My Usual Table: A Life in Restaurants

by Colman Andrews

My Usual Table is a love letter to the great restaurants that have changed the way we eat—from Trader Vic’s to Chez Panisse and Spago to elBulli—and a vivid memoir of a life lived in food, from a founding editor of Saveur and James Beard Award-winning writer Colman Andrews. For reviewer, writer, and editor Colman Andrews, restaurants have been his playground, his theater, his university, his church, his refuge. The establishments he has loved have not only influenced culinary trends at home and abroad, but represent the changing history and culture of food in America and Western Europe. From his usual table, he has watched the growth of Nouvelle Cuisine and fusion cuisine; the organic and locavore movements; nose-to-tail eating; and so-called “molecular gastronomy.” In My Usual Table , Andrews interweaves his own story—from growing up in the sunset years of Hollywood’s golden age to traveling the world in pursuit of great food—with tales of the restaurants, chefs, and restaurateurs who are emblematic of the revolutions great and small that have forever changed the way we eat, cook, and think about food.

Genres: Food, Nonfiction, Memoir, Food Writing, Foodie, Cookbooks, Food and Drink

336 pages, Hardcover

First published February 11, 2014

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

[Bibliovixen · Rating 2 out of 5]

After about the fourth chapter it becomes a repetitive litany about how awesome his life has been with friends, food, and wine. Not impressed with the name dropping. Quit reading midway through the book.

[Denise · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting, but he loses momentum. He talks about how some of the best writing advice (that he states he follows) was to write about the experience and feelings about food rather than focusing on the details and research. However, about a third of the way through, he forgets his own rules and his meals become a grocery list of food and wines, interspersed with celebrity names. The best parts of this book are the beginning memories-like many of us, he started with horrible eating habits with very little diversity. I am much more interested in the food expert that learned through life experience without a specific pal or ambitioun. Also of interest is the background of various "name" restaurants, the story and how they got started. These include Chasens, Ma Masion, and Spago; and several others. He seems to lose momentum about halfway through, making it harder for me to finish as well. This seems common among long term magazine, newspaper writers, and even bloggers who move on to write books. It does pick up again, so keep going.

[Ann · Rating 3 out of 5]

Thanks to the publisher for an advance reading copy.

I really loved Colman Andrews' memoir until the last third of the book. He proves his worth as a great food writer because he can write glowingly about everything he loves; I find that most people are only able to write decently about things they don't enjoy (myself included). His development from a food novice into expert was fascinating, and I loved watching as he meets the developing stars of the food world (although torrid affair with Ruth Reichl....WHAAAAAAAATTTTTT????). But the last third of the book just felt like lists of names and dishes with little to give it life. I was completely surprised that so little of the book was devoted to elBulli when Andrews wrote Ferran Adrià's biography. It felt like he gave up towards the end, and made the reader want to do the same.

[patty · Rating 4 out of 5]

What a life! There's even a bit of rock 'n roll in this read. But what I really want to know, is Fellini's sangria recipe. The author makes mention of it as a celebrity feature he read and clipped out of a Vogue magazine from the 60's, and the fact that it is a winner and the secret is adding 2 tablespoons of Strega. Is it the same sangria from Juliet of the Spirits? Now I'm super intrigued! Cannot find this recipe online (from Vogue), but I'm not giving up!

[Susan · Rating 3 out of 5]

The idea is clever, to write a memoir that centers around restaurants that were hangouts at various periods of the author’s life. It was often fun to read, especially about restaurants that played a role in my life such as the West Beach Café. The descriptions of food often sounded delicious but sometimes devolved into nothing more that lengthy lists. As I got further into the book I did start to wonder, however, if the author was ever going to grow up.

[William Koon · Rating 2 out of 5]

Andrews has had many meals. He has drunk the good wine. He has had many mates. He is a boring writer.

[Marie Cinti · Rating 1 out of 5]

Lots of celebrity name dropping w a little bit of food talk on the side. I gave up.

[Cameron Toney · Rating 2 out of 5]

I am a lover of food. I love cooking, I love eating out, I loooove reading about food. I would never have guessed it, but really good food writing (and by that I mean not cookbooks, but books about the art, science and enjoyment of eating) has become a favorite genre, and I find myself hunting down such books at bookshops.
So I was delighted to find a copy of this at my local thrift store. I'd not heard of Colman Andrews, but before I'd read her books I'd not heard of Ruth Reichl either, so that doesn't mean anything.
After the intro my interest was piqued. This was presenting itself as a sort of biography, as told through the restaurants that had been central to his life.
The first chapter also proved to be interesting, and then it all promptly went downhill.
I was expecting to read more about the joy of food, more about the way that restaurants can be special, formative, or something with the delight of eating. Instead it seems to be a whose who of famous people he has known, fashionable places he has been, and expensive bottles of wine he has drunk. Andrews comes across as, well, a bit pompous, and nowhere is there to be found the delight in flavors that I find so enthralling in food writing.
I suppose they could not all be winners, but I didn't expect to be this let down.

[Lorri Steinbacher · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fun read if you like gossipy food memoirs. Andrews tells his story by reminiscing about the restaurants that loomed large for him at the time. It's as much a memoir of the restaurant and food publishing business as it is of his life. Good fun.

[R.J. Gilmour · Rating 4 out of 5]

Andrews' book is a love letter to all of the restaurants that he discovered in his life as a food writer. Each section is devoted to particular restaurants and the experience he had eating there. It is a fun and witty way to write about his love of food and his memories.

[AJ · Rating 3 out of 5]

Thank you pig.

[Laura]

Like listening to reminiscences from your pretentious but lovable uncle. Pretty good, but just shy of the halfway point I had had my fill, and it was time to move on.

[Rosann · Rating 3 out of 5]

If you like name dropping, this is the book for you!

[Judy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Growing up in Hollywood in the latter years of the studio days, Colman Andrews writes not so much about the meals themselves, but the restaurants he grew up eating in. Restaurants which even to someone who was about as far away from the glitter of Hollywood as you can get, I recognize the names. Not only the places themselves, but the regulars who frequented them, names we have seen on the big screen over and over. Then comes his days in the music industry and the meals with big names there. From the famous Trader Vic's and Chasen's, to cafes in Rome and Paris and the rise of Wolfgang Puck's Spago, My Usual Table is a literary feast.

Andrews delves into his copious notes over the years and brings the history behind the restaurants. He also brings his own history with that establishment, most of it very fond memories of people and times past, and meals shared there. Having just discovered how nice it is to go somewhere and have the bartender know who you are, decades of similar treatment and even more intimate involvement in the restaurant, must have been exciting.

Colman Andrews has written three other books and four cookbooks, not to mention the food magazines and columns he has written over the years. Currently he is the editorial director of The Daily Meal .

Side note: He has kept notebooks on details of his meals and the establishments for decades. From notebooks to pages of notes, he recorded everything for years. This is further evidence my journals and 'writer's notebooks' are worth keeping.

[Vikki · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved Colman Andrews' book My Usual Table a Life in Restaurants. Colman Andrews, as a child, went to many restaurants with his parents. His favorite at that time was Chasen's in Hollywood. He went through each decade from the 60's on. It was very interesting to think of how food changed each decade. Colman Andrews became a restaurant reviewer, food writer and magazine editor through his many years of traveling to eat the best foods. He went through many relationships along the way. He was editor of Saveur for about a dozen years. He also writes regular articles for Gourmet Magazine. I enjoyed learning about the foods he enjoyed and the experiences he had. I thought it was a fine book.

[Laura · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm torn between liking this book and saying it was just OK. I'm going to go with "like." It was not boring. I enjoyed reading about the author's childhood in the early part of the book. I felt as though I'd taken a journey along with Andrews as he described his experiences dining in the U.S. and Europe.

[Alison Campbell · Rating 2 out of 5]

A tribute to the author and by the author. Egocentric to the point that about half way through I almost gave up. It went way beyond a food memoir and in to an ode to himself. He does give good food and some of the early meal experiences are pretty amazing.

[Karen · Rating 1 out of 5]

Amazingly pompous. Andrews' hardship growing up was canned food - scandalous!

[Zuvielekatzen · Rating 2 out of 5]

too much name dropping!

[Kristen · Rating 3 out of 5]

If you are really into food and restaurants, this book is for you. I skipped some chapters.