Provence, 1970: M.F.K. Fisher, Julia Child, James Beard, and the Reinvention of American Taste

Provence, 1970: M.F.K. Fisher, Julia Child, James Beard, and the Reinvention of American Taste by Luke Barr  309 Pages

When I was a kid, I always admired my grandmother, who shopped daily for the family and the priests she for whom she cared. It seemed cool and at the same time, like a lot of work.  I’m a Baby Boomer from the late 1950s. During my childhood, and up until say about twenty years ago, food and its preparation was focused on quick and easy. No one wanted to cook anymore, everything was canned, frozen, and drive-through. I vividly remember the first Banquet frozen TV dinner that Momma put in the oven after weeks of begging for it.  It was ghastly. I’ve never eaten one since.

But back in the 1970s, people like M.F.K. Fisher, Julia Child, James Beard were trying to bridge the gap between the between the exotic, complicated gourmet cooking and cooking for every day. Julia is perhaps the most famous of these chefs, thanks to television. But the others were making their mark.

Barr, having access to his great-aunt M.F.K. Fisher’s papers, has given readers a look back at those who were changing the way we eat. The story centers around the six best known food writers of the 1970s: M. F. K. Fisher, James Beard, Julia Child, Simone Beck, Judith Jones, and Richard Olney. They found themselves in Provence, France, at roughly the same time, meeting with, and talking to one another.

Their influence on getting back to natural products, cooking from scratch, and not being afraid to try new things that is still influencing professional and home chefs today.

Barr’s book gives is a history but reads like a novel. It’s an intricate look at the six chefs and how they worked, ate, played, and their interactions with each other. The climax of the book that week in December 1970, when the six gathered at Julia and Paul Childs’ vacation home in France. I would have loved to have been a fly on the wall. The downfall of the book, to me is a personal one. I'm not familiar with French cooking. Therefore, when the menu was presented in French terms, I often had no idea was what being served. 

I received this book for free from Blogging for Books for this review.