Every once in a while a writer of particular skills takes a fresh, seemingly improbable idea and turns out a book of pure delight. That's how David McCullough described Mark Kurlansky's Cod: A Biography of the Fish that Changed the World, a work that revealed how a meal can be as important as it is edible and confirmed Kurlansky as one of the most erudite and entertaining food authors. Now, the winner of the James Beard Award for Excellence in Food Writing shares a varied selection of choice cuts by others, as he leads us on a mouthwatering culinary tour around the world and through history and culture from the fifth century B.C. to the present day.
Choice Cuts features more than two hundred pieces, from Cato to Cab Calloway. Here are essays by Plato on the art of cooking, Pablo Neruda on french fries, Balzac, Virginia Woolf, E. M. Forster, Chekhov, and many other writers on the passions of cuisine.
In short, this wonderful collection, like the very best meal, is both nutritious and delicious.
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"A wonderful, wonderful compilation of essays. I laughed, I cried (well, not exactly CRIED but some parts were rather bittersweet), and I got hungry.
Edit: I just realized that I made a pun by using the adjective "bittersweet". To describe a book about food. Get it??
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Perrin (4 out of 5 stars)