Our book club is doing cookbooks this year as a genre.
I KNOW....how odd is that?
We've been in the book club business for 14 years, now, if you can imagine, and some years are trickier than others. We nearly folded this year because there was rumbling about how no one had time to finish the book before the next month, no one had time to meet once a month, etc. But because everyone in our group loves to eat and are wonderful cooks, we decided to do cookbooks so there's no plot to follow and they're useful long after the meeting.
I was looking for something interesting, even though my turn isn't until February, and stumbled across....
It's not a cookbook, but it has a couple recipes in the back. It's basically just about how Thomas Jefferson went to France after the American Revolution and before the French Revolution to drum up money for the new United States (since France was a key ally in helping us gain our independence from Britain), and dug around through the French culture to see what was useful to bring back to America.
The book talks about the culture of the colonies at the time (austere and proud of it), the culture of France at the time (excessive and not ashamed of it), slavery (illegal in France), cuisine (see descriptions of the cultures), fashion (see descriptions of the cultures), personalities of the Founding Fathers (Ben Franklin was fond of kissing everyone in France, John Adams not so much) and so forth. I can only read a little at a time because I don't HAVE time to sit down and read right through. It's a little dry...no John Grisham here, folks...but since I just finished a novel about Marie Antoinette, it ties together rather nicely and I'm already there in my head, setting-wise.
(Every time I read it, I think of my friend Sara Hagedorn Calvert...)
Now then...
Any ideas for cookbooks? Leave them in the comments! So far, we've done a self-published Montana Silversmiths cookbook, Gooseberry Patch, and a Southern Living "Off the Eaten Path". I was thinking of maybe doing a cocktail party in February, a la Breakfast at Tiffany's, which would mean canapes and cock/mocktails...what do you think?
2 comments:
Helen Corbitt is my #1 cook. She was born in New York and finally ended up in Texas where she jazzed up the cuisine by combining flavors that Texans were used to and "undercooking" vegetables (my husband, Bobby, says, "You can't overcook vegetables for a Red Neck"). Some say she was the best cook in Texas. And, Helen Corbitt was in her heyday when I was going to Tech--that was just a special time, so it helps make her special.
Ha! Why do you think of me? Also, which Marie Antoinette book? I have two sitting here, waiting for me to finish the one on Catherine de Medici. Wondering which I should read first...
My suggestion is mostly autobiography, but part cookbook: Mediterranean Summer by David Shalleck and Erol Munuz. I think you might have read it while you were here. Another favorite also isn't a cookbook, but a must-read for any foodie: Kitchen Confidential, but the one and only Anthony Boudrain. Wish I was there to discuss food books....
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