Remembrance of Things Paris: Sixty Years of Writing from Gourmet (Modern Library Food)

By Gourmet Magazine

Book Overview

A glorious, edible tour of Paris through six decades of writing from Gourmet magazine, edited and introduced by Ruth Reichl For sixty years the best food writers have been sending dispatches from Paris to Gourmet . Collected here for the first time, their essays create a unique and timeless portrait of the world capital of love and food. When the book begins, just after the war, we are in a hungry city whose chefs struggle to find the eggs and cream they need to re-create the cuisine from before the German occupation. We watch as Paris comes alive again with zinc-topped tables crowded with people drinking caf au lait and reveling in crisp baguettes, and the triumphant rebirth of three-star cuisine. In time, nouvelle cuisine is born and sweeps through a newly chic and modern city. It is all here: the old-time bourgeois dinners, the tastemakers of the fashion world, the hero-chefs, and, of course, Paris in all its snobbery and refinement, its inimitable pursuit of the art of fine living. Beautifully written, these dispatches from the past are intimate and immediate, allowing us to watch the month-by-month changes in the world's most wonderful city. Remembrance of Things Paris is a book for anyone who wants to return to a Paris where a buttery madeleine is waiting around every corner. Contributors include Louis Diat, Naomi Barry, Joseph Wechsberg, Judith and Evan Jones, Don Dresden, Lillian Langseth-Christensen, Diane Johnson, Michael Lewis, and Jonathan Gold.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0812971930
• ISBN13: 9780812971934
• Release Date: March 2005
• Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
• Length: 368 Pages
• Weight: 0.64 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 5.3" x 8.0"

Customer Reviews

Reading and Remembering Why I'm an Armchair Traveler

What a great opportunity to learn more about the Paris I love, and French food which I do not prepare at home. I wait for my trips. I am not intimidated with the snooty waiters, as I did my "homework." I'm prepared to ask questions about loaves and wine and anything else. The set-up of the chapters was easy reading, too. I trusted the writers. I discovered more secrets in Paris via their investigations and risky ventures. I didn't have to suffer the frustrations of getting lost on the metro nor the pains of tusseling with those Parisian cabbies. I especially enjoyed the trips to the new and modern Paris as described by Paul Goldberger. Do you want to loaf with a loaf, drink a bottle away from the bottlenecks? Read this book. Also, I will read other books in the Modern Library Food series based on my enjoyment of Ruth Reichl choices.