French Food: On the Table, On the Page, and in French Culture [Paperback]

Lawrence R. Schehr (Author), Allen S. Weiss (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 5, 2001

More than a book about food alone, French Food uses diet as a window into issues of nationality, literature, and culture in France and abroad. Outstanding contributors from cultural studies, literary criticism, performance studies, and the emerging field of food studies explore a wide range of food matters.

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

Serious scholars of French cooking will enjoy digging through Lawrence Schehr and Allen Weiss' anthology French Food, not for recipes but for its many revelations. Although a reader must soldier through articles couched in academic style and veiled in polysyllabic obfuscation, one can ferret out for cocktail-party gossip tidbits such as Brillat Savarin's borrowing heavily from an obscure earlier work, Grimod de la Reyniere's Almanac des Gourmands, for his now-legendary Physiology of Taste. Elsewhere in this heavily footnoted anthology is an amusing rumination on whether Belgium has a verifiable cultural identity. Mark Knoblauch
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Review

Serious scholars of French cooking will enjoy digging through Schehr and Weiss' anthology...not for recipes but for its many revelations..
–Mark Knoblauch, Booklist

Cooking, eating--the whole dining experience--has momentous implications that influence our ability to understand a people, a way of life, a civilization. French Food is required reading for anyone who, like me, views cuisine as a significant and integral part of culture..
–Jacques Pépin

This collection offers detailed accounts of gastro-culinary themes across an unexpected range of texts..
–Rebecca L. Spang, author of The Invention of the Restaurant

French Food, a collection of essays entirely harvested in America, is neither scholarly junk food nor a quick fix for the mind, but a Barthesian feast of historical, literary and semiological insights--a nourishing reconciliation of savoir and saveur..
–Philippe Roger, author of Roland Barthes, roman and editor of Critique

Over the years, many have come to recognize the importance and influence of French cooking. Now Schehr and Weiss offer us delightful essays as sophisticated and subtle as the food, cooking, eating and culture they analyze. Whether you are a casual diner interested in exploring the complexities of French cuisine or an expert seeking scholarly discussion about French culinary conventions and practices, French Food is a pleasure that should not be denied..
–Eating Culture

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 288 pages
• Publisher: Routledge; 1 edition (August 5, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0415936284
• ISBN-13: 978-0415936286
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.1 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.7 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,823,862 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Go beyond most recipe-oriented, October 11, 2001

By 

Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: French Food: On the Table, On the Page, and in French Culture (Paperback)

This cultural history of French food provides essays which examine a range of topics; from food issues throughout French history to historical and cultural transition points in the culinary world. These literary essays go beyond most recipe-oriented titles to examine the foundations of French affections with food.