Life Is Meals_ A Food Lover's Book of Days - James Salter [110]
He later opened a grocery store in Lyon, but his gastronomic fame rests on L’almanach des gourmands, the first guide to the restaurants and food shops of Paris, including sophisticated and witty essays on the preparation and serving of food. The book, which became a series from 1804‑12, was immensely successful. Grimod was the first real food critic and can be said to have invented food journalism. He also organized a jury of twelve to judge foods—pastries, meats, anything that was submitted to it—and to issue a verdict and certificate of official recognition.
Having inherited a fortune upon his mother’s death, he married the actress who had long been his mistress, Adélaide-Thérese Feuchěre, and retired to a château in the country to live among close friends. He died in the middle of a great midnight feast on Christmas Eve, 1837.
One of the recipes he left behind gives the names of various actresses of the time to describe certain ingredients, a woodcock “tender as Mlle Volnais,” for example, and a pullet “as white as Mlle Belmont.”
THE BEST COOK
November 21 is the birthday of Lorry Hubbard, the best amateur cook we know. She sets a standard one can’t match, but it’s enough to be invited to dinner.
Her father cooked pot roasts and soups and had an herb garden. He once raised a goose in the basement and roasted it for Christmas. Her mother had no interest in cooking but said she’d buy the ingredients if Lorry would make Sunday dinners, so Lorry found recipes in the library and in a special Thursday section of the Chicago Tribune.
“I simply don’t have the time to cook,” many people say. Lorry runs a business that produces educational material on art for schools. She has five grown children, two stepchildren, and grandchildren. She keeps a garden and raises golden retrievers for show and breeding. She oversees three houses, including one in France, and her husband, her partner in business, has been in a wheelchair since before they married more than twenty years ago. For relaxation and pleasure, she cooks.
Her idea of a simple menu for a summer dinner party is: hors d’oeuvres of pâté (or fresh foie gras that she makes herself if enough people are coming); salmon carpaccio with a Bibb lettuce salad; duck breast with Cognac sauce; risotto with mushrooms and peas; and for dessert, peaches with a fresh raspberry sauce. If she happens to wake up at five in the morning, she sometimes cooks—an apple strudel from memory, say—because her husband, Tom, likes a little something sweet for breakfast. She occasionally cheats, as she calls it, and uses store-bought puff pastry.
Her houses are filled with cookbooks, of course. Her favorite is Julia Child’s Mastering the Art of French Cooking. She likes the old version of Joy of Cooking more than the revised one, because the new one is “healthier.” Her favorite ingredient is sea salt, the exact amount of which to use she knows automatically. After decades of experience, she can look at any recipe and know in advance whether it will be good or not, but she’s not bound by what’s on the page and improvises freely.
One thing she doesn’t worry about is the afterward. “I know women who cook thinking about how much mess they’re making, but I never think about that,” she says. She and her husband are amazed at how often people go out to restaurants and do it only occasionally themselves. Why would they?
A couple of her many favorite recipes:
FRENCH CHICKEN
1 3‑4 pound chicken, rinsed and patted dry
1 teaspoon dried thyme or herbs de Provence or 1 tablespoon fresh thyme (leaves only)
1 teaspoon dried rosemary, crumbed, or 1 tablespoon fresh rosemary, chopped
Salt and pepper to taste
3 tablespoons vegetable oil
3‑4 slices thick smoked bacon, cut in ¼-inch pieces
1 large onion,