The Art of Eating is about the best food and wine — what they are, how they are produced, where to find them (the farms, markets, shops, restaurants).
Tradition.
More often than not, the best food and
wine are traditional, created when people had more time and when food was more central to
happiness than it is today. We look for the logic of geography, methods, and culture that
make good food good — that give character and the finest flavor.
We visit passionate growers to
understand why some raw materials are so much better than others. We seek the most
accomplished artisans to understand their methods. Their best products, rare as many are, still set the standards of excellence by which even mass-produced food and drink
are judged. Besides superior foodstuffs, we seek exceptional time-honored recipes, the
products of generations of cooks. Not that everything old is good.
The Art of Eating is also about the new when it’s better.
Simplicity.
On the farm and in workshops and
kitchens, what is treated least usually tastes best. Gentle, minimal treatment produces
the clearest, fullest flavor. The best vegetables are in most
cases the very freshest, not stored at all but cooked as soon as possible after they are
picked. The best olive oil is wholly unrefined. The best hams are patiently dry-cured. The
most delicate fresh cheese is made on the farm with raw milk, and the curd is hand-ladled
into molds, so it is broken as little as possible. The most flavorful honey is not only
unheated but still in the cells of the comb, sealed by the bees under wax. Grapes for the
finest wine are pressed, and the maker interferes as little as possible with the natural
process after that. In the kitchen, too, the best
dishes are generally simple. In the words of the great French critic Curnonsky,
"Cooking! That’s when things taste like what they are."
A Sense of Place.
The best food and wine have a sense of
place that comes from soil, climate, tradition, and all the local influences that as a
group exist nowhere else. Certain varieties of plants and breeds of animals evolved under
local conditions. (Some places, not only vineyards, are ideal for particular foods.)
Local foodstuffs combined with local culinary skills and traditions create the typical
flavors of a place. The food and drink in The Art of Eating are mainly French, Italian, and American. Subjects
range from great bread in California and Paris to the best chocolate, the most
delicate and aromatic olive oil, wines of the Loire Valley, the ideal roast for coffee,
dry-aged steak, farm cheeses of Provence, gumbo in Cajun Louisiana, the food and
wine of Tuscany, cloth-bound Vermont cheddar, pizza in Naples, the great blue cheese of
Roquefort, the current state of food in Paris, and many other, often unusual topics.
The Art of Eating, which first appeared as a food letter in 1986, is published four times a year. There is no advertising. Along with in-depth articles, there are recipes, letters, a wine review (“Why This Bottle, Really?”), restaurant reviews, book reviews plus, according to the subject, addresses for exceptional open-air markets, individual growers and craftsmen, bakers, cheesemakers, wineries, olive-oil mills, charcutiers, chocolatiers, or restaurants (from haute cuisine to very simple). I guarantee you'll be happy with your subscription.
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