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FIRST, CATCH

Name: FIRST, CATCH
Author: Thom Eagle
ISBN: 978-0-8021-4822-3

STUDY OF A SPRING MEAL

by Thom Eagle ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 10, 2020

A graceful, enlightening contribution to food writing.

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London-based chef Eagle, a contributor to various culinary journals, makes his book debut with a thoughtful meditation on the craft, chemistry, and cultural history of cooking and the “inexorable currents of history and economics” that influence taste.

Winner of the Debut Food Book at the Fortnum & Mason’s Awards, the author’s unusual cooking manual lacks specific recipes, although he does devote several chapters to the process of making a rabbit stew. He dismisses the idea that recipes are “more-or-less scientific sets of instructions,” seeing them “more like short stories—about history, about politics, and about love.” Instead of emulating other cookbooks by presenting an “inaccurate account of the various things that have been done before,” Eagle offers reflections on techniques—such as curing, boiling, pickling, slicing and dicing (including specific directions for onions)—that can be applied to a variety of cooking situations. “A recipe,” he maintains, “is a work in progress, one outcome of a long, silent conversation between cook and cooked, which started before anyone alive today thought to pick up a knife.” Once a cook knows how to make a stew, for example, complex recipes “from across the globe and the ages” are not necessary; instead, the cook would benefit more from “terse suggestions” that can be adapted to ingredients at hand. Eagle emphasizes the importance of salt, which should be added “sometimes with abandon, sometimes judiciously” at the beginning, middle, and end of cooking. Besides bringing out flavors, salt is integral to the movement of water. “The elemental act of cooking,” he writes, “is chiefly the act of moving water from one place to another.” In curing meat or fish, we draw water out; in boiling pasta, rice, polenta, gruel, or grain, we rehydrate. Although Eagle does not extol cooking as an art but rather a craft, he celebrates the ephemeral pleasure of eating, “where a forkful comes together with a sip and a word to produce something beautiful.”

A graceful, enlightening contribution to food writing.

Pub Date: March 10, 2020

ISBN: 978-0-8021-4822-3

Page Count: 240

Publisher: Grove

Review Posted Online: Nov. 9, 2019

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2019

Categories:

GENERAL NONFICTION

- PERSPECTIVES
5 New Books Foodies Will Devour

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NUTCRACKER

by E.T.A. Hoffmann ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 28, 1996

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This is not the Nutcracker sweet, as passed on by Tchaikovsky and Marius Petipa. No, this is the original Hoffmann tale of 1816, in which the froth of Christmas revelry occasionally parts to let the dark underside of childhood fantasies and fears peek through. The boundaries between dream and reality fade, just as Godfather Drosselmeier, the Nutcracker's creator, is seen as alternately sinister and jolly. And Italian artist Roberto Innocenti gives an errily realistic air to Marie's dreams, in richly detailed illustrations touched by a mysterious light. A beautiful version of this classic tale, which will captivate adults and children alike. (Nutcracker; $35.00; Oct. 28, 1996; 136 pp.; 0-15-100227-4)

Pub Date: Oct. 28, 1996

ISBN: 0-15-100227-4

Page Count: 136

Publisher: Harcourt

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1996

Categories:

GENERAL NONFICTION

- BOOK REVIEW
THE NUTCRACKER AND THE MOUSE KING
by E.T.A. Hoffmann ; adapted by Natalie Andrewson ; illustrated by Natalie Andrewson

- BOOK REVIEW
THE NUTCRACKER
by E.T.A. Hoffmann & illustrated by Julie Paschkis

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TO THE ONE I LOVE THE BEST

EPISODES FROM THE LIFE OF LADY MENDL (ELSIE DE WOLFE)

by Ludwig Bemelmans ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 23, 1955

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An extravaganza in Bemelmans' inimitable vein, but written almost dead pan, with sly, amusing, sometimes biting undertones, breaking through. For Bemelmans was "the man who came to cocktails". And his hostess was Lady Mendl (Elsie de Wolfe), arbiter of American decorating taste over a generation. Lady Mendl was an incredible person,- self-made in proper American tradition on the one hand, for she had been haunted by the poverty of her childhood, and the years of struggle up from its ugliness,- until she became synonymous with the exotic, exquisite, worshipper at beauty's whrine. Bemelmans draws a portrait in extremes, through apt descriptions, through hilarious anecdote, through surprisingly sympathetic and understanding bits of appreciation. The scene shifts from Hollywood to the home she loved the best in Versailles. One meets in passing a vast roster of famous figures of the international and artistic set. And always one feels Bemelmans, slightly offstage, observing, recording, commenting, illustrated.