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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
"Perhaps a deeper consideration of non-Eurocentric American cooking is too much to ask of a book about this one man's life."
"a rich, entertaining account of an essential tastemaker."
"The Man Who Ate Too Much is more than a story of one man's existence; it is a portrait of 20th-century gay life and aesthetics ..."
"His knowledge of gay history and access to primary sources allows him to illustrate the camaraderie that expressed the 'pleasure and the exuberance of intimate lives that they couldn't otherwise reveal to the world.' An activist himself, Birdsall's preferred adjective is 'queer,' and what he does in convincing detail is show the reader just how much this demimonde of outcasts influenced American culture."
"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 ..."
"The most admirable food writing — including The Man Who Ate Too Much — reminds us that enjoying food starts with learning about our own tastes."
"Also missing is a nod to the James Beard Foundation, which carries on Beard's legacy by nurturing chefs and food writers, in part with its annual awards, the Oscars of the gastronomic sphere."
"The Man Who Ate Too Much unsparingly dismantles the mythology of the jolly asexual bachelor gastronome ..."
"This is the worst thing a reviewer can do, to judge a book against the one not written."
"A thoughtful appreciation of a central figure in the story of American food culture."
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