M. F. K. Fisher, Julia Child, James Beard, and the Reinvention of American Taste
By Luke Barr
Favorite quote: “Marseilles was enchantingly beautiful at this season—there were delicate garlands of pale gold decorating the harbor, and fantastic arch with representations of eleven kinds of fish, and festoons of sea-blue lights like waves on either side. The whole town was giddy, and she had the best seat in the house.
From the publisher: Provence, 1970 is about a singular historic moment. In the winter of that year, more or less coincidentally, the iconic culinary figures James Beard, M.F.K. Fisher, Julia Child, Richard Olney, Simone Beck, and Judith Jones found themselves together in the South of France. They cooked and ate, talked and argued, about the future of food in America, the meaning of taste, and the limits of snobbery. Without quite realizing it, they were shaping today’s tastes and culture, the way we eat now. The conversations among this group were chronicled by M.F.K. Fisher in journals and letters—some of which were later discovered by Luke Barr, her great-nephew. In Provence, 1970, he captures this seminal season, set against a stunning backdrop in cinematic scope—complete with gossip, drama, and contemporary relevance.
