Books That Cook

The Making of a Literary Meal

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Pub Date 01 Aug 2014 | Archive Date 15 Jun 2015

Description

Whether a five-star chef or beginning home cook, any gourmand knows that recipes are far more than a set of instructions on how to make a dish. They are culture-keepers as well as culture-makers, both recording memories and fostering new ones.





Organized like a cookbook, Books That Cook: The Making of a Literary Meal is a collection of American literature written on the theme of food: from an invocation to a final toast, from starters to desserts. All food literatures are indebted to the form and purpose of cookbooks, and each section begins with an excerpt from an influential American cookbook, progressing chronologically from the late 1700s through the present day, including such favorites as American Cookery, the Joy of Cooking, and Mastering the Art of French Cooking. The literary works within each section are an extension of these cookbooks, while the cookbook excerpts in turn become pieces of literature—forms of storytelling and memory-making all their own.





Each section offers a delectable assortment of poetry, prose, and essays, and the selections all include at least one tempting recipe to entice readers to cook this book. Including writing from such notables as Maya Angelou, James Beard, Alice B. Toklas, Sherman Alexie, Nora Ephron, M.F.K. Fisher, and Alice Waters, among many others, Books That Cook reveals the range of ways authors incorporate recipes—whether the recipe flavors the story or the story serves to add spice to the recipe. Books That Cook is a collection to serve students and teachers of food studies as well as any epicure who enjoys a good meal alongside a good book.

Whether a five-star chef or beginning home cook, any gourmand knows that recipes are far more than a set of instructions on how to make a dish. They are culture-keepers as well as culture-makers...


Advance Praise

“With much to be savored, this collection shows the ways that poetry, prose, and fiction can act just as cookbooks do—moving their readers to bake, to roast, to sear and sauté. Cookbooks really do cook: they act in everyday life, are read and re-read, are dog-eared and oil-stained, their pages rumpled by errant splashes of water and tomato sauce. The same, I suspect, may happen with this book. Books that Cook belongs not on the nightstand in the bedroom, or on the bookshelf in the office, but on the counter in the kitchen!”—Daniel J. Philippon, University of Minnestoa

“With much to be savored, this collection shows the ways that poetry, prose, and fiction can act just as cookbooks do—moving their readers to bake, to roast, to sear and sauté. Cookbooks really do...


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Available Editions

EDITION Other Format
ISBN 9781479830213
PRICE $30.00 (USD)

Average rating from 36 members


Featured Reviews

This is not your typical cookbook. This book sets out to show you that cookbooks aren't just for cooking, but are great literature. An assortment of poems, stories, essays & recipes. Arranged like a cookbook, from appetizers, mains, to desserts. The book hits it mark and then some. Foodies, food lovers, cookbook collector's and people that like to read will savor it's contents, and perhaps, cook along the way.

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Books That Cook by Jennifer Cognard-Black. Published by NYU Press

June 4, 2014 by cayocosta72 Leave a comment

This book confirms what so many of us already know – cookbooks are great literature. Cognard-Black demonstrates that these books are not just for cooking, they take us to far away lands, introduce us to people long dead, let us witness cultures and practices completely foreign to us. Yet they unite us in the prospect of sharing a meal. These themes and others run through this lovely book, arranged like a cookbook, from appetizers to main dishes to desserts. A book that belongs on the shelf of everyone interested in cooking, history and the human spirit. Highly recommended

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