Sharing a Love

When I was young, I noticed my mom read a lot of cookbooks and cooking books. One of her favorite authors was M.F.K. Fisher. If you don't know who she is, here is a starting point - http://mfkfisher.com

I didn't probe too much as to why my mom collected cookbooks and read them so much. I was fascinated by this fact. I figured there was a secret reason. It sure as hell wasn't because my mom was a bad cook. To this day, I say her food is the best I ever ate. She did love to collect recipes. Some she made. Some she just liked having in her binder notebook.

As you can tell, this post has nothing to do with coffee, but I felt this was a good place to talk about my inherited love of reading cookbooks. This includes books about coffee.

My mom had M.F.K Fisher. I have two people I love to read whatever they put out - Mark Bittman and David Lebovitz. Mark Bittman writes for the NY Times. I own three of his books. Lebovitz lives the dream I dream - living in Paris, and writing about cooking and living in France. Today I'm going to focus on Lebovitz.

David Lebovitz formerly worked at Chez Panisse in the Berkley, CA.  He left his job in 1999, and is living and writing in Paris. I have read: "The Sweet Life in Paris," "Ready for Dessert" and am currently reading his most recent, "My Paris Kitchen. " I follow his blog www.davidlebovtiz.com .

Lebovitz finds a way to weave the art of living and cooking/baking into something which his so easy to understand, and enjoy. My lifelong dream has been to live in Paris. Lebovitz in all his writings makes it clear, living in Paris is frustrating at times, but most of the time, a most wonderful experience.

I am in the third chapter of his new book, and I love it. I especially love how he talks about not always adhering to the recipe but cooking by the senses. I'm not even close to doing that, but would aspire to cook that way.

If you haven't read his work....DO IT! Go the local bookstore, head to Amazon, put in on your Kindle, whatever you need to do. He is a great writer, and a lot of fun.

Not sure if my mom would like him, but I do think she would get a kick out our shared love of cooking reading.

Charlie