American Food Writing: An Anthology: With Classic Recipes by Molly O’Neill
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
This is a really lovely collection of food writing. Molly O’Neill has picked out some great writers, and the short but interesting history of food in America is well represented from Thomas Jefferson to Anthony Bourdain. Well known writers like Ruth Reichl and M.F.K. Fisher get plenty of page time, but other lesser-known writers and cooks have their say too. If I ever get a chance to teach a class on Food Writing, this is most certainly one of the “textbooks” of food writing I will put on the reading list. What I like most about the book is that O’Neill has chosen writers who are not writing about simply the food itself, but the gamut of meaning that eating and cooking encompasses. The “Food” in Food Writing is less important than the “Writing,” and O’Neill has chosen some damn good writing.