The Delights of Delicate Eating

by Elizabeth Robins Pennell

"Gluttony is ranked with the deadly sins; it should be honored among the cardinal virtues," Elizabeth Robins Pennell declaims in this sparkling paean to the art of eating well. An ebullient guide to "the Beauty, the Poetry that exists in the perfect dish," The Delights of Delicate Eating is a choice collection, originally published in 1896, of the culinary essays Pennell wrote for London's Pall Mall Gazette.

Pennell began her career as a food writer, she confesses, "in spite of the fact that I couldn't boil an egg and my only qualifications were a healthy appetite and an honest love of a good dinner usually considered unbecoming to the sex." Her aim was to show that a woman could practice cooking as an art, preparing a complete aesthetic experience that combined exquisite flavors with a beautiful table, a soothing room, and lively conversation.

The Delights of Delicate Eating elevates "our daily bread" to a feast for the senses. Pennell leads the reader through the culinary delights of the day, from the fresh rolls of a solitary petit d

Genres: Food, Nonfiction, Culinary

296 pages, Paperback

First published October 20, 1896

About the author

Elizabeth Robins Pennell was an American writer who, for most of her adult life, made her home in London. A recent researcher summed her up as "an adventurous, accomplished, self-assured, well-known columnist, biographer, cookbook collector, and art critic"; in addition, she wrote travelogues, mainly of European cycling voyages, and memoirs, centred on her London salon. Her biographies included the first in almost a century of the proto-feminist Mary Wollstonecraft, one of her uncle the folklorist Charles Godfrey Leland, and one of her friend the painter Whistler. In recent years, her art criticism has come under scrutiny, and her food criticism has been reprinted. She was married to Joseph Pennell.

Reviews

[Greta · Rating 4 out of 5]

Before there was Ruth Reichl, there was MFK Fisher. Before MFK Fisher there was Elizabeth Robins Pennell and her 'Diary of a Greedy Woman.' I happened upon this book when I went to the library to find 'Serve It Forth'- they were on the shelf next to each other. I adore these female foodies. I am one, after all!