Everything On the Table: Plain Talk about Food and Wine

by Colman Andrews

Would you like to learn how to make genuine Fettuccine Alfredo? Discover "the best restaurant in the world"? Create French-style lobster and Scottish-style curry? Hear the tragic truth about what happened to the Blue Bar at the venerable Algonquin Hotel? Find out why you should probably never pay $100 for a bottle of wine? Then help yourself to Everything on the Table, a tantalizing book that deftly combines the wittiest of Colman Andrews's musings about food with wonderful travel writing, amusing anecdotes about world-famous restaurants, recipes for an eclectic collection of irresistible dishes, and provocative commentary on food, wine, and American taste. Former restaurant columnist for the Los Angeles Times and food and wine columnist for Metropolitan Home magazine, Colman Andrews may be the most outspoken food writer in America today. Eschewing snobbery, fads, and fashions, he tells the plain truth about what and where we eat. Part curmudgeon, part connoisseur, all raconteur, he skewers Michelin three-star restaurants with the same ease that he celebrates the pleasures of seven favorite restaurants, establishments that range from an underrated hideaway in the Burgundian countryside to an unpretentious seafood paradise in Casablanca. And with recipes both plain and fancy you can make a French Apple Pie like that served in Hollywood's 20th Century-Fox commissary during the Golden Age of movies...an aromatic and cross-cultural Catalan Chili...Andrew's own specialty of Sweet Potato Vichyssoise with Three Kinds of Salmon...a hearty Spicy Salt Cod Stew that proves salt cod doesn't have to be chewy or salty...Joe Brodsky's Deep-Fried Steak, simply a great way to cook meat...or Puree de Pommes de Terre three-star style, as prepared at the revered Jamin in Paris. Then get ready to have your assumptions shattered as Colman Andrews delivers his no-punches-pulled advice on wine, "great" wine, and wine you can truly enjoy. He also provides a paean to the ordinary Americ

Genres: Food, Food Writing

308 pages, Hardcover

First published November 1, 1992

About the author

Co-founder and former editor of Saveur magazine and the author of Catalan Cuisine, Flavors of the Riviera, and Everything on the Table and co-author and co-editor of three Saveur cookbooks. Now a resident of New York City and Connecticut, a native of Los Angeles and a frequent contributor to the LA Times and Los Angeles Magazine. He won six James Beard Awards for his writing on food and wine, and was one of the first 50 people named to Who's Who of Food and Beverage in America.

Reviews

[Lara · Rating 3 out of 5]

DNF - I like how Colman views food and food culture but I wasn’t interested enough to continue reading. Also the recipes require a full on kitchen with an oven and I live in a van 😂 Nice read, just no for me

[Cameron Toney · Rating 2 out of 5]

I should have known better. I've read Coleman Andrews before, and concluded after that book (My Usual Table) that he was not for me and that I was not going to read any more. Did that stop me from buying this one when it crossed my path? Apparently not.
I find this work frustrating, as there are many things that Andrews and I agree on (the joy of cooking!), and yet he comes off as so pretentious, all the while trying to paint himself as an every man.
I really will not cross paths with this author again, and I think we'll both be happier.

[Orla Manning · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good

[Togaakennedy]

I really enjoyed this book and thought it fascinating food history. The calendar aspect is simply a gimmick you don't need. It's a lot of fun looking up some of the more obscure dishes, too.

[Barbara · Rating 2 out of 5]

Written by a former restaurant critic, this memoir is opinionated, readable, and sprinkled with recipes, some of which tempt me to try. I'll probably shelve it with my cookbooks. I thought it uneven, however, and did not care for the snippets from the "Notebooks of Captain Camille, short, poorly spelled opinions about long gone movie stars.