Stories from the Kitchen is a one-of-a-kind anthology of classic tales
showcasing the culinary arts from across the centuries and around the
world.
Here is a mouthwatering smorgasbord of stories with food in the starring
role, by a range of masters of fiction--from Dickens and Chekhov to
Isaac Bashevis Singer, from Shirley Jackson to Jim Crace and Amy Tan.
These richly varied selections offer tastes as decadent as caviar and as
humble as cherry pie. They dazzle with the sumptuous extravagance of
Isak Dinesen's "Babette's Feast" and console with a prisoner's tender
final meal in Günter Grass's The Flounder. Choice tidbits from famous
novels make an appearance: the triumphant boeuf en daube served in
Virginia Woolf's To the Lighthouse, Marcel Proust's rhapsodic memories
of the family's cook preparing asparagus in Remembrance of Things
Past, Émile Zola's outrageously sensual "cheese symphony" scene from
The Belly of Paris. Here, too, are over-the-top amuse-bouches by
Gerald Durrell, Nora Ephron, and T. C. Boyle; a touching short story
about food and love by M. F. K. Fisher; and a delightful account of the
perfect meal by eighteenth-century epicure Jean Anthelme
Brillat-Savarin, who wrote, "Tell me what you eat and I will tell you
what you are."
From a barrel of oysters endowed with powers of seduction to a dish of
stewed tripe liberally spiced with vengeance, the fictional confections
assembled here will tantalize, entice, and satisfy literary gourmands
everywhere.
