The Table Comes First: Family, France, and the Meaning of Food - Hardcover

Gopnik, Adam

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0307593452 ISBN 13: 9780307593450

Publisher: Alfred a Knopf Inc, 2011

Synopsis

Never before have we cared so much about food. It preoccupies our popular culture, our fantasies, and even our moralizing—“You still eat meat?” With our top chefs as deities and finest restaurants as places of pilgrimage, we have made food the stuff of secular seeking and transcendence, finding heaven in a mouthful. But have we come any closer to discovering the true meaning of food in our lives?

With inimitable charm and learning, Adam Gopnik takes us on a beguiling journey in search of that meaning as he charts America’s recent and rapid evolution from commendably aware eaters to manic, compulsive gastronomes. It is a journey that begins in eighteenth-century France—the birthplace of our modern tastes (and, by no coincidence, of the restaurant)—and carries us to the kitchens of the White House, the molecular meccas of Barcelona, and beyond. To understand why so many of us apparently live to eat, Gopnik delves into the most burning questions of our time, including: Should a Manhattanite bother to find chicken killed in the Bronx? Is a great vintage really any better than a good bottle of wine? And: Why does dessert matter so much?

Throughout, he reminds us of a time-honored truth often lost amid our newfound gastronomic pieties and certitudes: What goes on the table has never mattered as much to our lives as what goes on around the table—the scene of families, friends, lovers coming together, or breaking apart; conversation across the simplest or grandest board. This, ultimately, is who we are.

Following in the footsteps of Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin, Adam Gopnik gently satirizes the entire human comedy of the comestible as he surveys the wide world of taste that we have lately made our home. The Table Comes First is the delightful beginning of a new conversation about the way we eat now.

About this title

Review:

'The Table Comes First is a fascinating and sometimes moving reflection on its importance' The Glasgow Herald. (Glasgow Herald)

'In the tradition of A.J. Liebling and M.F.K. Fisher, Adam Gopnik understands how writing about food can produce a prescription for life well lived' Fay Maschler. (Fay Maschler)

'A great read, and important: a treatise on the history of food anchored by the importance of eating, together, food that you like around a table' Independent. (Independent)

'Gopnik is a modern Brillat-Savarin ... His writing, although thought-provoking, is lucid and lovely' Literary Review. (Literary Review)

'The witty journey to these frustrating ends remains fascinating' Metro. (Metro)

'It feeds the mind' The Times. (The Times)

'a sparkling collection of musings on life, liberty and the pursuit of gastronomic satisfaction ... What more can any reader ask than fine writing and intelligent argument from an author of strong opinions who is prepared to slaughter a whole herd of sacred cows and isn't afraid to get down and personal?' Jewish Chronicle. (Jewish Chronicle)

'I need to read anything that Adam Gopnik writes and these essays on food, eating and - it follows - life are a particular feast. His acuity, grace, sensitive intelligence (in short, his brilliance) are, as ever, dazzlingly displayed and yet with the lightest of touches' Nigella Lawson. (Nigella Lawson)

From the Back Cover:

On the morning of May 24 1942, Jacques Decour, a member of the French resistance, faced death at the hands of his Nazi captors. Jacques' last few hours were dominated by thoughts of his best-loved meals. Seventy years later, a dessert intended to recreate the emotions experienced by Lionel Messi after scoring a goal is served in one of Catalonia's leading restaurants. In a sparkling tour through gastronomy and its history, acclaimed New Yorker writer Adam Gopnik teases out the connections between these two events. Weaving in family memoir together with wisdom gleaned from figures as varied as Keith Richards, Ian Fleming and Fergus Henderson, The Table Comes First explores the extraordinary transformations our relationship with the food we put on our plates has undergone.

About this edition

• Publisher: Alfred a Knopf Inc
• Publication date: 2011
• ISBN 10: 0307593452
• ISBN 13: 9780307593450
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 293