Product Description

In a groundbreaking new anthology, celebrated food writer Molly O'Neill gathers the very best from over 250 years of American culinary history. This literary feast includes classic accounts of iconic American foods: Henry David Thoreau on the delights of watermelon; Herman Melville, with a mouth-watering chapter on clam chowder; H. L. Mencken on the hot dog; M.F.K. Fisher in praise of the oyster; Ralph Ellison on the irresistible appeal of baked yam; William Styron on Southern fried chicken. American writers abroad, like A. J. Liebling, Waverly Root, and Craig Claiborne, describe the revelations they found in foreign restaurants; travellers to America, including the legendary French gourmet J. A. Brillat-Savarin, discover such native delicacies as turkey, Virginia barbecue, and pumpkin pie. Great chefs and noted critics discuss their culinary philosophies and offer advice on the finer points of technique; home cooks recount disasters and triumphs. A host of eminent American writers, from Nathaniel Hawthorne, Harriet Beecher Stowe, and Walt Whitman to Thomas Wolfe, Willa Cather, and Langston Hughes, add their distinctive viewpoints to the mix.

American Food Writing celebrates the astonishing variety of American foodways, with accounts from almost every corner of the country and a host of ethnic traditions: Dutch, Cuban, French, Italian, Jewish, Chinese, Irish, Indian, Scandinavian, Native American, African, English, Japanese, and Mexican. A surprising range of subjects and perspectives emerge, as writers address such topics as fast food, hunger, dieting, and the relationship between food and sex. James Villas offers a behind-the-scenes look at gourmet dining through a waiter's eyes; Anthony Bourdain recalls his days at the Culinary Institute of America; Julia Child remembers the humble beginnings of her much-loved television series; Nora Ephron chronicles internecine warfare among members of the "food establishment;" Michael Pollan explores what the label "organic" really means.

Throughout the anthology are more than 50 classic recipes, selected after extensive research from cookbooks both vintage and modern, and certain to instruct, delight, and inspire home chefs.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #14228 in Books
• Published on: 2007-04-19
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 700 pages

From Publishers Weekly
Starred Review. This exhaustive collection of essays, anecdotes, and recipes spans three centuries of American food writing, from Meriwether Lewis's account of killing "two bucks and two buffaloe" during his famous trek across the continent, to Michael Pollan's up-to-the-minute account of the politics of organic food. In between are countless gems: Alice B. Toklas's baroque recipe for lobster, Richard Olney's meditation on paté and Edna Lewis's poignant description of killing hogs on her family farm. Ably organized and edited by the former host of the PBS series Great Food, this collection features numerous accounts of foodways long since vanished in this country; take, for instance, Charlie Ranhofer's thorough analysis of the thirteen-course society dinner, complete with "removes or solid joints," "iced punch or sherbet," and "hot sweet entremets"; or Maria Sermolino's memories of the Italian meals served at her father's Greenwich Village restaurant back when spaghetti was still a novelty. Famous food writers are well represented here (James Beard and Calvin Trillin, M.F.K. Fisher and James Villas), but perhaps even more rewarding are the wonderful but lesser-known players on the American food scene; either Elizabeth Robins Pennell's discussion of the spring chicken or Eugene Walter's tale of gumbo alone would make this volume a treasure. With so many wonderful ingredients, this rich, delectable treat is a must-have for American foodies.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Bookmarks Magazine
A cookbook author, memoirist, and longtime New York Times food columnist, Molly O'Neill has been a hardcore foodie for more years than most of us have been using utensils. In American Food Writing, O'Neill pleases just about everyone-food bullies and drive-thru junkies alike-with her diverse selections that draw on more than three centuries of writing about food. The essays and recipes provide entertaining reading, as well as a roadmap to how food and culture define each other in the march toward a "kitchen without walls." The book lacks a dominant theme (maybe not such a bad thing, depending upon where you sit at the table), and one critic bemoans a lack of writing on Eastern European and Slavic cuisine. Still, American Food Writing is more than a meal. Bon appétit.
Copyright © 2004 Phillips & Nelson Media, Inc.

From Booklist
In this comprehensive anthology from the Library of America, veteran food journalist O'Neill brings together some of the most significant short food writing from across the whole spectrum of American culinary history. From the eighteenth century, Joel Barlow offers a poem celebrating a breakfast specialty. A brief account of cooking at the outset of the nineteenth century comes from Henry Adams' renowned history. James Beard, Julia Child, Craig Claiborne, and other contemporary icons record the great American food revolution of recent decades. Excerpts and articles from other writers bring the anthology up to date with concerns about food origins and sound nutrition. Good food writing being an effective tonic to arouse one's appetite, O'Neill has peppered the text with historical and modern recipes beyond those that appear within the texts themselves. A valuable subject index expedites locating topics efficiently within this very diverse set of readings. Knoblauch, Mark
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Customer Reviews

Big and Clumsy Book is (whisper) Boring
I was very excited about this book, intending to curl up with it and enjoy reading it. But this book is so clumsily printed, that was impossible. It's too fat and wide, and the print runs so close to the inner spine, you have to turn it just so and press the paper with your thumb, to hold the pages open to read it. Weird.
Worse yet, the book is (whisper) boring. I paged through more of it than I read. The short intros the author wrote before each piece were unnecessary, repetitious and just so much throat-clearing before we could get to the Food Writing we got the book for, like a long introduction of the main speaker.
I think the difficulty holding the big clunky book and being unable to just relax and read it colored my whole experience with this book. But even if that were fixed in future editions, so much of the Food Writing included was just plain boring.

Definative Anthology
I received my copy of this book from Ms O'Neill after accompanying her and her associate, Nora Sherman, on a visit to Northern Minnesota, where they gathered recipes and stories for her next book, which is to be an anthology of American Home Cooking.

I've read many anthologies, but never really appreciated the meaning of the term until reading Molly O'Neill's "American Food Writing". Formed by the Greek words "anthos" (flower) and "logia" (collecting), the word implies a patient and studied selection of exemplars of the subject, incorporating just a bit of spontaneousness and personal preference.

MFK Fisher is my favorite food writer, and I was anxious to see which of her works had been chosen for this book. I was not surprised to see "A Lusty Bit of Nourishment" from "Consider the Oyster", since it's one of her best known pieces, (although not one of my own favorites), but the second selection, "Define This Word" from "Gastronomical Me" came as a complete surprise, and impressed upon me Ms O'Neill's mastery of this particular literary form.

Despite being quite familiar with Fisher's books, I'll admit that I didn't even recognize the story by it's title. In rendering this almost mystical tale of a meal eaten alone during the off-season in a famous restaurant in Northern Burgundy, prepared by the oft-referenced but invisible chef, "Monsieur Paul", and attended to by a young servant "almost fanatical about food, like a medieval woman possessed by the devil.", MFK Fisher could arguably be said to have created an entire new sub-genre of food writing.

That Molly O'Neill would recognize this, and choose it from the volumes of stories written by MFK Fisher, speaks volumes of her own talent. Thus, I highly recommend this book, along with any other anthologies she has written, or will write.

A Tasting Menu
Every anthology has a mission. AMERICAN FOOD WRITING is an anthology in search of completeness, and its success there justifies its price. There are 162 entries, beginning with Peter Kahn in 1716 and ending with Michael Pollen, 2006. Walt Whitman discusses ice cream, Langston Hughes and LeRoi Jones each have strong opinions on soul food, and Wendell Berry is poetic on the subject of eating. There are also the usual suspects. This magnificent breadth is the book's great strength, and also its flaw. You will be able to read only a couple of pages, at best, of any one writer. Many of the included writers also present their recipes, and you can try them out: potted lobster, Roman punch, Yellowfin tuna burgers, Toll House cookies. Molly O'Neill's introductory essay is worth the price of admission, a great short course in American food writing. She says, "Every meal is a new beginning." Definitely American.