1992 Antaeus food-writing anthology
Max Hauser
trade-paperback book format, produced in Spring 1992 (Number 68) a
remarkable assembly of food essays. Contributors include Harry Crews, M. F.
K. Fisher, Betty Fussell, Evan and Judith B. Jones, Barbara Kafka, Madeleine
Kamman, Joyce Carol Oates, Charles Simic, and Alice Waters. Earlier work
appears from Colette, Alexandre Dumas, Charles Lamb, and Rose Macaulay.
Some contemporary writers refer in passing to each other, and to Chez
Panisse (then, as in the 1980s, occupying a phenomenon status, like the very
different restaurant French Laundry in the same region a decade later.)
Some of the content is remarkable. Waters ("The farm-restaurant connection")
on the vision and early history of Chez Panisse. Simic's casual food
memories, including a savory bean pot of his European childhood that for
once surpassed his ability to eat everything in sight. ("All Serbians ...
have their own opinion as to how this dish ought to be made. ... Almost
everybody adds bacon, pork ribs, sausage, paprika, and hot peppers...")
Bean pots are another pillar in the Comfort-Food Pantheon; the story got me
searching my larder. Just for general information, you understand.
Evan Jones's article on Delmonico's, and roots of US restaurants, was sent
to me by a chef friend not long after its appearance. (She found the book
remaindered for a dollar at a chain bookstore.) Swiss brothers Delmonico,
John a retired ship captain and Peter, set up in early 1800s near the
Battery in New York what we might now, in the US, call a "wine bar." With
attention to service, it became the pioneering high-end US restaurant.
Various writers with experiences there are quoted, and details I haven't
seen elsewhere. The colorful history of "Lobster Newberg." Ben Wenberg
(with a coastal shipping line to the Caribbean and South America) arriving
from sea one day demanding "a brazier and spirit lamp in order to
demonstrate a new lobster recipe," the popular dish going onto menu with his
name, then becoming "even more talked about after Wenberg was turned out of
Delmonico's following a fight he caused with another patron," the name of
the dish shifting to the anagram Newberg. (Some writers spell it Newburg,
even inconsistently. Recipe in _The Epicurean,_ the huge cookbook by
Delmonico's chef Charles Ranhofer, is #1037 under "Mollusks and
Crustaceans," "Lobster à la Newberg or Delmonico.")
As noted in publication details below, this issue of _Antaeus_ reappeared
1993 as a stand-alone book of food essays, with added introduction by its
editor, but without contributor notes and other back matter in the original,
which I found valuable. Both versions are readily and inexpensively
available used, by searching under the ISBN.
_Antaeus, Not for Bread Alone: Writers on Food, Wine, and the Art of
Eating._ Daniel Halpern, Editor. Number 68, Spring 1992. (Published April
1992.) Ecco Press, Hopewell, New Jersey. ISBN 0880012765. Back matter
includes contributor notes and advertisements for other literary periodicals
and books by Betty Fussell, Waverly Root and Richard de Rochemont, etc.
Re-issued 1993 as _Not for Bread Alone: Writers on Food, Wine, and the Art
of Eating._ Daniel Halpern, Editor. Ecco Press, Hopewell, New Jersey.
ISBN 088001346X. Includes 1993 introduction by Daniel Halpern.
blake murphy
<maxR...@THIStdl.com> wrote:
>The US literary magazine _Antaeus,_ publishing twice yearly in
>trade-paperback book format, produced in Spring 1992 (Number 68) a
>remarkable assembly of food essays. Contributors include Harry Crews, M. F.
>K. Fisher, Betty Fussell, Evan and Judith B. Jones, Barbara Kafka, Madeleine
>Kamman, Joyce Carol Oates, Charles Simic, and Alice Waters. Earlier work
>appears from Colette, Alexandre Dumas, Charles Lamb, and Rose Macaulay.
>Some contemporary writers refer in passing to each other, and to Chez
>Panisse (then, as in the 1980s, occupying a phenomenon status, like the very
>different restaurant French Laundry in the same region a decade later.)
the mention of betty fussell made me curious, so i googled: she is
indeed the wife of paul fussell,the author of "Class: A Guide Through
the American Status System," a very funny book which i highly
recommend to everyone:
send amazon some bucks for a used copy (if you're upper class) or
spring for a new one, or look for it in your public library, if you
still have one.
i will keep my eye out for the book of essays.
your pal,
blake
Emma Thackery
"Max Hauser" <maxR...@THIStdl.com> wrote:
> The US literary magazine _Antaeus,_ publishing twice yearly in
> trade-paperback book format, produced in Spring 1992 (Number 68) a
> remarkable assembly of food essays. Contributors include Harry Crews, M. F.
> K. Fisher, Betty Fussell, Evan and Judith B. Jones, Barbara Kafka, Madeleine
> Kamman, Joyce Carol Oates, Charles Simic, and Alice Waters. Earlier work
> appears from Colette, Alexandre Dumas, Charles Lamb, and Rose Macaulay.
> Some contemporary writers refer in passing to each other, and to Chez
> Panisse (then, as in the 1980s, occupying a phenomenon status, like the very
> different restaurant French Laundry in the same region a decade later.)........
Thanks so much for posting about this. I just love reading pieces about
food, meal gatherings, lives that revolve around food, etc. I think the
first narrative I ever read in this genre was the Dissertation on Roast
Pig (or something like that) by Lamb, wasn't it? My uncle gave me his
English lit book (with the Lamb) when I was in elementary school. I've
been hooked ever since.
Emma
Max Hauser
:
>
> Thanks so much for posting about this. . . . I think the first narrative
> like that) by Lamb, wasn't it?
Yes, "A dissertation upon roast pig." 1822. It's in the Antaeus book.
Max Hauser
> ...
> the mention of betty fussell made me curious, so i googled: she is
> indeed the wife of paul fussell,the author of "Class: A Guide Through
> the American Status System," a very funny book which i highly
Yes, a book everyone in US seemed to read when it was current, first half of
1980s. (But not everybody today knows it, I learned -- or for one thing,
there would be less surprise on the subject of the US pronunciation shift in
the word "patina." Paul Fussell is one writer who mentioned it repeatedly.)
Anyway: Betty Fussell is, yes, a well-known writer on food and food
literature. (She also wrote somewhat on Paul Fussell, post-divorce -- I saw
a review of that, a few years back.) But for example she wrote the first
review I saw (around 1989) of Peter Mayle's just-published first book, _A
Year In Provence._ I clipped the article, and remember the first line,
something like this:
"I like a book that starts out 'The year began with lunch.' "
Me too. -- Max
blake murphy
i also wondered whether they were still married. i hope their divorce
wasn't too hairy.
your pal,
blake