The holiday season is upon us. A time for gathering around a table of scrumptious food and drink to celebrate with family and friends. This year there comes a new book perfect for the foodies in your life, the patrons who leave the library each visit with a stack of cookbooks in tow. Within the pages of The Table Comes First: Family, France and the Meaning of Food Adam Gopnik takes us on a beguiling journey in search of the true meaning of food in our lives.
As Early Word reports there are heavy holds on this book at many libraries. If you haven’t already, think about featuring this book at your own library. It’s a wonderful book for Thanksgiving reading on the importance of the tradition of the family mealtime.
In The Table Comes First, Gopnik charts America’s recent and rapid evolution from commendably aware eaters to manic, compulsive gastronomes. It is a journey that begins in eighteenth-century France-the birthplace of our modern tastes (and, by no coincidence, of the restaurant)-and carries us to the kitchens of the White House, the molecular meccas of Barcelona, and beyond. To understand why so many of us apparently live to eat, Gopnik delves into the most burning questions of our time, including: Is a great vintage really any better than a good bottle of wine? And: Why does dessert matter so much?
Here’s what some of the country’s top chefs are saying about The Table Comes First:
“Adam Gopnik brilliantly weaves together the history, philosophy, and culture of food with his deep passion for cooking and the shared pleasures of the table. Anyone who roasts a chicken at home or eats chocolate mousse in a restaurant will be forever changed by this book. I loved it!”
-Ina Garten
“I need to read anything that Adam Gopnik writes, and this book on food, eating and-it follows-life is a particular feast. His acuity, grace, sensitive intelligence (in short, his brilliance) are, as ever, dazzlingly displayed and yet with the lightest of touches.”
-Nigella Lawson
“The perfect book for any intellectual foodie, a delicious book packed with so much to sink your teeth into”
-Padma Lakshmi, host of the Emmy-winning Top Chef