What do you think?
Rate this book
Blue Trout and Black Truffles: The Peregrinations of an Epicure
There were, and still are, great restaurants all over Europe, but the greater part of Blue Trout and Black Truffles is devoted to the eatingplaces and vineyards of France. It is a vicarious experience to read about the culinary wonders of the notable establishments of another era that have become the last epicurean haven in this materialistic, mechanized world of fastfood chains and frozenfood dinners. Mr. Wechsberg reaches back to the twilight days of the Habsburg monarchy, when those splendid monuments to the haute cuisine in central Europe, Meissl and Schadn of Vienna and Gundel's of Budapest, were in their prime.
300 pages, Kindle Edition
First published May 18, 1953
22 people are currently reading
421 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews
December 9, 2020
This had been on my shelf for years, recommended by Jeremiah Tower in the incredible bibliography to his California Dish. Wechsberg has proved a wonderful salve in COVID time. Reading about Viennese tafelspitz and other varieties of boiled beef, truffles, foie gras, incredible wines, the early Michelin guides. Wechsberg is charming, with tongue firmly in cheek and just a hint of dad-joke humor. Some of the pieces have aged better than others, in particular his memoirs of Paris and Vienna & the Fernand Point profile. Recommended for food/wine lovers.
January 11, 2019
This was mentioned offhandedly in the book about the founding of Alinea, a world-renowned Chicago restaurant (that I still haven't been to). This has little in common with other "food writing" I've encountered. The seemingly-pretentious title gives way to a charming essay collection featuring culinary experiences from days long past. The author, Joseph Wechsberg, recounts his personal tragedies related to WWI and WWII. Thankfully, he had the presence of mind to capture many of the culturally-significant gastronomical achievements of Europe pre-WWII while paying respects to his heritage. This book preserves and glorifies lost traditions from Prague, Paris, Budapest, Vienne, Vienna, and many other places. Incredible men, women, restaurants, and anecdotes that would have been lost to time. I emphasize: for many of these restaurants and restauranteurs, I would have trouble believing that Mr. Wechsberg's accounts aren't the most historically significant accounts in existence.
The stories that seem more academic in tone are amusing and highly educational. For example, the book contains all you need to know about truffles, foie gras, wine, and more minute culinary treasures. Ah, if only I could appreciate the parts that haven't been translated from French.
The stories that seem more academic in tone are amusing and highly educational. For example, the book contains all you need to know about truffles, foie gras, wine, and more minute culinary treasures. Ah, if only I could appreciate the parts that haven't been translated from French.
August 7, 2010
A really charming, ancient book. A cute story, but in the end, a bit trifling. I abandoned it after 100 or so pages--I've got a ton of stuff to get through--but would consider going back to it--it shows promise.
January 16, 2023
Someone praised this on Mastodon, I read the Finnish translation "Herkkusuun kasvatus" translated by Kyllikki Villa in 1990. I don't know. Somehow this book made me feel very sad. It's about an era and a gourmet culture that doesn't exist anymore – which is a good thing in my view. Okay, I confess that I will continue practicing my Sauce Bearnaise to perfection, but beyond that, bye bye for luxury eating out. We have more important things to deal with than food extravaganza.
October 9, 2020
Maybe reading 5 books at once is a bit odd, but occasionally it leads to some delightful coincidences. Like reading A Gentleman in Moscow at the same time as reading a book that obviously influenced it's restaurant scenes. So fun.
I loved this book, it's just a fellow eating around Europe before and after WW1. There are some wonderful characters. I found it charming AF.
I loved this book, it's just a fellow eating around Europe before and after WW1. There are some wonderful characters. I found it charming AF.
June 15, 2021
A cleverly funny and self-aware jaunt through fine dining and wine culture of central and Eastern Europe in the first half of the twentieth century. The real-life characters and narrator offer self-aware insights and opinions in a delightful manner.
Recommended by @melissatsierra, I definitely would not have chosen this title on my own. It’s been a great sojourn from my latest heavier reads. A sorbet, if you will.
Recommended by @melissatsierra, I definitely would not have chosen this title on my own. It’s been a great sojourn from my latest heavier reads. A sorbet, if you will.
July 28, 2011
The lost world of Hapsburg food culture. No other book is remotely like it. Utterly charming.
January 11, 2020
This book felt like a rare, vivid glimpse into others worlds, ones that no longer exist and were on the cusp of disappearing when Wechsberg wrote this book. Wechsberg spends pages rhapsodizing over incredible dishes that I had never heard of before (who knew that boiled beef could be such a delicacy, and involved such elaborate partitionings of a cow), but it also, in a breezy yet thoughtful way, details ideas and ways of life tied up with the choicest foods in France and Eastern Europe, ways of being that had scraped through (with some transformations and lapses) many shocks and jolts throughout the twentieth century, but were clearly dying out at the time of writing. It was fascinating to hear the recollections of so many people born during the nineteenth century. To get a little pretentious, it made me aware of how quickly the edges of living memory can recede from view.
Wechsberg is a fantastic narrator. In many ways, he reminded me of Thomas De Quincey in Confessions of an English Opium-Eater (1821), a book I would definitely recommend to any fans of this book who aren't reading it for the food porn (are there any?). There is something of the "addiction narrative" quality to this book, just as in Confessions, particularly in the first chapters. The wry style, which manages to sound simultaneously naive of the speaker's skewed perceptions and aware of them, also reminds me of De Quincey. The writing style, while very light and easy to read, also has an old fashioned quality for me. I have to wonder if Wechsberg really was closer in mentality and experience to De Quincey than he would be to us, or if it's only my ignorance of the nuances of past mindsets and trends that gives that appearance to me. There were certainly a few remarks and expressions that have not aged well, but nothing so bad that I would warn people off on that basis.
The only reason that I'm taking off a star was that I think he could have been a little more selective in his discussions of French food and of wine. I liked feeling that he had simply chosen to profile all of the foods and regions that he found exceptional, and I loved the loose, idiosyncratic feel of the book, but as someone less interested in French cooking and completely uninterested in wine, I still found myself wishing the book could have been a little more balanced and a little leaner. I also might have appreciated a closing essay that brought us back full circle onto him, though I didn't mind it ending as it did.
On that note, I found the hints at how Wechsberg perceived his own identity interesting. His Jewishness (his mother, I think, died at Auschwitz, and his own headstone prominently displays a Star of David) hardly came up, although the suffering and tumult the wars brought his family did. It was also interesting to me that when he traveled in Europe post-WWII, the restauranteurs he interviewed seemed to implicitly address him as an American, and he seemed content to wear that label, despite his low opinion of American palates and despite his origins in Czechoslovakia and the pre-war years he spent in France. My own grandfather was also Jewish and also lived in Czechoslovakia before the war, but the difference in lifestyle, class status, and self-presentation could not have been greater. Is the lack of discussion of Jewishness a class thing? A trauma thing? A marketing thing? I don't know.
Wechsberg is a fantastic narrator. In many ways, he reminded me of Thomas De Quincey in Confessions of an English Opium-Eater (1821), a book I would definitely recommend to any fans of this book who aren't reading it for the food porn (are there any?). There is something of the "addiction narrative" quality to this book, just as in Confessions, particularly in the first chapters. The wry style, which manages to sound simultaneously naive of the speaker's skewed perceptions and aware of them, also reminds me of De Quincey. The writing style, while very light and easy to read, also has an old fashioned quality for me. I have to wonder if Wechsberg really was closer in mentality and experience to De Quincey than he would be to us, or if it's only my ignorance of the nuances of past mindsets and trends that gives that appearance to me. There were certainly a few remarks and expressions that have not aged well, but nothing so bad that I would warn people off on that basis.
The only reason that I'm taking off a star was that I think he could have been a little more selective in his discussions of French food and of wine. I liked feeling that he had simply chosen to profile all of the foods and regions that he found exceptional, and I loved the loose, idiosyncratic feel of the book, but as someone less interested in French cooking and completely uninterested in wine, I still found myself wishing the book could have been a little more balanced and a little leaner. I also might have appreciated a closing essay that brought us back full circle onto him, though I didn't mind it ending as it did.
On that note, I found the hints at how Wechsberg perceived his own identity interesting. His Jewishness (his mother, I think, died at Auschwitz, and his own headstone prominently displays a Star of David) hardly came up, although the suffering and tumult the wars brought his family did. It was also interesting to me that when he traveled in Europe post-WWII, the restauranteurs he interviewed seemed to implicitly address him as an American, and he seemed content to wear that label, despite his low opinion of American palates and despite his origins in Czechoslovakia and the pre-war years he spent in France. My own grandfather was also Jewish and also lived in Czechoslovakia before the war, but the difference in lifestyle, class status, and self-presentation could not have been greater. Is the lack of discussion of Jewishness a class thing? A trauma thing? A marketing thing? I don't know.
January 6, 2021
This lovely book is about more than food and wine. It is also a social history of Czechoslovakia and Vienna before the War, and France after. Wechsberg talks about waiters, chefs, gourmets, and a few others, and about food and wine. Written during the 1940s and 50s, he talks mostly about a lost world.
February 21, 2021
Joseph Wechsberg has such depth and humanity, and respect for his subjects - and the pursuit of knowledge.
August 5, 2009
A snapshot of a privileged life in Europe before WWI. The descriptions of the meals, customs, restaurants and restauranteurs made me envious of a lifestyle that we were born too late to experience. I found myself reading snippets out loud to friends. Remniscent of A.J. Liebling's "Between Meals."
August 30, 2007
I'm a sucker for books like these: food, another time and place (Czechoslovakia, Vienna...)...and Wechsberg has many. My favorites are his memoir/food books--but he also wrote many books about music, and one on banking.
April 17, 2012
Oh the joys of reading and eating, and reading about eating. Blue Trout and Black Truffles is a real foodie’s memoir of growing up in Europe in the first half of the Twentieth Century, and it traces his life events through his meals remembering the days of true haute cuisine in France.
February 7, 2015
Written in 1953, this is the wining and dining adventures in Europe of a privileged young adult. I enjoyed it, but probably missed a good portion of it because of all the French descriptions of the food.
June 24, 2008
A little history, a little traveling, some wispy insinuations from a bygone era, Central Europe, intrigue, what's not to love?
June 13, 2009
Oh yum! Makes you want to go out and eat gourmet every day. My sis is a foodie and avid reader, so I took this off her shelf when she highly recommended it to me. Educational and fun.
April 12, 2012
Enjoyable for the lovers of the classical cuisine.
September 21, 2015
Just ridiculously good.
Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews