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The Man Who Ate Too Much: The Life of James Beard
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About This Book
After World War II, a newly affluent United States reached for its own gourmet culture, one at ease with the French international style of Escoffier, but also distinctly American. Enter James Beard, authority on cooking and eating, his larger-than-life presence and collection of whimsical bow ties synonymous with the nation's food for decades, even after his death in 1985. In the first biography of Beard in twenty-five years, acclaimed writer John Birdsall argues that Beard's struggles as a closeted gay man directly influenced his creation of an American cuisine. Starting in the 1920s, Beard escaped loneliness and banishment by traveling abroad to places where people ate for pleasure, not utility, and found acceptance at home by crafting an American ethos of food likewise built on passion and delight. Informed by never-before-tapped correspondence and lush with details of a golden age of home cooking, The Man Who Ate Too Much is a commanding portrait of a towering figure who still represents the best in food.
Reviews
"[a] juicy new biography ..."
"In Birdsall's colorful portrait, Beard is a larger-than-life figure ..."
"The story of Beard's life invites us to recognize the violence that was done in the name of American cooking, and expand our understanding of authenticity to include not only what's on the plate but everything around it: the norms, prejudices, economic wounds, environmental traumas, and other social forces that go into the production of food and culinary authority."
"Though Robert Clark's James Beard: A Biography revealed aspects of Beard's private life, Birdsall examines it more closely, placing it into historical context by recounting the oppression gay men faced at the time ..."
"Yet throughout the book, Birdsall also essentially describes Beard as the soul of a national cuisine, with no real competing narratives to that central one."
"Birdsall has a good story to tell, and tells it well, but he is one of those authors who would amuse others more if he amused himself a little less ..."
"With loving care, Birdsall details the central irony of James's life: it was his job to share gastronomic pleasure with the public, but he had to keep his own private desires out of sight ..."
"gives foodies a fresh, intimate look at James Beard ..."
"Beard's legacy is complicated."
"Birdsall gives the reader an intimate view of gay life in America between 1950 and 1980."
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