Detours–Anne Carson and Nancy Drew
Because I’m in the quiet period between the actual writing of Eating for Beginners and the full-on promoting of it, I’ve been doing other things lately and thought I’d share a few of them with you. First up is my review of poet Anne Carson’s extraordinary new book, Nox. Carson has long been a favorite [...]
Summer sweets
For those of you who love cake and ice cream, click here to check out my new Bookforum column (now called Paper Palate) covering books on these esteemed topics. All seems right with the world when your job involves a thorough investigation of the history of dessert. ——————————————————– Share, email or bookmark this post
Skill versus art: what do you think?
I’m in heavy editing mode, so again, apologies for not posting more frequently. One of the great things about editing, though, is that I tend to go back over all my original notes and transcripts as I search down facts or look for a few more details. Invariably, this leads to the discovery of good [...]
Cooking writer at work (and a recipe)
I’m trying to finish the last round of edits on Eating for Beginners this week, which is my only defense for posting so infrequently (though I’m sure my editor thinks it’s the best defense…). What this means is that in addition to working on the writing, I’m testing out all the recipes included in the [...]
Friday Food Writers: A.J. Liebling
I’m back in Berlin, but in keeping with my week’s travels, I thought it was the perfect time to induct the legendary A.J. Liebling into my Friday food writers pantheon. Born in New York in 1904, Liebling was a journalist who eventually ended up writing for The New Yorker. He loved Paris, where he went [...]
Friday Food Writers: Julian Barnes (with a dash of Joseph Conrad)
Julian Barnes is the author of numerous novels (Flaubert’s Parrot is the best known), but my favorite book of his is The Pedant in the Kitchen a very sympathetic and very funny book of essays about his trials and tribulations as a home cook and his—he feels—nerdy, profoundly human reliance on recipes (“Non-pedants frequently misunderstand [...]
