M.F.K. Fisher and The Art of Eating

If you have never heard of M.F.K. Fisher, I would love to be the one to introduce her to you! If you read and enjoy even just a part of one of her many books about travel and food and life, you will be grateful to me, I know it. In the same way that Julia Child is a necessary teacher of cooking and baking and with a certain genius can convey the lessons that enable us to savor and respect our food, M.F.K. will nourish your latent gourmet. Trust me. M.F.K. will teach you about food without overwhelming you, and that is her eloquent magic.

Right after my divorce long ago in another place, I took up with a friend, Bob, whom I had known for many years. He had been “interested” in me for quite awhile but of course I hadn’t known that - he just showed up one evening at my door with an urge to talk, a bottle of wine and a book. The book was The Art of Eating, by M.F.K. Fisher - a worn and grubby book that looked well-loved. Indeed, my friend had loved the book and its author for a long time and had mentioned her and her love of food and Provence to me several times. That evening we drank his good wine and talked about great food for several hours and I made him my Famous Cheese Omelet. This omelet is what inspired him to continue educating me about M.F.K.

He said he knew that I loved simple food and simple cooking in the same way she had and he thought it was time I read about her life, travels, and inspired meals. I had heard of her and may even have learned a bit from her before, but I can’t say where or when. I think, but I’m not sure, that even my famous omelet was based on a recipe she had in one of her books for the “late night” omelet she and friends would eat after theater outings. I didn’t tell Bob this, instead I let him think he was introducing her to me for the first time because really, he was encouraging me to STUDY her and her ways. I found this intriguing because no man had ever tried to EDUCATE me as a prelude to romance with me. Of course, this was just his way of trying to make me into his idea of the perfect women, his own M.F.K., and possibly his fourth wife! It didn’t work the way he planned, but it was nice while it lasted, or at least not so bad.

Over the next two years I remained a close friend of Bob’s, while he wined and dined me and shared his books and music and movies and meals with me. Our favorite subject still remained Fisher and her legendary food travels. He searched the bookstores for paperbacks of as many of her books as he could find and brought them to me and I read them, although I can’t say I truly appreciated them the way I would now. There were some good reasons for this. I was afraid to “encourage” him too much because I was all too aware that his motives and goals went beyond friendship. I was one of those wounded women numbed from divorce and eager to live in a world where housekeeping, cooking, and anything domestic were not the most important things. I wanted to just live simply with the least amount of work at home. I was tired most of the time from working three jobs to support myself and my kids. I did not cook “gourmet” or even use the several cookbooks I already owned, including a couple of Julia Child’s. I didn’t “entertain” and I even warmed up frozen dinners on occasion.

So I read these and other books mostly at night right before I went to sleep and they were very soporific. What that means is that they put me right to sleep, so quickly in fact that I forgot right away most of what I had read those nights. I might recognize the titles and authors if you put those books in front of me, but I could tell you very little about what was written inside them. Even M.F.K.’s books which genuinely inspired and delighted me, are a blurred memory for me now. So I guess I’ll just have to find them and read them again. But I can tell you how they affected me.

M.F.K. encouraged me NOT to cook, and to be unashamed about that. Enjoying food as one of the primal experiences of life is what’s important. She, herself, was not tied to the kitchen like a doting, competitive hostess. But she described friendly meals in crowded kitchens with friends and laughter and wine. Wine was really important. It is described well so you will appreciate how in her “thin” days when money and ingredients for feasting were scarce, a bottle of wine would make such a deep impression she would write about its flavor and fragrance in loving detail twenty years later. I remember when I read these things I was thinking, hoping really, that I would have similar fond memories about friends and preparing food together, and I do have a few of those happy memories now.

I think most modern day “foodies” will have heard of her, but if not they might be thrilled to find in her books the recognizable seeds for many of the food trends that have fueled an entire industry of restaurants, gourmet delis, kitchen equipment purveyors, artisan foods and “sustainable” cookbooks. Most of the amazing amount of stuff she and others inspired me to discover - things we think we need, like melon ballers and espresso makers, would have been completely unnecessary to make M.F.K.’s favorite dishes.

She wrote, for instance, about one of her favorite things to eat: a nice, sweet orange heated on the radiator in her Paris room until it was practically simmering, then peeled and each segment carefully dipped in some dark chocolate melted the same way. She said the orange was bursting with warmth and flavor and the chocolate made it into a decadent treat that consoled her during one very sad, cold time in her life.

Always M.F.K. was writing her own story, her own life, and it was a symbiotic thing that her writing inspired her life and her life inspired her writing. She was not primarily a cook who wrote, but she was a writer who cooked. That is what makes her stories so distinctive. They are about eating and the places where the art of eating is celebrated. She writes with great detail about herself and the people she met and tells us of some of the joy and tragedy she encountered, but she maintains a respectful distance and never resorts to gossip or name dropping.

Her life was eventful, she worked hard, traveling a great deal. She knew some amazing people, and wrote prolifically about everything. She took the time to savor the places and landscapes she lived in. Time may be the key to everything she did. She knew how to use the time she had and the times she lived in.

Nowadays, I think we can call ourselves “foodies” if we think of food as a big part of our lives. And our world of food and cooking takes a lot of things for granted - that everyone born on the planet will know what an avocado or an artichoke is; or that garlic can be used like a spice, like a vegetable, or spread on bread, like butter. I don’t think my own mother even owned a garlic press! I remember seeing one in a friend’s kitchen when I was about twenty and not knowing what it was. I came from a world and time where knowing how to make a good chicken fried steak and mashed potatoes with white gravy would qualify you to cook in just about any restaurant in our town.

The phrase “The Art of Eating” does not seem outlandish at all anymore. But in the U.S. of the 1950s when M.F.K. Fisher gave her book that title, most of these gourmet thoughts were not only unheard of here, they were rather radical ideas for most Americans. Eating was something you did out of necessity, it wasn’t supposed to entertain you except on holidays and other very special occasions, unless you were fabulously wealthy! Of course the bohemians and beatniks made a big deal about food and shared meals, but middle class "normal" people just fried that chicken and didn't CELEBRATE it! But M.F.K. and her words were eagerly received by many who had been to Paris and Provence and Egypt and the men and women who went to war in Europe had tasted some of the foods of France. They wanted more, who could blame them?

She was a stylish woman, but not a snob. Her stories are often about working people she met, people who had character and strength. She welcomed interviewers and loved to share about her life and was still celebrating life and food and wine when she was in her 80's.

She writes about France after the war and how the French kept their food traditions even when their larders were practically bare. Her stories are always easy to understand, in the same way that well-researched fiction is engrossing and easy to understand. But as she told an interviewer, “it is all true, every word of it.”

MY FAMOUS OMELETTE FOR TWO - this is really more like a souffle, I know, but I don't want to "inflate" it too much so I call it an omelette! and just in case it doesn't puff up a lot, you won't be dismayed!

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees

Shred 12 oz. or about 1 ½ cups of gruyere, emmenthaler or other swiss cheese or cheddar cheese or a mixture of cheeses or just about any nice semi-hard shredded cheese you like.

Grate about 3 or 4 tablespoons of parmesan or romano cheese

4 large eggs - separate the whites into a large enough bowl so you can whip them up to stiff peaks

1/3 cup cream

½ teaspoon of grated fresh nutmeg

add the cream and nutmeg to the 3 egg yolks and whisk it together

Carefully fold the egg yolk mixture and the shredded cheese into the stiff egg whites so it stays nice and fluffy.

In an omelette pan or a 7 inch medium sized skillet or saute pan with a metal handle (no plastic that would melt in a hot oven) melt about 3 tablespoons of unsalted butter until it is frothy and hot - then turn down the heat to a medium low heat.

Slowly pour in the omelette mixture, sprinkle the grated parmesan cheese on top, and let it cook and bubble for two or three minutes

Put the pan with the omelet in the oven (on the middle shelf) and let it bake for about 15 to 20 minutes. The top should be just beginning to brown and the omelet will look very puffy, like a souffle.

BE SURE TO USE A POTHOLDER to take the pan out of the oven, bring it to the table and let it set for 3 or 4 minutes before you carefully slice it in half slip each half out of the pan onto a warm plate.

Get creative and substitute other herbs for the nutmeg - add some minced garlic if you want. Make it your own famous omelet by sprinkling with your favorite omelet additions.

M.F.K.'s famous home in Sonoma County, California is still there At the Bouverie Preserve of the Audubon Canyon Ranch (13935 Sonoma Highway; 707-938-4554; www.egret.org), reservations are required for free guided nature walks in the spring and fall. But her house is off-limits so you will only catch a glimpse of it if you visit there.