Tuscany in the Fall

Also, a long list of favorite food books - including a few I'm sure you don't know. And a star-studded vintage menu.

I’m in Tuscany this week, on an eating odyssey with Nancy Silverton and Missy Robbins. Here we are, all geared up to visit the extraordinary cheese producer, Caseificio Piu in the Val d’Orcia.

Last night we had dinner at Silvana in Citta della Pieve, where you can get the kind of straightforward Italian food you want to eat when you’re here. We began with this pappa all pomodoro, …..

… went on to a huge platter of Chianina beef grilled over a wood fire.

and finished with - what else - aged pecorino cheese.

Here’s Missy chatting with Chef Silvana.

Much more about our adventures next week, including great meals and an incredible truffle hunt…

Last week, when I listed a few favorite new books, a reader asked if I had any more suggestions and I offered up an old list published almost twenty years ago. I promised a longer list….

This is hardly comprehensive. Since I’m in Italy I can’t even go through my bookshelves. So off the top of my head and in no particular order these are a few of the many, many food books that mean a lot to me.

Please let me know which books are important to you.

The Jemima Code: Two Centuries of African American Cookbooks. Toni Tipton-Martin has the most amazing cookbook collection. Here she presents the books in chronological order and virtually rewrites the history of Black cooks in America.

The Third Plate. I think Dan Barber has the most interesting food mind of anyone writing - or cooking - today. Essential reading.

Our Lady of Perpetual Hunger by Lisa Donovan. “Stop letting men tell your story,” the indomitable Diana Kennedy once told Lisa Donovan. So Lisa took on the male-dominated kitchen - and triumphed. Her bad-ass memoir is right up there with Blood, Bones and Butter.

Hungry by Jeff Gordinier. One of our finest food writers finds himself caught up in the crazy orbit of one of the world’s most fascinating chefs. Whatever you think you know about Rene Redzepi - this will tell you so much more.

Dirt by Bill Buford. Bill has such an interesting mind…. I love everything he writes. But his description of working in the restaurants of Lyon makes you understand the origin of all the bad behavior in professional kitchens.

Everything is Under Control. In beautiful prose Phyllis Grant (poet and granddaughter of the painter Richard Diebenkorn), reimagines the memoir. And the recipes are fantastic.

What’s Good? Peter Hoffman has always cooked to his own inner music. The opposite of the bad boys chefs, he was probably the first New York chef to start every day at the Union Square farmers’ market.

We Are Each Other’s Harvest by Natalie Baszile. The author of Queen Sugar celebrates African American farmers.

Invitation to a Banquet by Fuschia Dunlop. A book about the history of Chinese food by our best contemporary Chinese cookbook writer. I’ve admired all of Fuschia’s work, but she’s outdone herself here. Here’s a link to my favorite of the many articles Fuchsia wrote for Gourmet.

Fast Food Nation by Eric Schlosser. The subtitle is “the dark side of the All-American meal” which pretty much says it all. Written 25 years ago, this was a wake-up call to the nation.

The Omnivore’s Dilemma by Michael Pollan. The most important, and most influential book about food of our era.

Tomatoland. Barry Estabrook’s seminal book about what agribusiness has wrought. Barry, like Michael Pollan, is one of the very few writers who can turn a serious political food issue into a page turner.

The Dream Land: Chasing Water and Dust Across California by Mark Arax. A shocking, anguished and beautifully written book about the insanity of American agricultural practices. Published in 2019, it has become even more relevant with the passing of time.

Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver. The extraordinary novelist decided that she and her family were going to spend a year raising their food or getting it from neighbors. This eloquent book is the result.

Provence 1970 by Luke Barr. MFK Fisher’s great-nephew offers up an intimate look at the time when Fisher, James Beard, Richard Olney, Julia Child, Simone Beck and Judith Jones all ended up in the same place - and changed the way America eats. It’s a wonderful read.

The Gourmand’s Way Justin Spring gives us a slightly different look at a very similar subject. I reviewed the book for the New York Times here, and while I don’t always agree with Spring’s take on the various writers, I promise you will never look at Julia Child or Richard Olney in quite the same way.

My Place at the Table by Alexander Lobrano. Alec’s deeply honest memoir is a more contemporary look at an American in France. This one tells how a shy gay man from Connecticut ended up as the restaurant critic for a French newspaper.

The Oysters of Locmariaquer. Eleanor Clark was ahead of her time in 1964 when she considered the Belon oyster in this elegant mingling of history, science, nature and sociology. It won the National Book Award.

Mastering the Art of Soviet Cooking: A Memoir of Food and Longing by Anya Von Bremzen. A memoir, in recipes, of living in the Soviet Union and coming to America. Totally original and completely wonderful; it’s a book I find myself thinking about all the time.

Blood, Bones and Butter by Gabrielle Hamilton. In my opinion this is the best of the many, many wonderful chef memoirs out there. Gabrielle has a new memoir that’s just been released, Next of Kin. I haven’t read it yet, but I’m certainly looking forward to that.

Thirty-Two Yolks by Eric Ripert. Tony Bourdain called this book “heartbreaking, horrifying, poignant and inspiring.” It’s all of that - and also a great introduction to our most beloved chef.

Eat Like a Fish by Bren Smith. Smith was born in Newfoundland and became a commercial fisherman while still in his teens. He lived hard and loved it. Then he became a restorative ocean farmer, set up a nonprofit to teach others how to do it and won the $2 million Food Planet Prize for initiatives revolutionizing food production. Part memoir, part manifesto, this is an inspiring book.

Cod, A Biography of a Fish that Changed the World. How do you choose a single book by the prolific Mark Kurlansky? He’s written definitive treatises on dozens of subjects - and has still more books in the works. This is a particular favorite.

Four Fish by Paul Greenberg. Speaking of fish….If you want to understand what’s been happening in the American seafood industry you need to read this book.

Feed the Resistance by Julia Turshen is the perfect present for people who understand that cooking is a political act. A handbook for social activism, this little book is also filled with easy and unusual recipes you really want to make.

There’s never been a book quite like Michael Twitty’s The Cooking Gene. History belongs to those who choose to write it and it’s high time African-American cooks set the record straight. Here Twitty chronicles his own ancestral food journey with remarkable results.

Unforgettable. Paula Wolfert has the best palate of anyone I’ve ever met. She’s been one of America’s most influential cooks and has rarely received the attention she deserves. Her greatest recipes are here, along with a loving biography of one of our most fearless, adventurous and intrepid cooks.

Offal Good by Chris Cosentino. I’m not generally a fan of chef’s cookbook, but here is an unusual book written straight from the heart. Chris has always been a fan of the fifth quarter - the unloved, and mostly unused parts of animals. This guide to cooking heart, tripe, oxtails, tongue, kidneys and the like would be a great gift for an adventurous cook.

The Alice B. Toklas Cookbook. Written in 1954 and still stunning. There’s never been anything quite like this book which has a chapter called “Murder in the Kitchen.” (I should probably mention that MFK Fisher wrote the original introduction to the book and I added another to the latest edition.)

Vibration Cooking, or The Travel Notes of a Geechee Girl by Vertamae Smart- Grosvenor. I bought this book when it came out in 1970 and read it cover to cover in one sitting. It’s one of my favorite books, and it makes me sad that it isn’t better known.

The Kitchen Diaries by Nigel Slater. I don’t think anybody has ever made food sound more delicious. When Slater describes a beet it comes alive on the page and you want to run out and eat as many beets as you possibly can.

Food Novels
The Belly of Paris by Emile Zola. One of the finest political food novels of all time - and an incredible description of the birth of Les Halles, the market of Paris. In the moment, when food insecurity has become rampant in the richest country in the world, this 1873 book has a special resonance.

Heartburn by Nora Ephron. A novel about the breakup of Ephron’s marriage to Carl Bernstein that is both heartbreaking and hilarious. Her journalism is fantastic too; if you haven’t read Wallflower at the Orgy, here’s a link. And then there’s Crazy Salad; best title ever for a book (it’s from a Yeats poem).

Memorial by Bryan Washington. I loved Lot, the book of short stories by this wonderful writer, but in his first novel, which takes place in Houston and Japan, he spends a lot of time in the kitchen. In a surprising and brilliant move the New York Times gave Washington a food writing slot.

Still Life The first of Louise Penny’s Inspector Gamache series is loaded with fantastic food descriptions. Even when she’s writing about canned ravioli, she makes it mean something.

Convenience Store Woman by Sayaka Murata. This strange little novel is very accurately described by its title. I couldn’t put it down.

The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan. You haven’t read Tan’s debut novel? What are you waiting for?

The Last Chinese Chef by Nicole Mones. It’s a love story, it’s a mystery, and it’s also a thorough explanation of Chinese food. You’ll learn more about the recent history of food in China from Nicole Mones’ novel than you will from most cookbooks.

Crying in H Mart by Michelle Zauner. Everybody loves this book. For good reason.

The Cookbook Collector by Allegra Goodman. A delicate tale of sisters, food, book collecting, cookbooks…..

My Year of Meats by Ruth Ozeki. I’ve admired every book Ozeki has written, but this novel, about the meat business, was way ahead of its time.

The Book of Salt by Monique Truong. A delicate and poignant novel about a young Vietnamese cook who works for Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas in Paris.

Here, in case you missed it, is the list I put in notes last week.
The Gastronomical Me by M.F.K. Fisher. Written in 1943, this is one of the earliest food memoirs. I love almost everything Fisher wrote, but this is my favorite. If you haven’t read this bit on eating tangerines, you have quite a treat in store. It’s my favorite piece of food writing.

The Language of Baklava by Diana Abu-Jaber. One day when I was talking to Diana she said, “There’s something safe and wonderful about being raised by a strict father, but it has its drawbacks.” That’s pretty much what this memoir - about growing up partly in Jordan and always with food- is about.

Climbing the Mango Trees by Madhur Jaffrey. Jaffrey’s cookbooks are, of course, wonderful, but this extraordinary cook also has an amazing ability to recall and re-create the evocative flavors of the India she grew up in.uch fun!

The Tummy Trilogy by Calvin Trillin. This could be subtitled: Why life is more fun for people who like to eat. Pure pleasure.

The Apprentice by Jacques Pepin. There is a reason why Jacques Pepin became one of our most celebrated French chefs. He’s not only technically accomplished, but also deeply curious and extremely intelligent. He just turned 89, and he’s seen a lot.

Talk Talk by T.C. Boyle. A novel about identity theft that contains some of the most wonderful descriptions of cooking I’ve ever read.

Up in the Old Hotel by Joseph Mitchell. The ultimate writer’s writer, Mitchell is not usually thought of as someone who focuses on food. But many of his stories are about markets, pubs and restaurants. And this book contains my favorite food story, “All You Can Hold for Five Bucks.”

Home Cooking: A Writer in the Kitchen by Laurie Colwin. You’ve never read Laurie Colwin? What a treat you have in store.

Between Meals: An Appetite for Paris by A.J. Liebling. Most famous quote: “The primary requisite for writing about food is a good appetite.” A fine writer’s memoir about eating in Paris in the twenties.

Hotel Splendide by Ludwig Bemelmans. An endlessly amusing behind-the-scenes look at a hotel restaurant by the man who wrote the Madeline books. Bemelmans wrote from experience; he worked at The Ritz.

Fair Shares for All by John Haney. An extraordinarily affectionate book about growing up on English food when it was truly terrible - written by Gourmet’s last and very beloved copy editor.

Down and Out in Paris and London by George Orwell. I think it was the model for Tony Bourdain’s Kitchen Confidential, but I know that once you’ve read this book you will never forget it. Contains a remarkably graphic, and completely unforgettable, behind-the-scenes look at restaurant kitchens.

Blue Trout and Black Truffles by Joseph Wechsberg, a longtime writer for Gourmet. Wechsberg’s book about Le Pavillion restaurant is another classic.

Speaking of books… I’ve been reading an advance copy of Luke Barr’s fascinating new book, The Secret History of French Cooking, and I’m learning much I didn’t know. About the rise and fall of nouvelle cuisine, about Paul Bocuse, about the extreme misogyny of the French kitchen - and about the shocking, long-hidden collaborationist past of France’s most powerful restaurant critic Robert Courtine (who wrote for Le Monde).

I was amused to discover that the name Yanou Collart kept popping up in the book. I’ve had a few encounters with Yanou, so I looked through my files to see what I’d saved and found this from 1986.

Collart is a remarkable creature: an actress, she was also a proto-foodie who turned herself into a public relations person for famous chefs. This worked because Yanou knew absolutely everyone. I remember the meal as a delicious star-studded production. To my delight I found myself sitting down with Barbra Streisand, Bette Midler and Danny Kaye…to name just a few. Here’s my article about the dinner.

I think the table favors were Hermes bracelets. Can that be right? I remember it mostly because I had never seen one before, and when I offered it to a friend she replied, “Do you have any idea what that thing is worth?”