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Object Lessons is a series of short, beautifully designed books about the hidden lives of ordinary things.
Recipe reveals the surprising lessons that recipes teach, in addition to the obvious instructions on how to prepare a dish or perform a process. These include lessons in hospitality, friendship, community, family and ethnic heritage, tradition, nutrition, precision and order, invention and improvisation, feasting and famine, survival and seduction and love. A recipe is a signature, as individual as the cook's fingerprint; a passport to travel the world without leaving the kitchen; a lifeline for people in hunger and in want; and always a means to expand one's worldview, if not waistline.
Object Lessons is published in partnership with an essay series in
The Atlantic.
List of contents
Introduction: The Secret Life of Recipes
1. "First, Turn and Face the Stove." The Recipe as an Instruction Guide
2. "You say toma¯to, I say tomahto": The Recipe as Conversation
3. A Taste of Home: The Recipe for Comfort Cooking in Tough Times
4. Joys of Cooking-and Eating: The Great American Thanksgiving Celebration Recipe
5. "Please, sir, I want some more." The Recipe as a Manifestation of Power, Politics Poverty, and Punishment
6. Play With Your Food, the Recipe as Jazz
Lagniappe: The Best Blueberry Pie
Index
About the author
Lynn Z. Bloom
Summary
Object Lessons is a series of short, beautifully designed books about the hidden lives of ordinary things.
Recipe reveals the surprising lessons that recipes teach, in addition to the obvious instructions on how to prepare a dish or perform a process. These include lessons in hospitality, friendship, community, family and ethnic heritage, tradition, nutrition, precision and order, invention and improvisation, feasting and famine, survival and seduction and love. A recipe is a signature, as individual as the cook’s fingerprint; a passport to travel the world without leaving the kitchen; a lifeline for people in hunger and in want; and always a means to expand one’s worldview, if not waistline.
Object Lessons is published in partnership with an essay series in The Atlantic.
Foreword
Provides a succulent, soup-to-dessert analysis of the lessons embedded in recipes—lessons that extend well beyond the obvious instructions on how to prepare the actual food to more subtle guidelines for nourishing body, spirit, and self-identity; family and friendships; tradition and innovation; culture, creativity, commerce and competition.
Additional text
A really great read.
