Memories trump recipes in books that explore food as metaphor

M.F.K. Fisher wasn't the only one, of course, but for many a year she seemed to be toiling alone in the cozy niche of non-cookbook food writing. She led readers on a memorable journey, proving a talented writer could feed a multitude of hungers even if the subject was "only" food.

Today, even if she were still alive, one suspects even her fans would be hard-pressed to find Fisher amid the avalanche of memoirs, biographies, investigations, musings and insider whining being churned into print today.

Reading about food has become almost as red-hot a subject in America as eating, even among those whose idea of cooking is takeout and whose kitchens serve only as a pass-through to the garage and the SUV.

No wonder, then, the majority of authors who spoke on food themes at this past weekend's Printers Row Book Fair in Chicago were those without a new cookbook in hand.

"We've become a food-centric country," said Rux Martin, the executive editor of cookbooks at Houghton Mifflin Co. in Boston.

"It's a way broader audience. It's easier to read about someone's experience with food than to cook from them. Everyone thinks about food; not everyone is so dedicated they want to spend money on a cookbook."

When Martin began in the book business nearly 20 years ago there was an industry truism that this type of food book just didn't sell.

"We were very cookbook-oriented for a long time and still are in a way," she said. "It's almost as if people are recognizing something more important, the heart connection with food."

Of course, you need more than heart in the book business. You need best-sellers.

The notion that non-cookbook food books don't sell has been roundly dispelled by the success in recent years of such bold-face names as chef and television wiseguy Anthony Bourdain ("Kitchen Confidential" and "The Nasty Bits") and Gourmet magazine editor Ruth Reichl ("Tender to the Bone," "Comfort Me with Apples," "Garlic and Sapphires"), and newer faces, such as Julie Powell ("Julie & Julia").

It's the vicariousness of the memoir that's so appealing to the reader, said Joan Reardon, the author of "Poet of the Appetites," a biography of M.F.K. Fisher. Readers get to eat or cook along with the author, said Reardon.

Martin agreed.

"Ruth (Reichl) and other people who are good at this are geniuses at making us identify with them," she said. "I feel similarly about Jane and Michael Sterns' book ("Two for the Road"). You can't help but love these two ... I think the good ones really get to you. There are a million sparks of recognition when you read a really good writer."

The commercial success of the food memoir also has sparked much interest among would-be diarists looking to cash in.

Yet Antonia Allegra, the author and writing coach based in St. Helena, Calif., sees another element at work, particularly among the younger generation.

"It's another form of navel gazing, another way of expressing the self," she said.

Allegra is skeptical at how successful such memoirs can be. She believes one needs experience in traveling and working with food to do it right.

"It's terrific to write about yourself and keep a journal, but you need a certain amount of depth," she said.

Martin, too, sees many people called to memoir-writing but not all enjoy success. "A lot of people try to write these books but few actually work," she said.

You need a writer who can really write - "sort of unusual in food," she said - and someone famous enough for people to care about reading their words.

"That is the intersection you try to reach," she said. "There are very few writers who can bring it home and say, `This is what food does to me.'"

The definition of what food does do, to writer and reader alike, has been steadily expanding.

Martin recalled that cookbooks published more than 40 years ago often consisted of recipes and little else. Then it became important to put recipes into some sort of context, with headnotes that explained the dishes becoming necessary components to a book.

In a way, today's non-cookbook food book is becoming one giant headnote. Reardon, for example, noted how Reichl uses recipes almost in lieu of illustrations or photographs in her books. Reardon expounded on that point in an essay on the role of nostalgia in food writing.

"Some memoirs have been straightforward records of the author's life and his experience of memorable meals, and recipes have been either abundant or completely absent," she wrote.

"In the best of these memoirs, however, the recipes have become an extension of the text. They function as a kind of chart of the emotions evoked by meals or certain moments frozen in time."

Readers are hungry for information beyond recipes, said Peter Perez, cookbook marketing manager for Chronicle Books in San Francisco.

"People want to know more about what they're eating," he said. "It's trickling beyond people picking up a $20 cookbook. People say, `I want to learn where my food is grown.'

"I'm looking at it as a more intellectual reader audience," Perez added, noting that many of the book proposals being shopped around to publishers would likely have been shunted off to a university press 10 years ago.

"It would have been seen as too academic or too controversial," he said. "Food is just in the news all the time now."

Lynn Andriani, a senior editor at Publisher's Weekly who served until recently as the Manhattan-based magazine's book-review editor, said that food is "finally being looked at through a cultural sort of spectrum in a way it wasn't before."

Andriani, who just came from lunch with a woman finishing up her master's degree in food studies from New York University, said that food has never been so mainstream in American culture.

"People who like to cook like to read," Allegra said. "You hear of people who buy recipe books to put by their bedside, and then you hear of people who read memoirs like they were novels."

One of her favorites is "The Pat Conroy Cookbook: Recipes of My Life," by the author of "The Prince of Tides" and "The Great Santini," among other works.

"There are long headnotes but he is such a good writer I enjoyed reading it," Allegra said. "That literary writers are dipping their toes into food writing tells me something."

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BOOKS

-"My Life in France," by Julia Child with Alex Prud'homme (Knopf, $25.95)

It is a familiar story often told: How Julia Child arrives in France, takes a first bite of sole meuniere and sinks, deliriously happy, into the culinary and cultural tide of her new country only to emerge, a dozen years later, as America's "French Chef" and living happily ever after. In "My Life in France," the story is recounted once more with an attention to detail that fills pages without being unduly revelatory; there is little that will come as a surprise to even a half-baked Julia devotee. Prud'homme, grandnephew of Julia's late husband, Paul Child, has assembled this book of reminiscence based on interviews he conducted with Julia during the months leading up to her death in August 2004. Which Child is it: Julia or Paul? While Prud'homme asserts "almost all" of the words belong to the Childs, it's not always clear where the Childs leave off and Prud'homme begins. The book is profusely illustrated with Paul Child's photographs of the sojourn in France.

-"The Omnivore's Dilemma," by Michael Pollan (Penguin, $26.95)

Forget being haunted by Big Macs. By the time you are finished with this masterful climb up and down America's food chain, you'll be having bad dreams about those upscale organic markets we all feel so good about. Behind Pollan's wonderfully witty and eager prose lies a sobering fact: We have to kill to eat, be it a lettuce leaf or a steer. How we go about growing and harvesting our food has a lasting impact on our health, on other species, on the economy and on the environment. From fast food to "big" organic to locally sourced to foraging for dinner with rifle in hand, Pollan captures the perils and the promise of how we eat today.

-"Insatiable," by Gael Greene (Warner Books, $25.95)

An apt title for this autobiography from New York magazine's legendary restaurant critic whose various hungers were colorfully sated in dining rooms and bedrooms around the world. Greene personified the "anything goes" sensuality of the late 1960s and early 1970s, when Americans were awakening to gourmet cooking, ethnic foods and the idea of celebrity chefs. Millions of New Yorkers relied on her to lead them to the newest, tastiest, most exciting restaurants in the city and she educated millions more on what was hot and what was not in the food world. Greene was not afraid to tuck in at the table or in the bedroom, notching Elvis, Clint Eastwood and Burt Reynolds, among others, in her reporter's notebook. This, um, closeness between journalist and subject startles today, but a talent for the outrageous has always been part of Greene's charm. She rightfully acknowledges the important role played by the late Craig Claiborne in tutoring America's taste buds as the one-time all-powerful food editor of The New York Times. Greene may have been naughty over her long, storied career, but she has also been nice. That counts big-time.

-"The Language of Baklava," by Diana Abu-Jaber (Anchor Books, $14.95)

America has always been about assimilation, even for those whose bloodlines go back generations on these shores. As this charming memoir makes clear, Abu-Jaber grows up in suburbia with two strikes apparently against her: Not only is her father an immigrant, a Jordanian with strong old-world convictions about how his new-world daughter should behave, but he proudly and defiantly refuses to blend into American life, especially in the kitchen. The elder Abu-Jaber comes across as an energetic dreamer and a schemer but he's also clearly one heck of a cook - sort of like Danny Thomas crossed with the Galloping Gourmet. His cooking is heady with flavor, aroma and texture. It is the food of his homeland that sustains his Americanized daughter, helps her discover herself and fuels the narrative of this book. Recipes punctuate the text, serving almost as edible illustrations.

-"Two for the Road," by Jane and Michael Stern (Houghton Mifflin, $24)

The second-best thing to dining with the Sterns is reading about them eating - as book after book by these beloved road-food warriors attest. In this autobiography, the focus remains firmly on food. It's a tale of life as told through the tummy. While the reader may be left hungry for more details on the Sterns themselves - Jane, after all, was the subject of a 2005 TV movie, "Ambulance Girl" starring Kathy Bates - he or she will certainly get their fill of food vibrantly and lovingly recalled. The Sterns bring their usual eye for detail, careful but colorful writing and a never-flagging enthusiasm for all things edible to this book. After 30 years of work, decades of praise and even a prominent gig with Gourmet magazine, the Sterns appear to still be "just folks" without a snobby bone in their bodies.

-"The Big Oyster: History on the Half Shell," by Mark Kurlansky (Ballantine Books, $23.95)

A book about oysters isn't exactly a bodice-ripper, despite the bivalve's centuries-old reputation as an aphrodisiac. Yet Kurlansky manages to tell a lively, witty and occasionally racy yarn about the oyster's role in the history and growth of New York City. The oyster becomes a metaphoric symbol for the city's growing disconnect with its own environment and the subsequent degradation of soil, water and air. Kurlansky, whose previous books glorified the cod and underscored the importance of salt, is a graceful, intelligent writer whose enthusiasm for his subject fairly hums on the page. He has the discipline not to let himself get in the way of his story as so many other writers do. Rather, Kurlansky reveals himself to the reader the old-fashioned way: through his organization of information, what he chooses to highlight or ignore, and the occasional pointed aside.

-"The Reach of a Chef," by Michael Ruhlman (Viking, $27.95)

Six years ago, "The Soul of a Chef" gave readers insight into how a chef was made and the passions and motivations that made the chef tick. In so doing, author Ruhlman introduced us to the kitchen classrooms of the Culinary Institute of America, a Midwestern restaurant about to be visited by a nationally prominent critic, and Thomas Keller of The French Laundry, a California restaurant deemed by many the best in the nation. This sequel, "The Reach of a Chef," brings us up-to-date in an occasionally disquieting fashion. The title is a good one, for today's successful chef is all about the brand, churning out spinoffs, cookbooks, merchandise and, just maybe, a television show. Even Keller is moved to complain in the final pages about how he doesn't get to cook any more. Still, the book has its bright spots. The "soul" still blazes in young chefs like Grant Achatz, whom Ruhlman met at The French Laundry and takes up again here, first at the now-defunct Trio in Evanston and then at Achatz's own Alinea in Chicago. He also profiles the steadfast determination of Melissa Kelly, who scrambles to keep her Primo restaurant open year-round in the very seasonal town of Rockland, Maine.

-"Heat," by Bill Buford (Knopf, $25.95)

The book's subtitle says it all: "An Amateur's Adventures as Kitchen Slave, Line Cook, Pasta-Maker, and Apprentice to a Dante-Quoting Butcher in Tuscany." Buford, a staff writer for The New Yorker who previously served as the magazine's fiction editor, was so passionate about food and cooking that he volunteered to serve as a grunt in the kitchen of Mario Batali's restaurant, Babbo. You know Batali, the Food Network star whose considerable culinary talent can sometimes seem obscured by his molto, larger-than-life personality. The book shifts back and forth between the increasingly glamorous life of the star chef and the gritty reality of the chef's own kitchen. Buford gets himself burned, cut, insulted and verbally abused but finds that the knowledge and camaraderie forged in the heat of Babbo's kitchen has made him a better, more knowing cook. But his education is far from over. Buford sets off for Italy, just as Batali once did, to discover how to make homemade pasta and butcher an animal the Tuscan way.

-"Gastronaut: Adventures in Food for the Romantic, the Foolhardy, and the Brave," by Stefan Gates (Harcourt, $14)

This is a classic "dare ya" of a book, crammed with essays that skate way beyond the borders of good taste and gastronomic decency to explore food in its most pungent, unusual and repellent state. London-based Gates is described as an "epicurean desperado" and he relishes in such outlaw territory as flatulence, cannibalism and cooking with aftershave. ("Don't," is Gates considered opinion after he makes a salmon ceviche using Issey Miyake aftershave.) The first half of the book is stuffed with essays, the second half with recipes so odd (rhinoceros soup), so difficult (head cheese) or so British (hasty pudding) that they're clearly meant to be read and chuckled over rather than really cooked. Gates tackles his subjects with a good-natured gusto that helps offset the shock of much that he imparts. Still, it's a book only for those with strong stomachs.

-"Garlic and Sapphires: The Secret Life of a Critic in Disguise," by Ruth Reichl (Penguin, $24.95)

What price fame is the lesson learned by Reichl in this third installment of her memoirs. Serving as restaurant critic for The New York Times made her a national, even international, figure and paved the way to her current post as executive editor of Gourmet magazine, one of the most glamorous and influential food magazines in the world. Yet the critic gig is far from a dream job. Working at the Times is like tiptoeing through a proverbial snake pit (her words) and most of her colleagues are painted as mean or ambitious or coldly egotistical. Donning disguises, and the personalities that go with them, took Reichl to previously unexplored areas of her personality with sometimes unsettling results. And, finally, the charm of dining at some of America's top restaurants begins to pale when compared to chowing down in the company of her husband and son. Reichl's war stories of dining out are often paired with her published Times review, allowing the reader invaluable insight into how a master critic and writer works to distill the essence of a restaurant within the confines of a newspaper column. Recipes also punctuate the reminiscence.

OTHER BOOKS TO CONSIDER

-"A History of the World in 6 Glasses," by Tom Standage (Walker & Co., $25)

-"Cooking for Kings: The Life of Antonin Careme, the First Celebrity Chef," by Ian Kelly (Walker & Co., $26)

-"Vanilla: The Cultural History of the World's Favorite Flavor and Fragrance," by Patricia Rain (Tarcher/Penguin, $22.95

-"The Earth Knows My Name: Food, Culture and Sustainability in the Gardens of Ethnic Americans," by Patricia Klindienst (Beacon Press, $26.95)

-"Horsemen of the Esophagus: Competitive Eating and the Big Fat American Dream," by Jason Fagone (Crown, $24.95)

-"The Nasty Bits," by Anthony Bourdain (Bloomsbury, $24.95)

-"Ice Cream," by Marilyn Powell (The Overlook Press, $19.95)

-"Julie and Julia: 365 Days, 524 Recipes, 1 Tiny Apartment Kitchen," by Julie Powell (Little Brown, $23.95)

-"Curry: A Tale of Cooks and Conquerors," by Lizzie Collingham (Oxford, $28)

-"Market Day in Provence," by Michele de La Pradelle, translated by Amy Jacobs (The University of Chicago Press, $35)

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RECIPES FROM THE MEMORY BANK

There are cookbooks. There are food books. And there are food books with recipes for you to cook from.

Here are some recipes from the crop of books about food featured above.

DEEP-FRIED CANDY BAR

Preparation time: 5 minutes

Cooking time: 4 minutes

Yield: 1 serving

-The recipes in Stefan Gates' "Gastronaut" have crossed the Atlantic relatively unscathed. That explains why this deep-fried candy bar recipe calls for a Mars bar instead of its American twin, the Milky Way. (Mars bars aren't made in the United States any longer).

Oil for deep-fat frying

³/₄ cup flour

¹/₂ cup cornstarch

¹/₂ teaspoon baking soda

³/₄ cup beer, bitter or ale

1 bar (2 ounces) chocolate candy, such as Snickers or Milky Way, chilled in freezer at least 30 minutes

Ice cream, optional

1. Heat the oil in an electric fryer or large pot to 375 degrees. Meanwhile, combine the flour, cornstarch and baking soda in a medium bowl; whisk in the beer until it has the texture of thick cream.

2. Dip the candy in the batter to coat on all sides, letting excess batter drip off. Cook until golden brown, about 4 minutes.

Nutrition information per serving: 794 calories, 73 percent of calories from fat, 65 g fat, 11.7 g saturated fat, 7.9 mg cholesterol, 47 g carbohydrates, 6.4 g protein, 131 mg sodium, 1.8 g fiber

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ITALIAN BEEF

Preparation time: 15 minutes

Cooking time: 2 hours, 30 minutes

Standing time: 15 minutes

Yield: 8 servings

-"Two for the Road," by Jane and Michael Stern, chronicles the writing duo's "Love Affair with American Food" including Chicago's Italian beef. "Just like the hero and hoagie shops of the Delaware Valley, the Italian beef stands of Chicago display pictures of celebrities who love them," the Sterns write. "Several proprietors of beef stands have told us about celebrities who like the razor-thin, garlic-sopped beef so much that they have it FedExed to them overnight. An alternative is to make your own."

6 cloves garlic, cut into slivers

1 boneless chuck roast, about 3-4 pounds

1 cup water

2 bay leaves

1 tablespoon each: crushed red pepper flakes, dried oregano, salt, coarsely ground pepper

8 hero rolls or 4 lengths of Italian bread

Drained roasted peppers or giardiniera (spicy pickled vegetables), optional

1. Heat the oven to 325 degrees. Use a small knife to insert the garlic slivers into the roast all over. Put the water in a deep baking pan not much larger than the roast. Add the roast; top the roast with the seasonings.

2. Cover tightly with foil; bake, basting occasionally, adding water if necessary, until meat is fork-tender and browned, about 2 hours, 30 minutes. Remove the beef from the pan; let stand 15-20 minutes. Slice into razor-thin pieces; set aside.

3. Meanwhile, degrease the pan; taste pan juices and adjust seasoning. (It should be highly seasoned with a peppery bite.) Place the sliced beef in the juices; set aside 15-20 minutes. Serve on the rolls with peppers or giardiniera.

Nutrition information per serving: 575 calories, 16 percent of calories from fat, 10 g fat, 3.2 g saturated fat, 60 mg cholesterol, 73 g carbohydrates, 45 g protein, 2,709 mg sodium, 4.3 g fiber

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SUBSISTENCE TABBOULEH

Preparation time: 20 minutes

Soaking time: 30 minutes

Marinating time: 2 hours

Yield: 8 servings

-This dish is "for when everything is falling apart and there's no time to cook," writes Diana Abu-Jaber in "The Language of Baklava," a memoir.

1 cup uncooked fine-grain cracked wheat (bulgur)

3 medium tomatoes, cored, chopped

2 small bunches flat-leaf parsley, minced

2 medium cucumbers, peeled, chopped

2 tablespoons olive oil

Juice of 1 small lemon

¹/₂ teaspoon salt

Freshly ground pepper

1. Place cracked wheat and water to cover in a medium bowl; set aside to soak, about 30 minutes. Drain. Place in medium bowl; stir in the tomatoes, parsley and cucumbers.

2. Whisk together the olive oil, lemon juice, salt and pepper to taste in a small bowl; stir into vegetables, mixing well. Cover; refrigerate at least 2 hours.

Nutrition information per serving: 108 calories, 30 percent of calories from fat, 3.8 g fat, 0.5 g saturated fat, 0 mg cholesterol, 17 g carbohydrates, 3.1 g protein, 156 mg sodium, 4.4 g fiber

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THE MORNING-AFTER ORANGE FRUIT SOUP

Preparation time: 10 minutes

Cooking time: 5 minutes

Cooling-chilling time: 3 hours, 15 minutes

Yield: 4 servings

-A fitting recipe for Gael Greene's biography, "Insatiable," in which the New York magazine restaurant critic chronicles all of her hungers. "I don't remember where I got the recipe for this refreshing and delicious soup," Greene writes with refreshing candor. "If I stole it from you, please forgive me."

1 ¹/₂ cups water

2 tablespoons quick-cooking tapioca

¹/₂ cup frozen concentrated orange juice, slightly thawed

1 tablespoons sugar

¹/₈ teaspoon salt

2 cups diced fruit, such as plums, peaches, berries

1. Stir the tapioca into the water in a small saucepan. Heat to a boil, stirring, over medium-high heat; remove from heat. Stir in orange juice concentrate, sugar and salt. Set aside to cool, 15 minutes. Refrigerate, covered, at least 3 hours.

2. Fold fruit into chilled mixture; serve in chilled bowls or stemmed goblets.

Nutrition information per serving: 122 calories, 2 percent of calories from fat, 0.3 g fat, 0 g saturated fat, 0 mg cholesterol, 30 g carbohydrates, 1.6 g protein, 74 mg sodium, 1.6 g fiber

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(c) 2006, Chicago Tribune. Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune News Service.