Book Club, Anyone?

I recently mentioned having enjoyed Bee Wilson's book "The Way We Eat Now".  She touches on, among other things, the loss of the lunch hour, unhealthy "health foods", and our busy, busy lives. 

I've also just finished two books by Michael Booth – "Sushi and Beyond: What the Japanese Know About Cooking" and "The Meaning of Rice: and Other Tales from the Belly of Japan." I admire his honesty in admitting that as a self-avowed Japanophile, he nonetheless finds the level of pedantry involved in the Japanese tea ceremony to be mind-numbingly boring. “I can’t quite see how watching a pedantic elderly woman take two  hours to make a cup of matcha (tea) will enhance my life.” Both books are riveting and got me into a week of ramen, okonomiake, chawan mushi and mochi.

I miss not being able to talk with friends about what I read.
 
Friends? I have friends.  Some belong to book clubs - crime, romance, dystopia, historical fiction, WWII  but what I really want is to be free to discuss my gastronomic readings  without anyone rolling their eyes.  So it's occurred to me. How about a book club!

I guess we'd meet once a month. Someone would make a suggestion for the next gathering.  How many readers? I guess 8 to 10 at the absolute most.  Would we have tea and madeleines or wine and anchovies on horseback?  So much to work out but the reading possibilities are endless. There's history, health, sociology, philosophy, biography, science... 

• Of course we'd look at the classics like "The Physiology of Taste" by Brillat Savarin (Jean Anthem) (1755-1826) the person who said not only "Tell me what you eat and I'll tell you who you are" but other treasures such as "Those persons who suffer from indigestion, or who become drunk, are utterly ignorant of the true principles of eating and drinking."
• During the same era, Grimod de la Reynière (Alexandre Balthazar Laurent) (1758-1837), gastronome and first restaurant critic, wrote "L' Almanach des Gourmands".
• We could even check out "The Science of Cooking & the Art of Eating" by Pellegrino Artusi (1820-1911) whose writings created a unifying sense of Italian cuisine.
• Biographies;  should Gordon Ramsay have just stayed with football? Is Marco Pierre White still mad, bad and dangerous to know? (I'd love to find out.)
• History - Marco Polo did not bring pasta to Italy from his  Chinese travels. What was Indian food like before the Portuguese Vasco da Gama introduced chilis in the early 16thC? Barbara Santich's "The Original Mediterranean Cuisine: Medieval Recipes for Today" is a great read  (and although we're not doing recipes, there are some good ones).
• Were spices used in medieval times to cover up putrid food? (No)
• Do you use napkin rings?
• Danny Meyer ("Setting the Table; the Transforming Power of Hospitality in Business") or Charlie Trotter ("Lessons in Excellence") - two great restaurateurs.  I bet their waiters never ask "How's your day been, then?"
• Can you land a good job if you are a HKLP?
• Is ethical eating a middle-class fad? We need Michael Pollan's "In Defence of Food"
• Are French children well behaved at table?
• How was the fork received in England?
• Why use chopsticks?
• Did the worry over his third Michelin star push Berard Loiseau to suicide?
• Do you fold your napkin at the end of the meal?
• Why do we have salt and pepper rather than salt & cinnamon?
• Should we avoid high fructose corn syrup? Read David Gillespie’s attitude to sugar in "Sweet Poison".
• Can we afford to go organic?
• Banqueting through the ages.
• Can the early Greek philosopher Epicurus change your life?

The world doesn't need another cook book or another recipe.  They're already out there, somewhere in the cloud, in the ether or on a bookcase near you. But it would be lovely to gather with consenting adults in private and talk gastronomy.

What do you think? There could be chapters all over the country, all over the world. Let's get up a group.

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