"I, the creator of Crepes Suzette for the man who would become Edward VII, will now give you the recipe for Henri Charpentier."

And so he begins his sweetly swaggering and sentimental autobiography spanning his humble beginnings in 19th century France, to his auspicious apprenticeships in the world's top hotels and restaurants, his poverty while working in London, and his struggles to create a career as a restauranteur in America, only to be shut down by Prohibition. The story is told with a littering of the favorite recipes of the famous people he served. I could not put this book down! Full of anecdotal stories of princes and empresses, and his own enterprising yet generous heart comes through. Wish I weren't born too late to taste these meals ... At the end is a short cookbook of simple but elegant recipes, and excellent advice for choosing market produce. ... Merci, Henri!

Before there was Emeril or Wolfgang Puck, there was Henri. Out of print for nearly six decades, LIFE A LA HENRI recounts the culinary adventures of Henri Charpentier, the very first celebrity chef and inventor of Crepes Suzettes. Introduction by Alice Waters of Chez Panisse fame.

Hello . My name is Robert Charpentier . I am please that may of you have taken the time to not only search , but purchase the " Henri Charpentier Cookbook " . At first printing , there were only 100 in circulation , most of them to close personal friends and family . Later , the world began to catch on , and additional books were printed .

I am proud to be a close relative of Henri . I met him when I was a child growing up in Westport , Connecticut where I lived with my parents until we moved to the south in 1968 where I still reside . My parents are also living . My dad is a proud man , and holds close to his heart the fact that Henri was his fathers brother , and I , am the nephew .

Perhaps i'll write additional words later , but for now , I will continue to honor Henri's work , as it is part of who I am and my heritage .

Thank you for reveiwing this letter . Please feel free to E-mail me at home anytime , I will return the honor .

While PERFECTION SALAD is certainly about food, it is also a rich cultural history of women and food. With a wonderful selection of resources, from a recipe for raisin stuffed marshmallows to a celebration of Fannie Farmer, this is a delightful and interesting treat. Introduction by Michael Stern, co-author of EAT YOUR WAY ACROSS THE U.S.A and Gourmet Magazine?s popular column "Roadfood."

Foodies and feminists alike should read this book. As part of the Modern Food Library reprints, chosen by Ruth Reichl (who is known for her good taste and her own laudable literary contributions - "Tender at the Bone" and "Comfort Me with Apples"), "Perfection Salad" describes all the elements present at the turn of the century that combined to forever change the way Americans view food. Food, its preparation and presentation became a female obsession in an time where the kitchen was really the only arena in which a woman could rule. The female nutritionists and cooks from that era seemed bent upon exerting control on SOMETHING, and that something turned out to be food - with sometimes terrible consequences. After reading "Perfection Salad", I understood the recipes that my grandmother (born in 1898) and my mother after her learned and served. Don't be frightened by the scholarly look of "Perfection Salad" - there are hilarious nuggets in the text - like color-themed menus (everything green and white, for example), putting everything into gelatin for the sake of "daintiness" (no messy lettuce leaves hanging out of your mouth) and covering absolutely anything and everything with "white sauce". For more laughs, peruse "The Gallery of Regrettable Food" by James Lileks in which he has gathered some of the most revolting-looking photos of the consequences of "Perfection Salad".

This highly readable, beautifully researched book provides a fascinating look into American "cuisine" circa 1850-1920. The Boston Cooking School and other institutions promoted Americanization through cooking conducted on scientific principles, although immigrants proved reluctant to give up their "coarse and unsavory" meals for triumphs of digestibility such as the following, served to President Wilson on his first day in office: "cream of celery soup, fish with white sauce, roast capon with two white vegetables, a fruit salad,and a dessert made with gelatin, custard, and whipped cream"(212). Other triumphs included a salad made of bananas and pimentos bound together with mayonnaise and whipped cream and, later, grapefruit pieces mixed with dessert mints. Often funny and always interesting, this book
also helps readers to understand the convenience food mania of the 1950s.

Food scientist Edouard de Pomiane turned the world of French cuisine on its ear with his beautifully simple approach to classic cooking. With over 300 recipes and many amusing anecdotes, and a fond introduction by renowned food writer Elizabeth David, COOKING WITH POMAINE remains a treasured resource for cooks of all kind.

This is my favourite cookbook-- or should I say my favourite food cookbook (The Anarchist's Cookbook is my fave overall). There are lots of recipes in here for all dishes and occasions- be it a fancy dinner or a not-so-fancy dessert- and the good news is, most of them are of the minimalist tradition, so no complicated procedures or fancy-schmansy ingredients. Just plain old good food, and believe me, if you follow Pomiane's and tips, you'll be cooking like a pro in no time!

This is an absolutely delightful read. I haven't tried any of the (delicious-sounding) recipes yet, but just reading this book was enough to whet my appetite! I particularly enjoyed his many witty asides and poetic turns of phrase. Highly recommended. Also take a look at "Clementine in the Kitchen", another charmer.

With Katish's recipes, you will eat the most sublime and comforting food. It was easy to see from this book how the famously sensitive Russian soul was nourished by such a cuisine." - From the Introduction by Marion Cunningham. Katish, round as a plum and neat as a pin, arrived in Los Angeles as a Russian emigre in the 1920s. Wanda Frolov's stories about this humble genius of the kitchen first appeared in Gourmet magazine, and were gathered together in book form in 1947. Here again, at last, are the stories of a woman who nourished the bellies and the souls of a happy throng with her blini and pilaf, her shashlik and borscht, and who brokered marriages and started bank accounts for new emigres, presiding over all from her spotless pastry table. KATISH offers deliciously simple Russian country cooking enveloped in a warm and cheering narrative, tender as the crust of Katish's own piroshky. It includes Katish's cheesecake, one of the most beloved recipes ever published in Gourmet.

Katish is the nickname of the young Russian widow who is taken in by Wanda Frolov's mother as a cook in 1920's Los Angeles. Wanda, the author, and her brother lived with their widowed mom. As a middle-class California family, hiring a cook was an extravagance for them, but Wanda's aunt talked them into doing it. In the 1940s, when she was grown, Wanda wrote the chapters of this book as a series of articles in _Gourmet_ magazine. They were later gathered together as a book in 1947. Now the Modern Library Food Series has reprinted this delightful literary cookbook for a new generation of reader-cooks. Like many things culinary, these memoirs have improved with age.

The story of the book revolves around the cultural differences created as Katish and her Russian immigrant friends interact with an American middle class family of the 1920s. It is a heart-warming story in which both sides profit from the relationship. _Katish_ is a delightfully amusing glimpse into the culture of the time and is populated with warmly portrayed friends, relatives and situations.

As each food is discussed in the narrative, the recipe is listed. They are easy to follow and delicious. The recipes are a wonderful introduction to Russian family cooking. Breads and rolls, soups, desserts, side dishes, and main dishes are all well represented. Sadly, there is only one salad and one beverage (a delightfully rich hot chocolate). Thirty of the recipes contain meat or meat products. Thirty five are ovo-lacto vegetarian (many with butter and sour cream). Only nine are animal-free vegan recipes and six of these contain alcoholic beverages. An interesting aside is that, for a Prohibition-era story, there are surprisingly many recipes with alcoholic beverages. Dieters should be warned that most of these recipes are rich in flavor, but also in calories. However, there is a delightful fruit juice pudding called Kissel that can be made fat-free.

Read it for the story or read it for the recipes. Either way you are in for a treat.

This is a lovely slice of Americana, in addition to a quirky story of a Russian immigrant and a collection of divine recipes. The flow is perfect, with the recipes jumping in right when a dish is described. It took me back to my summer in Russia and I can't wait to try more of the dishes.

Drawing from the archives of Gourmet magazine, editor in chief Reichl (Comfort Me with Apples) has chosen a tempting collection of articles and essays that celebrate the pleasures of food and delights of travel. Contributors include some of the leading culinary writers of the 20th century such as M. F. K. Fisher and Elizabeth David, and the range of subjects explored is quite diverse, from a memorable look at Shanghai in the 1920s to the delights of regional cooking in various sections of America. A few profiles of selected culinary notables are mixed into the collections as are the occasional musings on a particular food. Any recipes included appear as they were originally written. From the graceful simplicity of Laurie Colwin's prose to Ruth Harkness's evocative descriptions of living and eating in a Tibetan lamasery, there is a remarkable bounty of riches awaiting readers in this soon-to-be classic collection of culinary writings. Highly recommended for all libraries, this is a book worth savoring .-

"Endless Feasts: Sixty Years of Writing from Gourmet" is a fine sampler of essays that appeared in Gourmet Magazine. This magazine, which deals with cuisine and travel, offers some of the best prose outside of literary magazines like the New Yorker or Atlantic Monthly.

I already am a fan of M.F.K. Fisher (who isn't?), Paul Theroux and Laurie Colwin. But there are many other authors here whose work I wasn't as familiar with. I was very very glad to read Mary Cantwell and William Hamilton in particular.

If you love travel and food, this book is sure to appeal to you. But these authors are SO good that really, this book is about how we react to the most basic of activities, eating and drinking and how they are inextricably mixed with our emotions and memories.

The list of authors reads like a literary prize list, not only those authors I previously mentioned, but Anita Loos and E. Annie Proulx as well. The essays may deal with eating and drinking in some way, but each of the authors has a very unique way of dealing with the subject. In particular, I loved the story by William Hamilton. His childhood memory where he was promised a mysteriously alluring treat "jellied consomme" is one that recreates childhood emotions with uncanny accuracy and a lot of wry humor.

I happen to be a fan of the publisher, Modern Library. I love their compact format, and the typeface clear and readable. If you love good writing, this book is a real treat.

Escapism at its best. You'll love Ruth, her mother, her friends, and her experiences.

This book was my first taste of Robert Farrar Capon's writings. One of those underground treasures which makes its way by word of mouth, The Supper of the Lamb was a seminal book in my spiritual and literary development, along with his book, The Parables of the Kingdom. It may include recipes, but The Supper of the Lamb is a cookbook for life.

Each chapter offers lyrical insight on what it means to be human. Read about cutting an onion in "The First Session" and you'll never take an onion for granted again. "Wave Breast and Heave Shoulder" is one of the most beautiful and biblical passages in the entire book. I have read the final pages of "The Burning Heart" many, many times and never fail to be moved. Some sections of the book are reminiscent of Annie Dillard's descriptive style in Pilgrim at Tinker Creek or some of the best of M.F.K. Fisher's writings. Capon's salty observations balance the high spirituality, creating a complex blend of philosophy and kitchen craft.

As Capon himself says, "We were given appetites, not to consume the world and forget it, but to taste its goodness and hunger to make it great." This book continues to inspire my writing, my cooking, and my spirituality. If you want a flavorful literary feast, buy The Supper of the Lamb. I highly recommend Robert Farrar Capon's other books as well. Each one is a treasure.

I grew up around Bob Capon. My father is also an Episcopal priest, and our families often got together to break bread. The kitchen was the place to be. This book, which I hadn't read for many years, brought back lots of memories. Capon was one of the first "crazy" people I ever met. (I was around 9 years old.) I am a better person for it. Food and God. God and Food. They go together especially well in this book.

Lets face it...all of us who cook (unless we are filthy rich) do a lot of work with leftovers (Ferial cooking). Yet most folks buy cookbooks that give us these grand, one time and you're done (Festal cooking) recipes. This is not what you get from Robert Capon's "The Supper of the Lamb." This book is all about Ferial cooking--and proud of it.

Capon is a true wild man. He has become one of my favorite authors (His book Between Noon and Three is one of my top ten). "The Supper of the Lamb" is earlier, yet vintage Capon.

The book is indeed a cookbook. It is also so much more. What the reader will find here, besides the recipes, are reflections on life and reality. The theme of Ferial cooking is transferred to a kind of manifesto on Ferial living. Capon sees food, and life as well, through a lens of wonder.

Capon's book is really a recipe for living life more fully. While his recipes for food are great, it is this "larger" recipe that holds the greatest appeal for me.

I recommend "The Supper of the Lamb" to you with all my heart.

Excellent entertainment, but you can easily read it in one sitting!

More a recipe book than a memoir.

Great traditional french recipes.

If you've been reading heavy, deep, take-themselves-way-too-seriously type books lately this might be just the ticket if you want to take a break. It's a fast read and if you enjoy reading recipes/cookbooks then you'll love this.

The entire second half of the book is a cookbook and every recipe looks great! I can't wait to try a few.

My only complaint is the use of French was a little tough for a non-French speaking person. I don't mind a word here and there but there were whole sentences and/or paragraphs occasionally. There was no translation so at times I felt a little left out. I completely understand why the author did this and since I like to also read books that use lots of Spanish (a language I do speak a bit of) I know if you speak French you'll love the book all the more for it.

If you love cooking, eating and want to read about some really lovely people then don't let the French thing stop you. Just don't be surprised.

The gastronomic diary of an American family in France, and of their most treasured possession, Clementine, their extraordinary cook who accompanies them to Marblehead, Massachusetts on the eve of World War II where she struggles with the American way of cooking while managing to retain her very French sensibilities

M.F.K. Fisher is the predecessor to Alice Waters. A Californian who learned early in life to appreciate the robust flavors of the freshest ingredients and how to achieve magic with them. The essays include Classical and modern history references to famous chefs and gourmandaise. The author touches subjects ranging from the outrageous and excesses of the Greeks and Romans to the shortages and sacrifices during wartime. A great reader for foodies.

This book of autobiographical essays is the best introduction to the writings of M.F.K. Fisher that I know of. I've read a lot of her books, and this remains a favorite. She gives us glimpses into the archaic and loving rituals of French cuisine, as practiced by the Burgundians, the strangeness of being a teenage girl in a cloister-like California boarding school in the 20's, and being the young, newly-married wife of a poetry scholar in Strasbourg.

The ironic thing about Fisher is that her husband was the literary scholar (Al Fisher wrote a monumental epic poem that vanished upon publication.) Her writing, however, is some of the best American prose; honest, perceptive, introspective and biting. Her work endures and provides more than just a viewpoint on cooking; it is a wonderful glimpse into pre-World War 2 Europe and America.

In this autobiography, Ruth Reichl, the longtime food critic for the NY Times, now the editor in chief at Gourmet, explains how she came to love food. The book weaves a tapestry of stories, including some about her mother (dubbed the Queen of Mold for serving completely unpalatable dishes) and her early childhood (how an early trip to Paris and her time spent at a French-Canadian boarding school influenced her tastes) to her adulthood, working in a collaborative kitchen and becoming friends with influential foodies.

The stories are often laugh out loud funny, and some are very touching (her mother's manic behavior is explained later in the book). The book allows the reader to see Reichl's influences and her deep love of food through the stories, without Reichl ever coming out and saying "these are my influences."

Food lovers in particular will probably adore this book, but lovers of autobiographies will probably also enjoy it. The book is not about food, exactly, but about a woman's coming of age (and part of that coming of age is that she simply loves food and the art of its creation).

A delicious read--I couldn't put it down.

Light, yet rich and tasty. Restaurant critic Ruth Reichl's memoir is all of these. Easy to read, yet filled with insight and well-rounded characters. The author's mother suffered from manic depression, and one way it manifested itself was in bizarre - and often downright poisonous - culinary creations. The author describes herself as having been shaped by her mother's handicap, beginning at an early age to use food as a way of making sense of the world. She effectively conveys this food-sense in a series of funny and poignant tales that take us from her childhood in New York up through young adulthood in California. She lovingly introduces the significant people in her life, revealing them to us in how and what they cooked. Her stories are punctuated by recipes (I didn't cook any of them, but they look like they should work).

The author is equally effective when she moves away from the table to tell more directly of her relationships with friends and family. She describes some episodes that could be seen as time-bound clichés - living in a commune, working in a collectively managed restaurant - with a perspective sometimes lacking in baby-boom memoirs. She brings similar good-humored perspective to her mother's mental illness and her own struggle with anxiety attacks, never wallowing in graphic description of symptoms. You don't have to be a "foodie" to enjoy TENDER AT THE BONE, just a lover of warm, tender memoirs.

The friend that I borrowed this book from was devastated when I returned it and she (subsequently) couldn't find it. Synchronously, I received it in a recycling effort from one of her dear friends. Imagine how excited she's going to be to receive it back!

With good-humored perspective, Ruth Reichl, NY Times Food Editor, lovingly introduces the significant people in her life and the way she managed to find a path for herself and build a wonderful life in spite of a tumultuous childhood. A childhood that was filled with emotional trauma and rather ghastly home experiences, (imagine) Ruth's Mother picks her up from middle school, and without any preparation or explanation, drives to Canada, where she deposits Ruth in a Catholic boarding school where only French is spoken. When Ruth begs not to be left there, her Mother reminds her that she is the one that wants to learn French!
Reichl introduces us to quirky, memorable characters that thankfully guided the development of her love of fine food. A story filled with wit, sadness, resourcefulness and occasional mishap, Ruth will tell you she learned early in life that the most important thing in life is a good story!
You will be as amazed as I by the life Reichl led and discover a range of cooking and eating possibilities way beyond today's lifestyle. Excellent!