The Table Comes First: Family, France, and the Meaning of Food

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  • Author: Adam Gopnik
  • Publisher: Knopf
  • Published: October 2011
  • ISBN-10: 0307593452
  • ISBN-13: 9780307593450
  • Format: Hardcover
  • Copyright: 2011
  • Subject: COOKING-FOOD WRITING

The Table Comes First: Family, France, and the Meaning of Food

By Adam Gopnik

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Product Description

The author of Paris to the Moon and Through the Children’s Gate, among others, takes readers on a beguiling journey in search of the true meaning of food in our lives as he charts America’s recent and rapid evolution from commendably aware eaters to manic, compulsive gastronomes. It is a journey that begins in eighteenth-century France – the birthplace of our modern tastes (and, by no coincidence, of the restaurant) – and carries readers to the kitchens of the White House, the molecular meccas of Barcelona, and beyond. To understand why so many of us apparently live to eat, Gopnik delves into the most burning questions of our time, including: Should a Manhattanite bother to find chicken killed in the Bronx? I s a great vintage really any better than a good bottle of wine? And: Why does dessert matter so much? Throughout, Gopnik reminds us of a time-honored truth often lost amid our newfound gastronomic pieties and certitudes: What goes on the table has never mattered as much to our lives as what goes on around the table – the scene of families, friends, lovers coming together, or breaking apart; conversation across the simplest or grandest board. This, ultimately, is whom Gopnick discovers, and affirms, we are. 293p.

Editorial Reviews

A philosophical look at French food and how it has affected our eating habits and our lives.

New Yorker writer Gopnik's latest book (Angels and Ages: A Short Book About Darwin, Lincoln, and Modern Life, 2009, etc.) is not for the fast-food junkie in search of a quick fix; the essays are delicious in small bites though slightly overwhelming in large quantities. Throughout, the author displays a masterful grasp of French cuisine and history. Starting with the origins of the restaurant in France as a byproduct of the French Revolution and meals served in inns as another form of seduction in the quest for sex, Gopnik moves on to reflect on the recipe, the meaning of taste and the ongoing argument for and against eating meat. Whether he is discussing haute cuisine, nouvelle cuisine or the newest techno-emotional cuisine, the author ponders the real meaning of food, beyond the need to satisfy a hunger—is it to provide comfort, is it a symbol of love or something more sacred? Local foods, French wines and a discussion of peasant foods versus traditional French cooking all blend together into a rich feast of sensory details. These essays will leave no doubt in readers' minds that Gopnik is a true food aficionado with a desire to share his musings. To lighten the heaviness of his chapters, the author intersperses delightful, almost comic letters written to Elizabeth Pennell, a food critic and writer in the 19th century. Here he adopts a more informal tone and provides insights into his family life and the recipes he prepares for his children.

Rich in context and philosophical thoughts, Gopnik's book will satiate the most ardent of food-history buffs.

 

Copyright Kirkus 2011 Kirkus/BPI Communications.All rights reserved.

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