Table Talk: Sweet And Sour, Salt and Bitter

by A.A. Gill

The first collection of food writing by Britain's funniest and most feared criticA.A. Gill knows food, and loves food. A meal is never just a meal. It has a past, a history, connotations. It is a metaphor for life. A.A. Gill delights in decoding what lies behind the food on our famously, his reviews are as much ruminations on society at large as they are about the restaurants themselves. So alongside the concepts, customers and cuisines, ten years of writing about restaurants has yielded insights on everything from yaks to cowboys, picnics to politics.TABLE TALK is an idiosyncratic selection of A.A. Gill's writing about food, taken from his Sunday Times and Tatler columns. Sometimes inspired by the traditions of a whole country, sometimes by a single ingredient, it is a celebration of what great eating can be, an excoriation of those who get it wrong, and an education about our own appetites. Because it spans a decade, the book focuses on A.A. Gill's general dining experiences rather than individual restaurants - food fads, tipping, chefs, ingredients, eating in town and country and abroad, and the best and worst dining experiences. Fizzing with wit, it is a treat for gourmands, gourmets and anyone who relishes good writing.

Genres: Nonfiction, Food, Essays

345 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2007

About the author

Adrian Anthony Gill was an English journalist. He was the author of 9 books, including The Angry Island. He was the TV and restaurant critic and a regular features writer for The Sunday Times, a columnist for Esquire, and a contributor to Vanity Fair. He lived in London.

Reviews

[Stuart Crowther · Rating 4 out of 5]

A book to read whilst reading another. Why? I love Gill's sardonic, cutting style - he exposes myths and shines a light on the absurd. But too much at one time leaves a negative aura.
Certainly recommend, but take your time

[Amanda · Rating 3 out of 5]

I did enjoy A.A. Gill's amusing and acerbic snippets and some of them had me laughing out loud. However, this is the sort of book one dips in and out of for entertainment, not for those looking for an absorbing read.

[Larissa Archer · Rating 5 out of 5]

I will forever wish it was I who described certain mozzarella like "a blind whale's eyeball"...

[Stephen Rötzsch Thomas · Rating 3 out of 5]

More or less exactly what I expected - a buffet of opinions, a smattering of exceptional nuggets, and a few tasteless and outdated ideas.

[Geraldine O'Donnell · Rating 5 out of 5]

A wonderfully witty collection of the musings of a great writer who is so missed.

[lotte langs · Rating 4 out of 5]

“𝒲𝑒, 𝓃𝑜𝓃𝑒 𝑜𝒻 𝓊𝓈 𝓀𝓃𝑜𝓌 𝒽𝑜𝓌 𝓂𝒶𝓃𝓎 𝒹𝒾𝓃𝓃𝑒𝓇𝓈 𝒶𝓇𝑒 𝓁𝑒𝒻𝓉 𝓉𝑜 𝓊𝓈. 𝒯𝑜 𝓁𝑜𝑜𝓀 𝒷𝒶𝒸𝓀 𝒶𝓃𝒹 𝓇𝑒𝒶𝓁𝒾𝓈𝑒 𝓎𝑜𝓊'𝒹 𝓌𝒶𝓈𝓉𝑒𝒹 𝒶𝓃𝓎 𝑜𝒻 𝓉𝒽𝑒𝓂 𝑜𝓃 𝑒𝑔𝑔-𝓌𝒽𝒾𝓉𝑒 𝑜𝓂𝑒𝓁𝑒𝓉𝓉𝑒𝓈, 𝑔𝓇𝑒𝑒𝓃 𝓈𝒶𝓁𝒶𝒹𝓈 𝓌𝒾𝓉𝒽𝑜𝓊𝓉 𝒹𝓇𝑒𝓈𝓈𝒾𝓃𝑔 𝑜𝓇 𝓅𝓊𝓂𝓅𝓀𝒾𝓃 𝒶𝓃𝒹 𝒷𝓇𝑜𝒸𝒸𝑜𝓁𝒾 𝓂𝓊𝓈𝒽 𝓌𝑜𝓊𝓁𝒹 𝒷𝑒 𝓉𝑜𝑜 𝒹𝒾𝓈𝓉𝓇𝑒𝓈𝓈𝒾𝓃𝑔.”
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The by product of another reading slump. I didn’t fancy reading anything and have felt down lately and picked this from my boyfriends bookshelves. The only sort of famous literary person I can claim a “six degrees” connection to is A.A. Gill. In my case it’s four and I can’t tell you on social media 😬
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I’d read a few books Gill had written on Zedel and The Wolseley, but nothing more. It was hearing his Desert Island Discs (posthumously) that inspired me to read this - probably my favourite most considered selection of songs and I loved hearing how bizarre, fulfilled and often pained his life had been.
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You don’t have to be hugely into gastronomy to enjoy this. It varies from cuisine to travel to food trends. There’s a chapter on Leeds which had me in tears, mainly because it’s probably the truest thing of the city I’ve ever heard 😂 Everything he wrote was spot on and there is an event he chronicled with Jeremy Clarkson taking him out for dinner there which was hands down one of the funniest things I’ve ever read 📖 Admittedly this isn’t for everyone but Gill’s wit and humour certainly helped me laugh and smile myself out of a slump 😁
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I didn’t recognise him whilst alive - but having read this, at times, such a personal complication I can’t believe he is gone. Rest in peace, A.A. Gill ❤️

[Liz Chapman · Rating 3 out of 5]

Years ago I used to read every week AA Gill's column in the Sunday Telegraph. When I got this book it brought back memories. The snippets of his record of different restaurants, Gastro pubs etc was very witty and made me burst out laughing . There are not many books that do that. Going on through the book was interesting and amusing such as the Rainforest Cafe and the Yak. All good so far and I have my nose stuck in the book. Then we get to the different countries section and the whole thing changes to acidic renditions verging on insulting and at times rather needlessly nasty. What happened ? I actually felt a bit sick after the Vietnam and China sections. I do think that apart from Hong Kong Chinese food isn't very good and with the C19 virus in the world today the Chinese have a lot to answer for . Friends and relatives who have visited Vietnam have eaten nice foods there . The French influence the croissants etc and the local dishes they enjoyed . Chilli hot but nice . Since sadly AA Gill is no longer here to defend himself I'll leave it there . As Snoopy would say " This book is fudge ..... with a little bit of coconut! BLah "

[Jo Dorning · Rating 2 out of 5]

Very hard going. Sentences are purposefully convoluted and complex. Some jokes were funny, but most just made me cringe. The racist and rude comments he aimed at everyone and everything were offensive and downright embarrassing! Racism and all its relatives. I ploughed through it because it did contain some interesting facts (I assume they were well researched...) about food history and food culture.

[Gregory Thompson]

My son-in-law is a food critic (check him out at https://thelacountdown.substack.com/). He is an excellent writer - which got me to thinking about food writing. Good food journalism is delicious. Given this, I decided to check out the doyen of food writers - A.A. Gill. He is an excellent writer.

This is a book to browse through - to pick and choose those sections that grab your fancy. I enjoyed it but did not love it - kind of like spinach soup.

[Nichola Mackle · Rating 5 out of 5]

First AA Gill book I have listened to .it is a gem .. so funny and enjoyable .. If u can listen to it audibly then please do.. he narrates the book and his wit and opinions really come to life.: there are chapters that would offend ..but move on. Definitely do not read this in one go.. it’s so much more enjoyable to read every now and again .. when you just want to chill and enjoy.

[James Vasey · Rating 5 out of 5]

A compilation of the late food critics most well observed, acerbic, celebratory and funniest food columns organised by country. An essentially-informative but also a laugh-out-loud funny world tour of eating places. Don't travel with it.

[Bookshop · Rating 4 out of 5]

4 stars because he insulted durian. Otherwise could have been a 5.

[Izzie Thompson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thoroughly enjoy Gill's writing; savagely humorous. These excerpts are mostly 2+ decades old now which is a tiny excuse for the sexist undertones (& less nuanced terms/phrases)

[Patricia H · Rating 4 out of 5]

The subtitle is a succinct description: Sweet and Sour - Salt and Bitter.
Enjoyable as much for its regional descriptions as anything else.

[Audrey · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pretentious, I loved it
The Pizza Express chapter particularly resonated with me

[Grace Boulter · Rating 2 out of 5]

Mostly outdated and offensive by a pretentious Tory, but annoyingly well written.

[Andrea Broomfield · Rating 5 out of 5]

I only learned of the late, great AA Gill when I read one of the many obituaries that lavished praise on this restaurant critic and essayist for the London Times and Tattler. I immediately bought Table Talk so that I could experience Gill's perceptions and wit for myself. I read a lot of food criticism and history, but this collection of Gill's food columns is the best I have come across.

I found portions of Gill's reviews to be laugh-out-loud funny. Here's only one of many examples. Gill is writing about truffles and what started out to be a fine meal at an unnamed restaurant. All was well until the truffle ice cream. Gill's companion,The Blond, tasted the ice cream and did the predictable "Yeach, yeuch, that's horrible, horrible." But then some time later, the Blond turns to Gill and described the experience this way: "You know what it was like? It was like slipping into bed in the dark and finding a familiar warm body there, then switching on the light and discovering it's your grandfather, naked and aroused. You know what I mean?" Gill responds, "Not precisely specifically, but generally."

Gill combines this humour and sharp wit with more profound statements about cuisine in general, including a masterful take-down of Britain's saintly Elizabeth David. As someone who admits to worshipping David herself, I went from anger at Gill's critique of David to a grudging admiration for how he gets to a truth: David's championing of Italian and French cuisine at the expense of British cuisine has had lingering, terrible consequences for a nation that suffers from a culinary identity crisis. As Gill writes, "The real problem is not just that we [Brits] cook Italian food day in, day out, it is that we cook it so jolly badly. . . . Housewives try to cook dishes that may be cheap to put together in Milan or Rheims, but cost a lot in Bolton or Penzance. Take those two staples of Italian cooking, the tomato and sweet basil. The plum tomatoes that grow in the heat of Italy taste totally different from the forced-under-polythene ones that we get here. . . . Consequently, robust peasant food tastes insipid and second-rate when it is prepared by foreigners." And a whopping dose of the blame, Gill contends, rests with Elizabeth David.

Gill writes a lot of unorthodox, irreverent things in Table Talk, provoking readers to take an active part in engaging with him, critiquing him, agreeing with him, and most of all laughing with him as he punctures our fine gourmand sensibilities with abandon. This is a book that I will buy extra copies of just to give out to my friends and colleagues in the culinary industry. In this way, I will do my small part to keep Gill alive forever, even if he is no longer with us in the flesh.

[Jim · Rating 4 out of 5]

The best critic in the business, bar none, whether it's telly or food, countries or cultures. It took me a while to get through, but I'm sure I'll return to it in years to come. Interesting to see one of the quotes I lifted from him on my restaurant guide was included in this collection, demonstrating I know a good savaging when I read it.

2022 Review
I reread this book to appreciate the writing, reviewing and journalism of the late A A Gill. He was the best critic The Sunday Times ever had and I miss him. I'm happy I have this collection of his work as there's still nobody close to him when it comes to smart, witty, bitchy and informative observations on food, drink, sex, relationships, travel and anything else that took his interest and fired up his pen. He's maybe gone, but fortunately he left his writing behind.

[Jude Grindvoll · Rating 4 out of 5]

Like all good critics, Gill does not give a flying whatsit what anyone thinks of him (or whether they might inflict actual bodily harm) and this makes him charmingly cutting and acerbic. I find him at his best when writing about home rather than abroad and I love that he has no problem smashing from their pedestals people like Elizabeth David who, as he rightly points out, did not contribute anything like enough to be deified, sanctified and bloody iconised (pretty sure that last one was made up). If you like people who don't mince their words, know their own minds and have a canny knack for a spot-on simile then you'll probably enjoy this book. And i'd recommend Giles Coren's Anger Management which is equally hilarious and quite rightly anti-vegetarian too, as all good Times writers are.

[Jess · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Puttanesca is prostitutes spaghetti- hot and, I suppose, cheap and fast."

I feel like this quote sums up the entire hilarity of this book. Gill does his job exceptionally well. He gives credit where it is due, and rips the culinary souls out of the places that burn their food, customers and the general reputation of fine dining.

If you like food for the experience of eating as opposed to the sensation of being full, if you like to travel and experience something more sophisticated than a hamburger and chips, and you are mildly witty, with a slightly devilish sense of humour, you should give this a go.

[Chris · Rating 4 out of 5]

You don't really need to be a glutinous pig or gourmet snob to enjoy this book. Gill writes about food the way that Anthony Lane writes about film. It's extremely caustic, witty and elegant - and it contains an argument for eating whale that's hard to find fault with. If anyone knows where I can find his Vanity Fair piece about Celine Dion in Vegas, please let me know. I can't find it archived online anywhere.

[Kimba · Rating 2 out of 5]

It's okay. Reading several in one sitting only highlights his deficiencies as a writer, his predelections for certain words (Stygian) and prejudices (vegetarianism). Having said that, the man can turn out a wickedly funny simile.

[Benjamin · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'm not sure if I love GIll or hate him. He's arrogant and for a restaurant critic his reviews are suspiciously devoid of reference to food, or, you know, the actual restaurant. However—He has a definite style and while rarely HA HA HA funny it is often ha funny.

Read, but you don't have to.

[Jeanne Lee · Rating 3 out of 5]

This guy has got his hilarious food descriptions down pat - you know exactly what he means when he says adding truffle oil is like eating out teenager's sneaker. Often spot-on, sometimes whingy, occasionally a little too vitriolic. Overall a fun read.

[Catrien Deys · Rating 3 out of 5]

A very funny series of columns, but it was mostly humor bordering on cynicism (and narrating bad restaurant experiences only), which I consider a waste; and casually mentioning Indonesian cuisine as unexciting, shows much ignorance.

[Eilish · Rating 4 out of 5]

a a gill is a food writing legend. his descriptions are toe-curlingly gruesome. a compilation of his best stuff from the Sunday Times. Great stuff

[Rachel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Superb writing! Laugh out loud funny at points.

[Karina · Rating 4 out of 5]

As usual, AA Gill is entertainingly provocative - but a little of him does go a long way. I think I prefer to read him in small sips, rather than quaffing the whole in one or two gulps.

[Alison Smith · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved every page. A A Gill - British TV & restaurant critic for the London Sunday Times. Who knew food reviews could be so entertaining, so witty, so blithely politically incorrect? Read it.

[Madeeha Maqbool · Rating 4 out of 5]

Snarkily amazing. As always.