The table comes first
Subtitle: family, France, and the meaning of food
By: Adam Gopnik
Edition: 1st ed.
Publisher: Knopf
Published: 2011
Place of publication: New York
Language: eng
Number of pages: 293
ISBN-13: 9780307593450; 9780307399014
Subjects: Food; Social aspects; Food habits; Dinners and dining
Description: "From the author of Paris to the Moon--one man's quest for the meaning of food in a time obsessed with what to eat. Never before have we cared so much about food. It preoccupies our popular culture, our fantasies, even our moralizing--"You still eat meat?" How could the land of Chef Boyardee have come so far overnight? And where can we possibly go from here? Locating the roots of our foodways in France, Adam Gopnik traces our rapid evolution from commendable awareness to manic compulsion and how, on the way, we lost sight of a timeless truth: what goes on around the table--families, friends, lovers coming together, or breaking apart; conversation across the simplest or grandest board--is always more important than what we put on the table. Gently satirizing the entire human comedy of the comestible, The Table Comes First seeks to liberate us from the twin clutches of puritanical guilt and cable TV glitz. It is the delightful beginning of a new conversation about the way we eat now"--
Notes: Includes bibliographical references.

Issued also in electronic format.
Table of contents: title: Coming to the table. Who made the restaurant? ; What's the recipe? ; E-mail to Elizabeth Pennell : anchovies, bacon, lamb; title: Choosing at the table. How does taste happen? ; E-mail to Elizabeth Pennell : lamb, saffron, cinnamon ; Meat or vegetables? ; E-mail to Elizabeth Pennell : chicken, pudding, dogs ; Near or far? ; E-mail to Elizabeth Pennell : salt, pork, mustard; title: Talking at the table. In vino veritas? ; E-mail to Elizabeth Pennell : potatoes, steak, air ; What do we write about when we write about food? ; What do we imagine when we imagine food? ; E-mail to Elizabeth Pennell : rice, milk, sugar; title: Leaving the table. Paris at last ; E-mail to Elizabeth Pennell : salmon, broccoli, repentance ; Endings ; Last e-mail to Elizabeth Pennell.