A Goose in Toulouse and other Culinary Adventures in France [Hardcover]

Mort Rosenblum (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 11, 2000

Wending his way through the French countryside, Rosenblum takes readers on a tour of France. In Paris, he finds Alain Ducasse, with six Michelin stars, hard at work building an haute cuisine empire. He visits a snail rancher, oyster rustlers, and the fabled Chateau Petrus. Bruno the Truffle King rhapsodizes to him about fragrant black fungus. Looking at the way the French live through how they cook, eat, and market their cuisine, Rosenblum offers a picture of a country at war with the clichs that both define and degrade its national character.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Everyone knows that in France food is serious business. So it's no surprise that for each of Rosenblum's stories about French food, there's another intertwined story full of love, hatred, cultural clashes or political machinations. Where else do poor kids without many resources pull themselves up by their culinary skills, in much the same way that American kids make good by becoming star athletes? Perhaps the saddest theme of Rosenblum's culinary tour is the rapaciousness of American-style business, which he clearly believes is winning over the perfectionist ethics of family-owned businesses. In "The Battle of Bordeaux," for example, Rosenblum recounts the hostile maneuvers of Bernard Arnault, the head of the Louis Vuitton Mo t Hennessey empire, who in 1997 acquired the Chateau d'Yquem, a family-owned winery with a sauterne so perfectly made that each of its vines produces a single glass of wine. Only time will tell if Arnault will protect or exploit the integrity of Yquem's centuries-old traditions. Rosenblum paints a vivid picture of modern France and her problems moderne, but his emphasis is always on the food. He leads the readers through all the regions known to most Americans only as proper nounsDChablis, Roquefort, BurgundyDand to little villages whose names don't register at all. An entire chapter is devoted to "Bruno the Truffle King," and another cheese connoisseurs and old-time calvados makers. Full of odd anecdotes about France, its food, cultures and inhabitants, this vigorously written book will find its way onto francophiles' shelves, next to Elizabeth David and A.J. Liebling. (Nov.)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

Mort Rosenblum eschews recording recipes in favor of giving the reader a sense of the role of food in the lives of the French. Although the pressures of globalization have altered the way young French people in particular eat, the world's preeminent food culture still carries forward its national obsession. A Goose in Toulouse examines some of France's most significant contributions to the table in a series of essays covering Roquefort cheese, cassoulet, champagne, goat cheese, truffles, and that indispensable annual catalog of French restaurants, the Michelin Red Guide. Rosenblum profiles chefs from the aged Raymond Thuilier, who conceived Provence's Le Baumaniere, through contemporary artists on the order of the Savoie region's Marc Veyrat. Mark Knoblauch
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 320 pages
• Publisher: Hyperion (October 11, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0786864656
• ISBN-13: 978-0786864652
• Product Dimensions: 9.6 x 7.3 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #475,403 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Mort Rosenblum is a Paris-based reporter, author, and journalism professor at the University of Arizona in Tucson. Since 1965, he has covered stories on seven continents, from the Vietnam War to tango dancing by the Seine. He was editor of the International Herald Tribune, special correspondent for The Associated Press, and founding editor of Dispatches quarterly. His 13 books include Coups and Earthquakes and Who Stole the News? He also grows olives in Provence.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

65 of 66 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Half French, Half American, All Pleasure, November 1, 2000

By 

Bill Marsano (New York, NY United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: A Goose in Toulouse and other Culinary Adventures in France (Hardcover)

Mort Rosenblum is an American reporter who moved to France in the 1970s; he lives in Paris and in the Var, a mountain valley in the Mediterranean south, where he grows olives. He's also a witty writer and a perceptive observer, which makes him a superb interpreter of present-day France to almost any reader, whether he thinks all things French are heaven-sent or all Frenchmen are bullying snobs who ought to go to hell.

Rosenblum's chief concern here is French cuisine and what's happening to it--as well as the refined tastes of the average Frenchman. The treasures of the French table--including the famous 246 kinds of cheese--are at risk today. The economic power of international agribusiness and bureaucratic meddling by the European Union combine to drive many small food producers out of business. At the same time, restaurants face competition from "McDo" (as the French call Mickey-Dee) and small open-air markets are steadily undermined by supermarkets of a size even Americans would blanch at. All this sounds so far like a recipe for unrelieved gloom, but that is far from the case. Rosenblum travels widely interviewing chefs and cheesemakers among others, and it's suprising how many of them manage to be hopeful of the future. That's partly because Rosenblum is usually eating his way through France, and to have him describe a meal is what it must have been like to hear Keats read his own poems.

Rosenblum is a knowledgeable man with a lot of French history at his fingertips--and when he doesn't, he's still a reporter: he looks it up. As a result the reader feels secure that there's something here besides mere personal opinion, and surprising facts emerge. Most of us, for example, take it for granted that France's devotion to cheese is bone deep; in fact, Rosenblum learns from one of France's true maitres that it's really a recent phenomenon.

The writing itself is excellent and rewarding; Rosenblum is lighthearted at the keyboard and he doesn't shy away from a first-rate pun. For example, explaining that French peasants supported the Revolution partly because hunting was strictly a royal privilege, Rosenblum notes that "the reign was called on account of game." More important is Rosenblum's sincere love of France and--despite the recent waves of hysterical, anti-immigrtant nationalism--the French people as well.

On top of everything else, "A Goose in Toulouse" is a terrific antidote to the cynical calculations of "A Year in Provence."

22 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Try and put it down, October 10, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: A Goose in Toulouse and other Culinary Adventures in France (Hardcover)

It was all I could do to get up and fix dinner or other mundange household tasks while sitting in the rocking chair reading. This book is superb! Fascinating, interesting, entertaining, funny. I highly recommend it to anyone interested in the culinary life of the French. Or just anyone interested in life.

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Beyond Foie Gras, February 21, 2001

By 

Denise E. Lee (Lanham, MD United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: A Goose in Toulouse and other Culinary Adventures in France (Hardcover)

I thought this book was excellent. I could not put it down. The author gives a realistic view of the present state of French cuisine. His background as a reporter shines through. His vast historical knowledge and penchant for facts and statistics gives the book credibility that many other food books do not really have.

His having captured the essence of French food and culture allows you to walk away with the feeling that while big fast food conglomerates have a growing presence, all hope is not lost. The conversations with everyone from Alain Ducasse to the captain of a fishing boat in Molene gives you pretty good idea of how the French feel about the unification of Europe, the laws coming from Brussels and about what lies in their future. He paints a picture of France beyond the tourist trap that is present day Paris and other excellent food beyond foie gras.

The author gives a very balanced view of the French. It is obvious that he is in love with France and all that goes with it but is not blind to it's faults. He often refers to the ego of the French and offers no apologies for many of his other criticisms.