A beautiful new edition of the classic culinary memoir from the famous American ex-pat with a new introduction by chef & food writer Ruth Reichl.
At their home in Paris, Alice B. Toklas and her romantic partner, Gertrude Stein, entertained a circle of friends who would become the twentieth century’s most revered cultural luminaries—writers, artists, and expats, including Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Thornton Wilder, Henri Matisse, and Pablo Picasso. When the legendary Alice was asked to write a memoir, she initially refused. Instead, she wrote The Alice B. Toklas Cook Book, a celebration of a lifetime in pursuit of culinary delights.
This sharply written, deliciously rich compendium combines recipes for traditional French dishes such as coq au vin, bouillabaisse, and boeuf bourguignon with amusing tales from Alice’s life and travels to rural France, Spain, and America. In “Murder in the Kitchen,” Alice describes the first carp she killed, after which she immediately lit up a cigarette and waited for the police to come and haul her away. “Dishes for Artists” describes her hunt for the perfect recipe to fit Picasso’s peculiar diet. “Recipes from Friends” highlights her infamous “Haschich Fudge,” which she notes may often be accompanied by “ecstatic reveries and extensions of one’s personality on several simultaneous planes.”
With delightful line drawings, a foreword by M. F. K. Fisher, and a new introduction by culinary doyenne Ruth Reichl, The Alice B. Toklas Cook Book brilliantly captures the spirit of a unique woman and the remarkable time in which she lived.
