FOOD WRITING THROUGH HISTORY: From Biblical Taboos to Sinclair’s StockyardsIntroduction: A Toast to Taste
I FOOD WRITING THROUGH HISTORY: From Biblical Taboos to Sinclair’s Stockyards
The Old Testament (c. 538–332 BCE)
from Epistle 5, To Torquatus / A Cheerful Invitation to Dinner
from The Satyricon / Trimalchio’s Feast
from Gargantua and Pantagruel / On the Gastrolaters
from The Hasty Pudding / Canto II: On the American Kitchen Muse
Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin (1755–1826)
from The Physiology of Taste / On Taste
from A Dissertation upon Roast Pig
George Gordon, Lord Byron (1788–1824)
from Don Juan / The Death of Pedrillo
from The Great Dictionary of Cuisine / The Onion
Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
from Wild Fruits / Watermelons
Frederick Douglass (1818–1895)
from My Bondage and My Freedom / Ash Cake and the Rich Man’s Table
from Moby-Dick / The Whale as a Dish
from Remembrance of Things Past / On the Madeleine
from The Jungle / A Visit to the Slaughterhouse
II AT THE FAMILY HEARTH: Memory, Identity, Ethnicity
from Between Meals / Just Enough Money
from The Gastronomical Me / The First Oyster
from Pig Tails ’n Breadfruit / Souse, but no Black Pudding
from Feeding a Yen / A Magic Bagel
“No Thank You, I Don’t Care for Artichokes,”
from The Woman Warrior / Mother’s Cooking
from Never Eat Your Heart Out / Sauerkraut and a Pig-Sticking
from Crazy in the Kitchen / The Bread / The Other Bread
from Tender at the Bone / The Queen of Mold
from if I can Cook / you KNow God can / What’d You People Call That?
from Colored People / Wet Dogs and White People
from Miriam’s Kitchen / Passover
from The Language of Baklava / A House and a Yard
from Bento Box in the Heartland / Swallowing Fish Bones
III HUNGER GAMES:The Delight and Dread of Eating
from Tender Buttons / Milk / Apple
William Carlos Williams (1883–1963)
from Eating / Fresh Figs / Borscht / Pranzo Caprese
When You Camp Out, Do It Right
from My Life in France / Sole Meunière
Robert Farrar Capon (1925–2013)
from The Supper of the Lamb / On the Onion
from Fruits & Vegetables / “I Am Thinking of the Onion”
from The Man Who Ate Everything / My Food Phobias
from Cocktail Hour at the Snake Blood Bar: On the Persistence of Taboo
from A Natural History of the Senses / Et Fugu, Brute?
from In Memory’s Kitchen / Introduction / Wilhelmina Pätcher, Cold Stuffed Eggs Pätcher
IV KITCHEN PRACTICES:Chefs, Cooks, and Tools of the Trade
from The Alice B. Toklas Cook Book / Murder in the Kitchen
from The Civilizing Process / On the Use of the Fork at Table
Lines Written in the Fannie Farmer Cookbook
Two Cook-Songs from the Planet Musaeus on the Same Subject, by Rival Poets
In Search of Filth: A Day in the Life of a Restaurant Health Inspector
from The Outlaw Cook / Cuisine Mécanique
A Visit to Ferran Adrià’s Workshop
from Kitchen Confidential / From Our Kitchen to Your Table
from Blood, Bones & Butter / The Brunch Rush
from Consider the Fork / Knife
V CULTURAL TALES AND TABLES:Our Diverse Gastronomic Ways
Curnonsky (Maurice Edmond Sailland) (1872–1956)
from The Almanach of Gourmets / Gastronomy and Politics
from Empire of Signs / Chopsticks
from The Rituals of Dinner / Chopsticks
from Food Is Culture / Taste Is a Cultural Product
Felipe Fernández-Armesto (1950–)
from Near a Thousand Tables / The Logic of Cannibalism
from Memory Fever / Mama Menudo
from Counter Intelligence / Hot Dog on a Stick
from Horsemen of the Esophagus / The Passion of the Toast
VI FOOD POLITICS:Disputes Over the Menu
Filippo Tommaso Marinetti (1876–1944)
from The Futurist Cookbook / The Manifesto of Futurist Cooking
from Remember to Remember / The Staff of Life
from What Are People For? / The Pleasures of Eating
from Fork It Over / My Beef with Vegans
from A Plea for Culinary Modernism
from Fish, Flesh, and Foul: The Anti-Vegetarian Animus
from Animal, Vegetable, Miracle / You Can’t Run Away on Harvest Day
from The Omnivore’s Dilemma / Cattle Metropolis
from Fast Food Nation / The Worst
David Foster Wallace (1962–2008)
PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals)
VII READING FOOD WRITING:The Language of Taste