Culture

Sunday Reading: Culinary Journeys


In 1959, A. J. Liebling published a four-part series in The New Yorker about his culinary adventures in France. The series, “Memoirs of a Feeder in France,” traces Liebling’s many memorable meals during the years that he worked as a reporter in the country. (The pieces were later expanded into a book, “Between Meals: An Appetite for Paris,” which was published in 1962.) In the first installment, Liebling characterizes his perspective on food criticism. “The primary requisite for writing well about food is a good appetite,” he writes. “Without this, it is impossible to accumulate, within the allotted span, enough experience of eating to have anything worth setting down. Each day brings only two opportunities for field work, and they are not to be wasted minimizing the intake of cholesterol. They are indispensable, like a prizefighter’s hours on the road.” Liebling’s food writing is among the literary treasures of the past century. As a journalist, he brought not only a good appetite to his work but also a lyrical and dynamic approach to his accounts of notable repasts.

This week, we’re bringing you a selection of New Yorker pieces on food and the culinary arts. In “Once a Tramp, Always . . . ,” the food critic M. F. K. Fisher reveals some of her guilty pleasures. (“Somewhere between the extremes of putative training in self-control and unflagging discipline against wild cravings lie the sensual and voluptuous gastronomical favorites-of-a-lifetime, the nostalgic yearnings for flavors once met in early days—the smell or taste of a gooseberry pie on a summer noon at Peachblow Farm, the whiff of anise from a Marseille bar,” she writes.) In “A Philosopher in the Kitchen,” John McPhee visits a mysterious chef at a farmhouse inn on the outskirts of New York City and experiences a revelatory meal. Anthony Bourdain takes us behind the scenes of Manhattan’s culinary world, and Calvin Trillin traces the history and reinvention of Memphis barbecue. In “Sugar Babies,” Nora Ephron writes about her abiding love of Krispy Kreme doughnuts. (“The Krispy Kreme Original Glazed doughnut is yeast-raised and light as a frosted snowflake,” she writes. “It is possible to eat three of them in one sitting without suffering any ill effects.”) Burkhard Bilger profiles Mother Noella Marcellino, a nun who makes a variety of cheeses at a Benedictine cloister in Connecticut. Alex Prud’Homme speaks with the cook who inspired the celebrated “Soup Nazi” episode of “Seinfeld.” (“At the front of the line, a woman in a brown coat couldn’t decide which soup to get and started to complain about the prices,” he writes. “ ‘You talk too much, dear,’ Mr. Yeganeh said, and motioned to her to move to the left. ‘Next!’ ”) In “Grub,” Dana Goodyear reports on the benefits of eating insects and explores the concept of bugs as a delicacy. Finally, in “The Female Chef Making Japan’s Most Elaborate Cuisine Her Own,” Helen Rosner examines how a table at Niki Nakayama’s kaiseki restaurant became one of the most coveted reservations in Los Angeles. We hope that these pieces offer an appetizing collection for your enjoyment this weekend.

—Erin Overbey, archive editor


Once a Tramp, Always . . .

Some cravings last a lifetime.


A Good Appetite

Memoirs of a feeder in France.


Don’t Eat Before Reading This

A New York chef spills some trade secrets.


A Philosopher in the Kitchen

Simplicity, simplicity, simplicity.


Thoughts of an Eater with Smoke in His Eyes

The civic pride of Memphis’s biggest barbecue contest.


Sugar Babies

My thing for doughnut machines.


Raw Faith

The nun and the cheese underground.


The Female Chef Making Japan’s Most Elaborate Cuisine Her Own

How Niki Nakayama’s kaiseki restaurant became a highly coveted reservation in L.A.


The Man Behind the Soups

Albert Yeganeh knows he serves the greatest soups, and that soup is the greatest meal in the world.


Grub

Eating bugs to save the planet.



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