Ruth Reichl, Editor:Endless Feasts: Sixty Years Of Writing From Gourmet
As much can be learned from our ancestors' menus as from their diaries. Old food advertisements are often rife with mysteries: Did people really once consider a hamburger patty and a lettuce leaf topped with cottage cheese to be a "diet plate"? Was 15 cents a good price? Did it taste okay? Among the fascinations ofEndless Feasts: Sixty Years Of Writing From Gourmet—beyond the samples of prose from some of the most respected names in magazine journalism—is the way the book captures the evolving tastes of epicures. Edited by Ruth Reichl (formerNew York Times restaurant critic and current editor ofGourmet),Endless Feasts compiles articles by the likes of M.F.K. Fisher, Anita Loos, George Plimpton, Paul Theroux, E. Annie Proulx, James Beard, and others, some of whom confront exotic foreign delicacies that are now common American strip-mall fare. A 1947 piece by Ruth Harkness details her vacation in then-in-vogue Mexico, and recalls her introduction to "the tongue-tingling salsas de chile to which our commercial chili sauce is a very pale cousin," while Ruth Kim Hai's 1950 trip to Siam leads to an encounter with "a few squares of tofu, that Chinese cream cheese made with beans instead of milk." Since the work inEndless Feasts dates back as far as 1941, the effects of Prohibition, the Depression, and WWII factor into more than a few essays, such as Frank Schoonmaker's report on American vintners trying to rebound from almost a decade of having their product declared illegal, or Fisher's moving tribute to three Swiss inns that provided magnificent hospitality while Europe was darkening. The collection contains a fine distribution of writing from each decade of the past 60 years, including a few scattered recipes that range from the delectable ("Indian Red Chile With Meat," served over fry-bread) to the unappealing ("Boiled Marrowbones"). Reichl's introduction is too short, and lacks the extensive historical context that would makeEndless Feasts indispensable, but the editor deserves plaudits for assembling a section devoted to famous foodies, including mini-biographies of contributors Fisher and Beard and an anecdotal recounting of the life of the legendary Auguste Escoffier. The Escoffier chapter (by Naomi Barry) extends the coverage of the book to the 19th century, when royalty dined on chicken in tarragon aspic and cantaloupes filled with Tawny Port.Endless Feasts is full of such particulars, which make the past so palpable it can almost be tasted.
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