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Biography & Autobiography. Cooking & Food. History. Nonfiction. HTML:Provence, 1970 is about a singular historic moment. In the winter of that year, more or less coincidentally, the iconic culinary figures James Beard, M.F.K. Fisher, Julia Child, Richard Olney, Simone Beck, and Judith Jones found themselves together in the South of France. They cooked and ate, talked and argued, about the future of food in America, the meaning of taste, and the limits of snobbery. Without quite realizing it, they were shaping today�??s tastes and culture, the way we eat now. The conversations among this group were chronicled by M.F.K. Fisher in journals and letters�??some of which were later discovered by Luke Barr, her great-nephew. In Provence, 1970, he captures this seminal season, set against a stunning backdrop in cinematic scope�??complete with gossip, drama, and contemporary r… (more)
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All of these cooks and writers had established themselves as purveyors of France and French cuisine. Their works brought what are now considered fairly basic cooking techniques to an America that had been trapped in nutritionist advice, canned food, processed food, endless convenience recipes (think about all those casseroles with Campbell's mushroom soup dumped in) - food free, flavor free food. The books these folks wrote burst onto the scene and lit a passion for better eating, an idea that eating was for pleasure and leisure, and that anyone could cook anything with the right instructions. They also began our love affair with all kinds of cuisines and the beginning of an acknowledgment that America had a cuisine. James Beard was completing his fabulous American Cookery and beginning work on Beard on Bread. Julia Child had completed Vol II of Mastering the Art of French Cooking and would never work with her partner (Simone Beck) again. Richard Olney was beginning to espouse a simple purist philosophy of food - a description of his cuisine reveals technical complexity, but also the value of time taken to allow flavors to develop.
I really loved this book. It took me back through my life in food and through growing up in a family that was passionate about it. I spent many of my most pleasant hours sitting on the floor in the kitchen reading cookbooks and talking to my father and grandmother about food. I thought homemade bread was normal and that everyone ate fresh vegetables. The writers and cookbooks and books about food discussed in this lovely piece of food writing were at the centerpiece of much of my life.
Provence, 1970 is a fabulous read and highlights an important moment in food history - a conversation that continues today. Should our food be experimental, intellectual, and gorgeous (see also, micro-gastronomy) or should it be simple and fresh? What is an authentic cuisine? How do we layer technique into new flavors and acknowledge our own roots in all their complexity? Most people fall into some place on this continuum and all of us have benefited from the explosion of foodie culture in country. This read is highly recommended - in fact you need to go get and read it as soon as it comes out.
Luke Barr has prepared this recipe with all the right ingredients, but as delicious as it is enjoying the history of this food movement: the meal itself doesn’t come together until he adds his own special ingredient at the end when he takes a trip with his family, including his grandmother Norah—MFK’s sister—to the homes and places in Provence where these past dinners took place. It’s in this last chapter around the table, cooking in these famous kitchens, meeting with the next generation who now are keeping the history and adding to the flavor, that I found the heart of the book. 4 stars.
Food icons Julia Child, James
In Barr’s telling, the meeting was a catalyst for a great deal of change in the people there and signaled a change in attitudes about French cooking in the Americans these people had awakened to it in the first place. Beck’s and Child’s friendship had been frayed by their last project and they would not work together again. Fisher was less inclined to romanticize France itself and any elaboration of its cooking, whether the celebration of the grand tradition à la Beck and Child or the elevation and ritualization of provincial cooking that Olney indulged in.
Barr uses the diary of his great aunt M. F. K. Fisher, letters, newspaper articles, and accounts by the Knopf editor of both Fisher and Child, Judith Jones, who was also there with her husband. He wants to make the argument that these people, who had already changed American taste once, were themselves changing and would help to usher in a brand new, eclectic, less fussy brand of cooking with European roots but emphasizing the local. He loads what was only a coincidental propinquity and few actual meetings with more significance than it can quite bear.
I have been a fan of Julia Child and M.F.K. Fisher for some time now. This book intrigued the Francophile and the foodie side of me. Imagine being in Provence in 1970 when some of the esteemed creative
Way before the Food Network was a staple on television and chefs held a celebrity status, these four were enjoying good basic foods and inspired to teach the average American cook to use fresh ingredients. Julia, and her writing partner Simone Beck, sought to make French foods simple and less formal for us average cooks. As I mentioned, there are good stories in this book but some of it is evidently conjecture by the author Luke Barr. He is the nephew of M.F.K. Fisher and had access to her notes. But there are some stories and conversations that can’t be anything other than pure speculation on Barr’s part.
There were disagreements between the aforementioned food giants, that’s natural, but some of the portrayals and scenes were quite uncomplimentary. Was Olney truly such an odious man? Who knows as they are all deceased and so, no rebuttal will be possible.
The scenes of Provence are written of in great detail, you can almost smell the food and flowers. The menus are equally detailed, some have your mouth watering. Overall I give this book a solid 3 out of 5. Great detail, I just question some of the conversations.
A basic dish I see in many books for us Franophiles is Quiche. This simple recipe may be viewed at Squirrel Head Mano
But back in the 1970s, people like M.F.K. Fisher, Julia Child, James Beard were trying to bridge the gap between the between the exotic, complicated gourmet cooking and cooking for every day. Julia is perhaps the most famous of these chefs, thanks to television. But the others were making their mark.
Barr, having access to his great-aunt M.F.K. Fisher’s papers, has given readers a look back at those who were changing the way we eat. The story centers around the six best known food writers of the 1970s: M. F. K. Fisher, James Beard, Julia Child, Simone Beck, Judith Jones, and Richard Olney. They found themselves in Provence, France, at roughly the same time, meeting with, and talking to one another.
Their influence on getting back to natural products, cooking from scratch, and not being afraid to try new things that is still influencing professional and home chefs today.
Barr’s book gives is a history but reads like a novel. It’s an intricate look at the six chefs and how they worked, ate, played, and their interactions with each other. The climax of the book that week in December 1970, when the six gathered at Julia and Paul Childs’ vacation home in France. I would have loved to have been a fly on the wall. The downfall of the book, to me is a personal one. I'm not familiar with French cooking. Therefore, when the menu was presented in French terms, I often had no idea was what being served.
I received this book for free from Blogging for Books for this review.