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jason_and_the_stacks's review
5.0
This book whips ass. I’d gotten it as a lark because when I read about it, the excerpt the NYT reviewer focused on was for a dish that, at the time of me writing this, would cost somewhere in the neighborhood of $800 for the truffles alone. This, by the way, was in a recipe that was designed to bring affordable French cooking to the American home.
I thought i was going to get the memories of Gertrude Stein’s partner via cooking and the stories of her time with the artists of the her time. I certainly got that, and it’s not a joke, though there are some head-turning recipes here.
I’m absolutely going to be making boeuf bourguignon sometime soon with quite a bit more confidence than previously, and i’m eyeing some fried cookies for the holidays - the recipes are great but its the casual nature in which their handed over, like listening to this person I now know far more intimately tell me the whimsical tales of when and who she prepared meals for but also remembering to give you the details so you can try it too.
I thought i was going to get the memories of Gertrude Stein’s partner via cooking and the stories of her time with the artists of the her time. I certainly got that, and it’s not a joke, though there are some head-turning recipes here.
I’m absolutely going to be making boeuf bourguignon sometime soon with quite a bit more confidence than previously, and i’m eyeing some fried cookies for the holidays - the recipes are great but its the casual nature in which their handed over, like listening to this person I now know far more intimately tell me the whimsical tales of when and who she prepared meals for but also remembering to give you the details so you can try it too.
souzakh's review
4.0
Alice B. Toklas' remembrances of life in France with Gertrude Stein and the foods they ate and cooked combined my passion for historical reading and cooking. This is one I will come back to again and again.
lesbiangrandpa's review
4.0
Absolutely impossible recipes. I love it. She’s hilarious, and I am super thrilled with the existence of cookbook as memoir.
mugren's review
1.0
Despite the stories being true, this book reads like a food blogger written by someone who can’t cook nor write. Also, seeing as how it’s mostly just recipes, I really don’t get why it’s hailed as a popular piece of literature.
natyweiss's review against another edition
4.0
-Thank you Harper Perennial Modern Classics-
Alice B Toklas was Gertrude Stein's companion for forty years. When Gertrude passed away, Alice became the custodian of her vast art collection. The Paris apartment that they shared was full of artwork by Picasso, Matisse, and Cezanne, among other valuable artifacts. Alice wrote her memoir in the form of a cookbook. This book is not only a compendium of traditional French cuisine, but it also includes recipes learned during their travels through Europe and America and recipes that she was almost forced to publish in order to make a living.
I've read it in a non-linear way, skimming the recipes and focusing on the cool anecdotes, some of the accounting for their years during the nazi occupation.
My favorite part is the one called "Recipes from Friends" in which she shares the Haschich Fudge recipe (which anyone could whip up on a rainy day), anticipating that "Euphoria and brilliant storms of laughter; ecstatic reveries and extensions of one's personality on several simultaneous planes are to be complacently expected." She goes even further by comparing the journey with an almost mystical experience.
The book is accompanied by some of Alice's own line drawings, demonstrating that her talents were not limited to cooking and writing.
This book is a modern classic that everyone interested in art and literature history and culinary journeys would really enjoy.
Alice B Toklas was Gertrude Stein's companion for forty years. When Gertrude passed away, Alice became the custodian of her vast art collection. The Paris apartment that they shared was full of artwork by Picasso, Matisse, and Cezanne, among other valuable artifacts. Alice wrote her memoir in the form of a cookbook. This book is not only a compendium of traditional French cuisine, but it also includes recipes learned during their travels through Europe and America and recipes that she was almost forced to publish in order to make a living.
I've read it in a non-linear way, skimming the recipes and focusing on the cool anecdotes, some of the accounting for their years during the nazi occupation.
My favorite part is the one called "Recipes from Friends" in which she shares the Haschich Fudge recipe (which anyone could whip up on a rainy day), anticipating that "Euphoria and brilliant storms of laughter; ecstatic reveries and extensions of one's personality on several simultaneous planes are to be complacently expected." She goes even further by comparing the journey with an almost mystical experience.
The book is accompanied by some of Alice's own line drawings, demonstrating that her talents were not limited to cooking and writing.
This book is a modern classic that everyone interested in art and literature history and culinary journeys would really enjoy.