Out of the Kitchen: Adventures of a Food Writer

by Jeannette Ferrary

Book Overview

Jeannette Ferrary, a food writer for the New York Times and author of M. F. K Fisher and Me, recounts her life as it relates to food. Contains portraits of America's food-world celebrities--Julia... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1880284782
• ISBN13: 9781880284780
• Release Date: February 2015
• Publisher: Daniel & Daniel Publishers
• Length: 247 Pages
• Weight: 0.75 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 5.6" x 8.5"

Customer Reviews

What Makes a Food Writer?

How does one become a "food writer", and what does that actually mean anyway? These are questions that Ferrary seeks to answer in her food memoir, and questions which interested me also, as one with a long-time interest in writing and many aspects of food. In the Introduction Ferrary indicates that "there must have been seeds [in her childhood] that eventually flowered into a passion for food, its history and meaning and unending pleasures; the joy of growing and preparing and sharing food with friends, of seeing it as heritage and comfort and love. There must have been something. That's what this book is about." Ferrary mines her early childhood memories, particularly those in her mother's and grandmother's kitchens and in the neighborhoods she grew up in, for the seeds that are later cultivated into a passion for food. Each chapter is followed by a simple recipe illustrating in an amusing fashion the food lesson or food memory recounted in that chapter. These seeds are present in the childhood memories of many others who don't become food writers, and it becomes apparent that circumstances and serendipitous events later in life paved the way to Ferrary's successful career in food writing. Her tales are amusing and well-written, demonstrating a self-deprecating sense of humor and a sense of humility. She was in the presence of some truly great chefs and food experts - Julia Child, Alice Waters, Craig Claiborne, to name a few, but was always well aware that she was there "..gathering the research, tasting, testing, playing the scribe....", never really on the same playing field as these great personalities, since as she frequently admitted, she wasn't much of a cook herself. Ferrary's descriptions of Julia Child, particularly the distinctive voice, are so apt and so precise, that the sound and cadence of Julia's voice resonates as if she is in front of you (on the TV) once again. Although Ferrary mentions other famous chefs and food personalities, most of those are casual acquaintances and one-time meetings compared to the frequent encounters with Julia, and she has a real reverence and respect for this larger-than-life personality who transformed the American food experience. The memories of childhood and early adulthood consumed the majority of the book, leaving a disproportionate amount of writing related to the development of her craft and her successes in food writing. I would have liked to read more about the specifics of the craft, but perhaps that's the subject for another book, which I will gladly read if she decides to write it.

Very Good memoir writing. Good but not excellent foodie stuff

`Out of the Kitchen', subtitled `Adventures of a Food Writer' by Jeannette Ferrary is very similar in subject and style to the two more famous memoirs, `Tender at the Bone' and `Comfort Me With Apples' by prominent food journalist Ruth Reichl. While Ms. Ferrary is quite probably almost as good a writer as Ms. Reichl, it seems she has had a much less interesting life. To the good, like all very good writers, Ms. Ferrary has given us an excellent treatment of her material. As I analyze pieces of good writing either whether in essays or music, I am amazed by how much a talented writer can make of a small event. Ms. Ferrary, for example opens with a description two episodes from her very early years, aged two and three years old respectively. The first deals with baby Jeannette's thwarting the wiles of her parents' efforts for her to take a pill by camouflaging it in a gumdrop. The second is a vignette regarding little Jeannette's becoming lost almost literally in front of her house in Brooklyn when she takes her first foray out onto the sidewalk with mother on the watch from the second floor window. Before I get to mired in niggling little complaints and details, let me say that I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book. It was at least as satisfying to me as other recent memoirs from the likes of Mimi Sheraton and Alan Richman, even if it is not quite up to the level of Reichl and one of Ms. Ferrary's favorite subjects, M.F.K. Fisher. The greatest thing I take from this book is an affirmation of how generous and justifiably revered is the person and memory of Ms. Julia Child. This was shown clearly in an event promoting the sale of Ms. Child's video cooking classes at a West Coast Macy's store where Ms. Ferrary played the role of interviewer. Macy's had promised a plug of Ms. Ferrary's new book during the event. At the last minute, a Macy's PR functionary told Jeannette it couldn't be done, as it would take attention away from Julia Child's appearance. When Julia got wind of the problem, she glanced through the book, made some very kind comments about it to the author, and promptly got up to the microphone and praised the book to the gathered throng in Macy's, much to the chagrin of the PR hack standing nearby. Practically no other culinary luminary gets away without some little catty comment. Even a briefly snide quote from M.F.K. Fisher about Julia Child backfires with a poor reflection on Ms. Fisher's fairness about her contemporary culinary stars. One concern is that the synopsis of the book on the back cover is a bit misleading in that it says it `contains portraits of America's most famous food-world celebrities - Julia Child, Alice Waters, Craig Claiborne, Jacques Pepin, Marcella Hazan and Robert Mondavi, to name a few'. It does indeed contain material of substance on the first three of these six people, but the second three get literally no more than a sentence, with Pepin getting a sentence and a snapshot with the author. The same synops

A delightful leisure read

Storyteller and food fan Jeanette Ferrary's memoir packs in humor and food affection, beginning her story with childhood memories of food and its effects on her life and recounting her journey to adulthood and the travels which brought her in touch with food traditions across the country. Out Of The Kitchen: Adventures Of A Food Writer is a delightful leisure read, charting Jeanette's personal encounters with some of the most famous cooks in the world, and her eventual rise to become a food columnist for the New York Times.