactly. Save yourself the time, heartbreak and outrage at Barnes & Noble and just buy this (really big) book. 20 pages into it and you'll have delusions of grandeur:...more
M.F.K. Fisher is many people's idea of a writer's writer, with admirers across the literary world. And she is that good. How else could I read 700 plus pages of an anthology of five of her classic works on the gastronomic arts of cooking and eating, including one volume entitled Consider the Oyster, its singular topic? Fisher is so good I'm forever forward tempted to try an oyster, though other foods she discusses, say calf head, she made fascinating without making enticing. Years ago I read Fis...more
The real creator of the genre, MFK Fisher describes each dish, meal, shopping experience, etc. with just enough flourish to make your mouth water. Her writing is economical, but rich in style and vocabulary. There are a lot of essays, and I've taken my time reading them between and during other reads. I highly recommend it to anyone who is interested in food in general, or even just great writing. This is definitely great for foodies, but will be interesting and enjoyable for so many others.
Jun 26, 2009
Judy
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This book changed my perspective in many ways, MFK Fischer showed me that food is a critical element of life - a basic one. Her tales demonstrate that values that are richest can often be based in the simplest of aspects of life. That the quality of a life may be based not in what it is accomplished, but in how it is lived.
This volume is an anthology of five works. Each can stand alone, but as a collection, they present a feast for the imgination and the senses.
This volume is an anthology of five works. Each can stand alone, but as a collection, they present a feast for the imgination and the senses.
I realize that M.F.K. Fisher is the Grand Dame of food writing. I appreciate that she paved the way for a new genre in American writing, however, I found the writing somewhat dated and the recipes mostly unappetizing. I re-read Serve It Forth, a portion of this book, for a food writing/reading group. One of our members made a recipe from the book to share for our meeting. I couldn't help thinking that in 1937, when the book was written, the frozen dessert would have been judged delicious and uni...more
I wasn't that crazy about this book, although I usually love chatty "food" books. Maybe it was the outdated narrative (a girls' boarding school is not interesting to me) but I DID learn one thing from the book/section "How to Cook a Wolf". Something so obvious that I've not been doing even though I believe in very little, if any waste in a kitchen. So, having learned one "good thing" from the book, it was worth the read. I was disappointed to see that nowhere did she mention old veggies, peels,...more
A big book with each chapter almost book length. Some chapters I skipped (How to cook an Oyster) others I reread , greedy for details of the author's life in France and her discovery of the culinary arts.
I liked the writing; most of the essays (chapters in this collection) were written between 1937 and 1943 and served as an eye opener into the world of French cooking for many Americans.
I liked the writing; most of the essays (chapters in this collection) were written between 1937 and 1943 and served as an eye opener into the world of French cooking for many Americans.
I'm not going to review all her books. Suffice it to say that I own and treasure them all. She's not Nigella Lawson; this isn't a cookery book. It's a bit like Elizabeth David, but with more anecdotes and a sense that Mary Frances is scared of nothing. If one could have that mythical 'ten people to dine with', Oscar Wilde and MFK would be my first couple, with Dorothy Parker and Christopher Marlowe opposite them. There would be fireworks!
Auden called M.F.K. Fisher "the best prose writer in America" at one time, and it's easy to see why. Where food writing can be incomprehensibly prim, or predictably pretentious, or else just vile, M.F.K. Fisher understood better than anyone else that food is really where everything about a person, a people, a culture or a tradition is realized. She tells marvelous stories, often wildly historically inaccurate but wonderful nonetheless. Whether you're curious about how haute cuisine came to be (s...more
A great bedside book - you read an essay or two and dream of cooking and eating. I had to have oysters after sampling her essays on the oyster and had to make a fried-egg sandwich after reading H is for Happy.
This is a massive collection of almost all her food writings - wouldn't mind owning it, but these days I'm trying to be a library borrower only.
This is a massive collection of almost all her food writings - wouldn't mind owning it, but these days I'm trying to be a library borrower only.
This famous British food writer has just come to my attention, thanks to a friend who loves both cooking and reading. I'm delighted to have finally discovered M.F.K. Fisher, even though her writing is sometimes annoyingly elliptical or just plain puzzling. This hefty book -- a collection of short essays on food-related subjects (but really about all of life) -- makes for ideal reading in short spurts. The essay that I just finished, "The Standing and the Waiting," is a moving account of Fisher's...more
I have read only a little bit of her work, but while she is dated, her passion for food and her humorous insights about food and place make her worth reading from time to time, and Ruth Reichl bringing her to a more modern audience at a time when Americans are more interested in food than they have been for a long time is worthy of praise
This chunk of a book includes five of MFK Fisher's works: "Serve it Forth," "Consider the Oyster," "How to Cook a Wolf," "The Gastronomical Me" and "An Alphabet for Gourmets."
Favorite pieces include "The First Oyster" (1924) which Fisher samples at Miss Huntingdon's School for Girls at the age of 16.
I also enjoyed her descriptions of dining on ocean cruises and (one of her favorite subjects) of dining alone.
At 744 pages, this may not have been the best choice for a summer read, but I did enjoy...more
Favorite pieces include "The First Oyster" (1924) which Fisher samples at Miss Huntingdon's School for Girls at the age of 16.
I also enjoyed her descriptions of dining on ocean cruises and (one of her favorite subjects) of dining alone.
At 744 pages, this may not have been the best choice for a summer read, but I did enjoy...more
A compendium of several of her books and essays. MFK Fisher's writing rises far beyond her subject. Yes she writes about food, but food is life so she is writing about life. By the middle of this book, I feel as if she is whispering in my ear. She had a unique literay voice.
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| Food and philosophy | 3 | 39 | Feb 13, 2009 08:49am |
Mary Frances Kennedy Fisher was a prolific and well-respected writer, writing more than 20 books during her lifetime and also publishing two volumes of journals and correspondence shortly before her death in 1992. Her first book, Serve it Forth, was published in 1937. Her books deal primarily with food, considering it from many aspects: preparation, natural history, culture, and philosophy. Fisher...more
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“It seems to me that our three basic needs, for food and security and love, are so mixed and mingled and entwined that we cannot straightly think of one without the others. So it happens that when I write of hunger, I am really writing about love and the hunger for it, and warmth and the love of it and the hunger for it… and then the warmth and richness and fine reality of hunger satisfied… and it is all one.”
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73 people liked it
“The smell of good bread baking, like the sound of lightly flowing water, is indescribable in its evocation of innocence and delight...
[Breadmaking is] one of those almost hypnotic businesses, like a dance from some ancient ceremony. It leaves you filled with one of the world's sweetest smells... there is no chiropractic treatment, no Yoga exercise, no hour of
meditation in a music-throbbing chapel. that will leave you emptier of bad thoughts than this homely ceremony of making bread.”
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44 people liked it
More quotes…
[Breadmaking is] one of those almost hypnotic businesses, like a dance from some ancient ceremony. It leaves you filled with one of the world's sweetest smells... there is no chiropractic treatment, no Yoga exercise, no hour of
meditation in a music-throbbing chapel. that will leave you emptier of bad thoughts than this homely ceremony of making bread.”
