Food and Wine : History

The diverse elements of an evolving pan-Latino food culture-the origins of the various groups and their foodstuffs, cooking, meals and eating habits, special occasions, and diet and health--are expertly and thoroughly presented here in depth for the first time. The topical narrative chapters are essential reading for crucial cultural insight into Latinos of all backgrounds today. more...

Price: $54.95

The story of the powerful McIlhennys of Louisiana, who turned hot peppers into a Tabasco fortune. After the Civil War ended, Edmund McIlhenny, an ambitious and tenacious Louisiana businessman, found himself with few prospects. The South's economy in ruins and his millions of dollars in Confederacy currency worthless, he had no choice but to return with his wife, Mary, to her family home in Avery Island, a former sugar plantation destroyed by Union soldiers. To McIlhenny's surprise, the hot peppers he had planted before being forced off the island had flourished. Desperate to start a new business, he chopped up the peppers, combined them with salt and vinegar, and produced the first batch of hot pepper sauce. Or so the story goes. He called the sauce Tabasco. In this fascinating history, Jeffrey Rothfeder tells how, from a simple idea—the outgrowth of a handful of peppers planted on an isolated island on the Gulf of Mexico—a secretive family business emerged that would produce one of the best-known products in the world. In short order, McIlhenny's descendants would turn Tabasco into a gold mine and an icon of pop culture, making it as recognizable as far bigger brands such as Coca-Cola and Kleenex. To this day, the McIlhenny Co., still run by a family of matchless characters who believe in a rigid code of family loyalty, clings to tradition and the old ways of doing business. Yet by fiercely protecting its beloved brand and refusing to sell out to big food conglomerates, this family business has run circles around its competitors, churning out annual revenues that have surpassed everyone's expectations. A delectable and satisfying read for both Tabasco fans and business buffs, McIlhenny's Gold is the untold story of the continuing success of an eccentric, private company; a lively history of one of the most popular consumer products of all times; and an exploration of our desire to test the limits of human tolerance for fiery foods. more...

Price: $19.95

Julia Child singlehandedly created a new approach to American cuisine with her cookbook Mastering the Art of French Cooking and her television show The French Chef , but as she reveals in this bestselling memoir, she was not always a master chef. more...

Price: $9.95

There is nothing better than basking in the summer sun or relaxing on a long summer’s evening with delicious food and drink, whilst being serenaded by the Bard. Food, drink and Shakespeare go happily hand in hand, and there is no shortage of references to mankind’s favourite pastimes in his plays. more...

Price: $4.99

Jean-Anthelme Brillat Savarin (April 1, 1755, Belley, France - February 2, 1826, Paris), a French lawyer and politician, and gained fame as an epicure and gastronome. He was born in the town of Belley, Ain, where the Rhone River then separated France from Savoy, to a family of lawyers. [...]. His famous work, Physiologie du gout ( The Physiology of Taste ) , was published in December 1825, two months before his death. The full title is Physiologie du Goût, ou Méditations de Gastronomie Transcendante; ouvrage théorique, historique et à l'ordre du jour, dédié aux Gastronomes parisiens, par un Professeur, membre de plusieurs sociétés littéraires et savantes. [...]. The body of his work, though often wordy or excessively - and sometimes dubiously - aphoristic and axiomatic, has remained extremely important and has repeatedly been re-analyzed through the years since his death. In a series of Meditations that owe something to Montaigne's Essays, and have the discursive rhythm of an age of leisured reading and a confident pursuit of educated pleasures, Brillat-Savarin discourses on the pleasures of the table, which he considers a science. His French models were the stylists of the Ancien Régime : Voltaire, Rousseau, Fenelon, Buffon, Cochin and d'Aguesseau. Aside from Latin, he knew five modern languages well, and wasn't shy to parade them, when the occasion suited. As a modernist, he never hesitated to borrow a word, like the English sip when French seemed to him to fail. The genuine philosophy of Epicurus lies at the back of every page; the simplest meal satisfied Brillat-Savarin, as long as it was executed with artistry:. Those persons who suffer from indigestion, or who become drunk, are utterly ignorant of the true principles of eating and drinking. [Adapted from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean_Anthelme_Brillat-Savarin] more...

Price: $6.50