The Dinner Table: Over 100 Writers on Food

by Ella Risbridger (Editor), Kate Young

'A gorgeous if you savour words quite as much as food, this is for you!' NIGELLA LAWSON

A deliciously moreish collection of the finest pieces of writing on food.

In this big, beautiful anthology, award-winning writers Kate Young and Ella Risbridger present you with their ultimate fantasy dinner party. Here you'll find over 100 authors, cooks and poets, from Laurie Colwin, Salman Rushdie and Jack Underwood, to Rachel Roddy, Audre Lorde and Nigella Lawson.

The individual pieces in The Dinner Table each have something to say to their neighbours on either side; just like a real-life dinner party, the collection is designed to flow from one topic to the next. You'll discover old friends as well as new, discussing eggs, bread, fridge-raid suppers, wedding feasts and much, much more.

With pieces taken from newspapers and novels, magazines and memoirs, private letters and public statements, you can dip into The Dinner Table for one piece or twenty. Pop in for a drink, or stay until the tables are cleared away. Stay for coffee, and stay for breakfast.

Contributors include...
Naomi Alderman * Maya Angelou * Yémisí Aríbisálà * Jane Austen * Anthony Bourdain * Angela Carter * Laurie Colwin * Jimi Famurewa * Helen Fielding * Ross Gay * Amitav Ghosh * Diana Henry * Shirley Jackson * Madhur Jaffrey * James Joyce * Kevin Kwan * Nigella Lawson * Min Jin Lee * Audre Lorde * Samin Nosrat * Sylvia Plath * Rachel Roddy * Salman Rushdie * Sathnam Sanghera * Nigel Slater * Toni Tipton-Martin * Bryan Washington * Sarah Waters * Virginia Woolf * Michelle Zauner

Genres: Food, Nonfiction, Cookbooks

848 pages, Kindle Edition

Published October 12, 2023

Reviews

[Luke · Rating 4 out of 5]

O my god, I can't believe it: I managed to finish this tome! I never thought I actually would be able to do so. Not necessarily because it had so many pages but moreso because I was reminded again while reading this, that I haven't got the right kind of brain for short stories and anthologies (I think this is a similar reason to me not reading a lot of poetry, however much I love it). It takes me a while to get into a story and to realy find the concentration to sink into it. I am easily distractable and enjoy it when a story manages to really take me in and 'conquers' my busy brain. With short stories there is lots of room for interruption and less potential to be swept of ones feet (at least for me). However, durng the reading proces I incresingly started to appreciate this book. It took me about 200 pages to accept that I was reading it, another 200 to actually enjoy it but in the end I suddenly realized I bookmarked quite a lot of pages and got lots of new inspiration for recipes to cook and authors to read, many of them being authors I had wanted to read for a long time. I am usually the person who needs to finish a book when she starts it so I am very picky in which books I read, however that means I sometimes to not get out of my comfortzone or never read work of authors that have interested me for a long time, think Laurie Colwin. So although quite the struggle, I am really glad to have read this book. Not only did it give me a little taste of many interesting works of art, it also made me realize that there are a myriad of ways to read a book or consume art for that matter. Also have to say that there weren't a lot of selected bits that I didn't enjoy reading, often wanting to read more when I finished it but that is of course a matter of personal taste. Would recommend this to people who DO like anthologies though haha, otherwise it might me a bit of an excercise in dicipline -especially because it is so big. Also recommend it for food lovers and lovers of food writing; get ready to indulge yourself.

[Katy Wheatley · Rating 4 out of 5]

As with any anthology, unless you are really lucky, there will be things you love and things you can live without. This is a huge tome and covers a wide range of authors, some of whose books I had read and was familiar with, others I'd never heard of. The editors are vital in these things. If you don't like the cut of their jib, you may as well not bother. I love both Ella Risbridger and Kate Young and I knew I would be in for a treat. Many of the excerpts were delightful. I loved that they included Brian Washington and MFK Fisher for example. I also loved that their own writing was included. I did feel that a few of the excerpts were too long for what was already a hefty volume, but it would make a marvellous gift for anyone you know who is a foodie but who you don't want to risk buying cookery books for.

[Juliana · Rating 5 out of 5]

Just an absolute delight to read. The very best of food writing, woven together in a way that makes it impossible to stop reading. I’ll be coming back to this one again and again.

[Soph · Rating 5 out of 5]

My actual ideal book, I loved it completely even though I'd read a lot of the excerpts. Gawd I love food writing.

[Anthea Wratten · Rating 5 out of 5]

Superb anthology. I love dipping in to it.

[Kelley Kowalczik]

DNF - I was sooo excited for this but it was not what I was expecting. The collection was curated from the editors world view and it is clear that we differ in that. It wasn’t for me.