M.F.K. Fisher

This book is the essence of M.F.K. Fisher, whose wit and fulsome opinions on food and those who produce it, comment upon it, and consume it are as apt today as they were several decades ago, when she composed them. Why did she choose food and hunger, she was asked, and she replied, 'When I write about hunger, I am really writing about love and the hunger for it, and warmth, and the love of it . . . and then the warmth and richness and fine reality of hunger satisfied.' Includes five of her most popular works: Serve It Forth (1937) Consider the Oyster (1941) How to Cook a Wolf (1942) The Gastronomical Me (1943) An Alphabet of Gourmets (1949)

M.F.K. Fisher's guide to living happily even in trying times, which was first published during the Second World War in the days of ration cards; includes more than seventy recipes based on food staples and features sections such as "How to Keep Alive" and "How to Comfort Sorrow.".

If one imagines M.F.K. Fisher's life as a large colorful painting, it is here, in The Gastronomical Me, that one sees the first lines and sketches upon which that life was based. In what is the most intimate of her five volumes of her "Art of Eating" series, the reader witnesses the beginnings of a writer who, with food as her metaphor, writes of the myriad hungers and satisfactions of the heart.

‘An oyster leads a dreadful but exciting life.’ 'Her writing makes your mouth water.' -- Financial Times The celebrated American food writer M. F. K. Fisher pays tribute to that most delicate and enigmatic of foods: the oyster. She tells of oysters found in stews and soups, roasted, baked, fried, prepared à la Rockefeller or au naturel – and of the pearls sometimes found therein. As she describes each dish, Fisher recalls her own initiation into the ‘strange cold succulence’ of raw oysters as a young woman in Marseille and Dijon, and explores both the bivalve’s famed aphrodisiac properties and its equally notorious gut-wrenching powers. Plumbing the ‘dreadful but exciting’ life of the oyster, Fisher invites readers to share in the comforts and delights that this delicate edible evokes, and enchants us along the way with her characteristically wise and witty prose. ‘She is not just a great a great food writer. She is a great writer, full stop.’ – Rachel Cooke, Observer ‘Poet of the appetites.’ – John Updike ‘The greatest food writer who has ever lived.’ – Simon Schama ‘The most re-readable of all prose stylists.’ – Bee Wilson

Susan Harper and Joe Kelly, in love and hitchhiking through Europe, never want this perfect, passionate summer to end. It is the late 1930s, and society frowns on the slack morals of couples living in sin. But these tiresome strictures are swept away when they arrive at La Prairie, the elegant haven on Lake Geneva where Joe's enigmatic friend Sara and her lover Tim preside – where judgement is suspended and time ebbs deliciously away. Surrounded by orchards heavy with plums and meadows splashed with poppies, lunches are long, youth is languorous and wine flows. As morning gives way to afternoon and sunset brings the evening's festivities, the unseen tensions and desires of the group are revealed, the fleeting yearnings and long-held resentments. A long lost gem by one of the twentieth century's most iconic food writers, this previously unpublished novel illuminates moral attitudes in the 1930s and shows glimpses of a refugee-filled Europe blighted by the rise of Fascism and the menace of another war. Enchanting, light, yet suffused with the darkness of what is to come, The Theoretical Foot is a witty and bold portrait of a bohemian life under threat.

This volume brings together two delightful books— Map of Another Town and A Considerable Town —by one of our most beloved food and travel writers. In her inimitable style, here M.F.K. Fisher tells the stories—and reveals the secrets—of two quintessential French cities. Map of Another Town, Fisher’s memoir of the French provincial capital of Aix-en-Provence is, as the author tells us, “my picture, my map, of a place and therefore of myself,” and a vibrant and perceptive profile of the kinship between a person and a place. Then, in A Considerable Town, she scans the centuries to reveal the ancient sources that clarify the Marseille of today and the indestructible nature of its people, and in so doing weaves a delightful journey filtered through the senses of a profound writer.

Un clásico imprescindible de la literatura gastronómica. M.F.K. Fisher revolucionó la manera en que se escribía sobre cocina y comida, hasta el punto que está considerada la primera escritora gastronómica moderna. Su primer libro, Sírvase de inmediato, se publicó en 1937 y la posicionó como una escritora gastronómica de referencia gracias a su personal combinación de memorias, viajes ycocina. Esta exitosa reputación se vio reforzada por sus escritos posteriores, dedicados a los períodos que pasó en La Provenza. El arte de comer reúne los mejores escritos de la autora. No es un simple recetario, ni una disertación sobre la comida, es una mezcla de ambas cosas tratadas con un estilo muy personal que no dejará indiferente al lector. Un libro que recoge reflexiones profundas sobre la vida a partir de la comida, del acto de comer, y que reúne más de sesenta recetas comentadas con referencias sociológicas, históricas, filosóficas y humor.

From A for (dining) Alone to Z for Zakuski, (a Russian hors d'oeuvre), An Alphabet for Gourmets is an anthology of food essays by the incomparable M. F. K. Fisher, alighting on long-time obsessions and idiosyncratic digressions to wholly charming effect.Admired by W. H. Auden as one of the greatest American writers, M. F. K Fisher never focuses on just the food set before her. Instead, with unfailingly elegant prose, an eye for evocative detail and a knack for sharp-edged wit, she draws us in to the whole from the company to the setting, from the preparation to the scraped-clean plate. She liberates her readers from caution, sweeps away adherence to culinary tradition, and celebrates cooking, eating and dining in all its guises.Evocative, thoughtful, with a light touch and a wry humour, these essays illustrate with captivating ease why M. F. K. Fisher has become one of the most beloved and admired food writers of the twentieth century.