Rachel Laudan

In cookbooks, in food history, in writing about food in general servants are an embarrassment, a topic we want to sweep under the rug. We pussyfoot around the very mention of the word “servant.” It’s an embarrassment, it’s politically incorrect.
Well, we’ve got to get over that attitude. If we want to understand food today or [...]

Sitting in front of me I have El Arte de la Mesa by Lola P. de Pietrana, a hefty volume of a thousand pages. And it presents a little culinary mystery that I’d love help in solving.
Here’s the background. One of my minor hobbies is compiling a list of “kitchen bibles,” the great [...]

I’m a wimp. I’m a complete wimp. I’ve been going to conferences all my adult life. Always the idea is that groups go out to sample the best of the restaurants in the city. Now that I’m doing food, not science, that expectation is upped by an order of magnitude.
Now it sounds just lovely. [...]