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Adam Gopnik

The Table Comes First Hardcover – 29 Sept. 2011

by Adam Gopnik (Author)

4.2 106 ratings

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Our modern society is very particular about what constitutes good food: local, seasonal, organic produce that doesn't overly impact on the environment. But throughout history every generation has believed that it alone knows the true value of food, and looked with distaste on the culinary practices of its predecessors. Not so long ago eating food from around the world was the mark of the cultural sophisticate. In The Table Comes First Adam Gopnik envisions a new 'physiology of taste' which will enable us to dispense with this moralising attitude and concentrate on the pleasure principle: food is to be enjoyed, and to help us enjoy life in turn. Above all the dining table should be the heart of the family, the place where all real family begins. To show this we are taken through the courses, from starters to desserts, from the establishment of the first restaurants in Paris in the early 19th century to the green movement of the present day, in a witty and erudite narrative interspersed with delightful anecdotes, ranging from making souffles for Derrida (hint: the perfect souffle is determined by the ineffable 'zone' between peaks and troughs) to hunting the lost recipe for 'Steack Boston'.

Print length

304 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Quercus Publishing Plc
Publication date

29 Sept. 2011
Dimensions

15.2 x 2.9 x 24.4 cm
ISBN-10

1849162867
ISBN-13

978-1849162869
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Product description

Review

'In The Table Comes First, a sparkling collection of musings on life, liberty and the pursuit of gastronomic satisfaction, the narrative thrust is indicated by the subtitle: Family, France and the Meaning of Food. The curious title comes from a remark made by the great chef Fergus Henderson along the lines of - to paraphrase - when setting up home, get the table in place before anything else ... What more can any reader ask than fine writing and intelligent argument from an author of strong opinions who is prepared to slaughter a whole herd of sacred cows and isn't afraid to get down and personal?' Jewish Chronicle.

'The witty journey to these frustrating ends remains fascinating' Metro. --Reviews.

About the Author

Adam Gopnik is the author of Paris to the Moon and Through the Children's Gate and is a contributor to The New Yorker. He lives in New York City with his wife and two children.

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Quercus Publishing Plc (29 Sept. 2011)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 304 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1849162867
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1849162869
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 15.2 x 2.9 x 24.4 cm

Best Sellers Rank: 1,566,652 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- 15,014 in Cultural Studies

Customer reviews:
4.2 106 ratings

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B. Portes

Good fun

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 17 January 2013

Verified Purchase

This book which reads like a collection of articles is amusing and informative. It's good for dipping into piecemeal and has some interesting historical background as well.

2 people found this helpful

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Jon Verheecke

What a great book

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 27 March 2014

Verified Purchase

It's not a cook book but a philisofical book about cooking and eating. A real eye opener. I loved every word of it.I would recomend it to everyone who wants to think about food and eating.

3 people found this helpful

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Rosie Pike

The table comes first book

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 17 February 2013

Verified Purchase

The book was requested as a christmas present and the recipient was very pleased with it and has enjoyed reading it!

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Stephen Siciliano

A highwayscribery Book Report

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 11 December 2011

Eat this book!

How far things have come since Yippie philosopher Abbie Hoffman's publisher invited consumers to "Steal This Book," by giving it that very title.

Maybe author Adam Gopnik remembers former French President Francois Mitterand remarking that the United States was "a country waiting to be entertained" when he launched a body of work that mixed food and literature quite so lovingly.

A few chapters into "The Table Comes First," and you may very well try to eat it, or at least take a crack at one of the half-recipes he drops in throughout the essay.

It may be the case that the enjoyment of Gopnik's book rises inversely as one's familiarity with "food writing" drops. That was the case here. highwayscribery cannot say if the food talk contained is food news, only that everything else about it was fun.

Subtitling his essay, "Family, France, and the Meaning of Food," the author stakes out a large swath of human interest and then highlights the ties binding food to our larger life.

"The Table Comes First," passes from the particular (food) to the universal, reading in the tea leaves of peoples' food choices their politics, history, culture, the French Revolution, and the reasons for Catalonian cuisine (to name a few).

In doing so, the book becomes something for everybody, which is somewhat the point: Everybody loves food.

By way of one example, Gopnik discusses a "rule of three" he applies to cooking and life-living.

"Is there a pattern of making here, more universal than it might at first seem?" he asks. "Jasper Johns once said, with the high, significant disingenuousness of faux-naif genius, that the way to make art is to take something and do something to it and then do something else to it."

And it is applied to cooking how?

"There is first the raw thing, then there is the transformative act, and then there is the personal embroidery" and then back to the larger world, "Something borrowed, something done, something only I can do. Natures Way; Our Tribe's Way' My Way. Or else History, My Time, My Talent."

You may or may not find that particular line of analysis useful to your life, but it's a good bet other things Gopnik writes, while conjuring butterscotch pudding from scratch, will ring true.

The writer, who is a remnant of the old Manhattan talky-smart crowd, and writes for no less than "The New Yorker," has a whimsical touch, though there will be times you'll have to bear down and work a little.

It should be worth it.

The investigation into how restaurants came about, took form, and held it, is interesting stuff especially for those who frequent them. It is light fare (pun intended), yet thought-provoking.

The writer provides an exacting, yet almost apolitical look at the meat debate. He puts the "local" strain of food-eating to the test in New York and comes out less-than-convinced the means are resulting in the desired ends (while ingesting a good-sounding repast).

Gopnik hews not to any ideology. He pulls what is good for his diet and mind from raging trends, rejects what does not work, and lets food-love be his guide.

The second half, less historical and less researched, lags a little by comparison. Still there are conversations with top chefs and culinary thinkers in "The Table Comes First," that enlighten.

And those who have only heard in passing what happened at elBulli outside Barcelona will enjoy the insider's view of the process Gopnik provides towards the end. Others mystified by "molecular" cuisine may find their nerves calmed, or irritated further by the contents.

Where the writer seems to be going, without banging the gong too hard, is that breaking bread has a sacred component. A strong one. That may not be a revelation, but how and why are worthwhile topics in this world where everything has already been written or said.

"Losing our faith in art is, in a secular culture," Gopnik closes, "what losing our faith in God was to a religious one."

Frothy dinner guest though he may be, a "Tea Party" invitation is probably not be forthcoming.

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The Table Comes First Hardcover – 29 Sept. 2011

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