Three Noteworthy Food Authors

A new addition to this site’s topic page is a list of recommended books. Currently listed are The Art of Eating, (actually a collection of five books under one cover), Home Cooking, and Tender At the Bone. But the brief description listed under the books is not adequate enough to convey my enthusiasm, not only for the books, but also for the authors. Since summer is a time for vacation reading recommendations, a more involved tribute to these authors seemed timely. The three writers singled out - M.F.K. Fisher, Laurie Colwin, and Ruth Reichl- are all very different, both generationally and in personality, but they have in common a special knack of writing sensually about food.

M.F.K. Fisher, (1908-1992) earned praise as a writer well beyond culinary circles. W.H. Auden called her “the best prose writer in America”. A New Yorker reviewer of one of the books contained in The Art of Eating wrote, “M.F.K. Fisher writes about food as others do about love, only better”. That comment still holds true today. She ultimately published 26 books, read any of them and you will be addicted. Reading Fisher is like plunging into a cool pool on a hot day – sheer pleasure at being in such a strange environment where the sensory is all encompassing, and where you are always kept slightly off balance. She writes in the first person so most of her writing has autobiographical elements, although clarifying details may or may not be present. But the miracle of Fisher is that despite a life full of tragedies, (the pain of her first divorce, her second husband’s suicide after years of chronic illness, an illegitimate child, her brother’s suicide, her third husband’s mental illness), you finish her books envious of her sheer joy in daily living. She has an extraordinary ability to both become absorbed in and communicate the delight of daily experiences, most of which revolve around food, appetite, cooking, or sharing meals. There is also a trace of the exotic in Fisher, largely because a lot of her writings involve pre -WWII France.

Laurie Colwin, (1944 -1992), by contrast to Fisher, was primarily a fiction writer, having written five novels and short story collections by the time of her untimely death at 48. Her two food books, which came out of articles written for Gourmet, are Home Cooking and More Home Cooking. These are autobiographical and you do learn a lot about her daily life, but she doesn’t have Fisher’s dramatic life experiences. What she does have is an opinionated, even feisty nature well tempered with an intelligence and warmth that would make any reader want her for a best friend. Of the three writers, I think she has the best recipes, about which she is certainly passionate. To me she is exemplifies the best of cookbook writing – her recipes work, they require some competency but no real skill in the cook, and she assumes that you are approaching the dish with the joyful anticipation of sharing great food with loved persons. She is a totally unpretentious writer – the best description of her books is in her own introduction to More Home Cooking, “Cookbooks hit you where you live. You want comfort; you want security; you want food; you want to not be hungry; and not only do you want those basic things fixed, you want it done in a really nice, gentle way that makes you feel loved.” Colwin doesn’t have Fisher’s sex appeal – but rather the warmth of a perpetual hug.

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