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For the past two days, I’ve had no idea what to write for this blog.  Nothing interesting has happened in the kitchen or in my head.  I’ve lacked for source material.  Until, that is, thoughts of food writing made me think of my favorite food writers.

For many years I’ve adored M.F.K. Fisher.  She began her writing career in Hollywood as a young woman in the 1940’s, I believe, and her solitary life out in California led her to cook for herself as a source of entertainment and solace.  Throughout her life of career, marriage, divorce, and love affairs, she continually cooked, ate, traveled, and wrote.  To a modern American woman, her life might seem at turns tragic and joyful, but altogether romantic and charming.  But put in the context of when she wrote, her willfulness to live life as she pleased is astonishing.  She not only cooked and ate with gusto, she did all things so.  The humanity of her writing can break your heart to this day, as well as make you ravenous.  Many of her books have now been bound together in single volumes, so if you’ve never read her, just pick one and go.  Be sure to have some good snacks on hand before you begin. 

Ruth Reichl, also editor of Gourmet magazine, has written some lovely and often hilarious books about her food adventures.  Garlic and Sapphires, in particular, chronicles the outrageous lengths to which she would go to avoid being recognized at restaurants during her stint as food critic for The New York Times.  Tender At the Bone is a poignant account of Ruth’s childhood, as necessity and circumstance led her to love the kitchen. 

Last, but most definitely not least, my favorite food writer of all time is Jeffrey Steingarten.  I’m fairly certain that if I should ever get the chance to meet him, I would be rendered stuttering and clammy.  His wit, appetite, and tenacity for perfect recipes is legendary.  You can read his column monthly, as he is food editor of Vogue (I’m still having trouble believing most of the people who read it actually eat), but his best work is contained in his books The Man Who Ate Everything and It Must’ve Been Something I Ate.  I could go on forever about him, so I won’t even begin.  You may also have seen him as a judge on Iron Chef America.  He’s the one who looks like a portly Phil Donahue and talks like a drily humorous Supreme Court Justice.

There are lots of food writers out there who deserve mention here as well,  Elizabeth David and James Beard chiefly.  And Isabel Allende, acclaimed novelist, had written one amazing food book in the nineties called Aphrodite.  Check some of these folks out.  You’ll be glad you did.