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The Gourmands' Way: Six Americans in Paris and the Birth of a New Gastronomy
A Publishers Weekly Best Nonfiction Book of 2017 and a Christian Science Monitor Best Book of 2017. Winner of the Gourmand World Cookbook Award in Culinary History.
"The broad outline of Spring's thesis is so persuasive, the details so evocative (not to mention mouth watering), that anyone interested in the evolution of cooking in America will find The Gourmands' Way informative and indispensable." ―Wendy Smith, The Boston Globe
A biography of six writers on food and wine whose lives and careers intersected in mid-twentieth-century France.
During the thirty-year boom in France following World War II― les Trente Glorieuses ―Paris was not only the world’s most stylish tourist destination, it was also the world capital of gastronomic genius. In The Gourmands’ Way , Justin Spring tells the story of six American writer-adventurers having the time of their lives in the City of Light during this period and, in doing so, transforming the way Americans talk and think about food―and the way they eat.
The six are A. J. Liebling, Alice B. Toklas, M.F.K. Fisher, Julia Child, Alexis Lichine, and Richard Olney. The Gourmands’ Way is the first book ever to look at these unforgettable figures as a group. It is also the first to focus specifically on their Paris-based adventures. Liebling was a great war correspondent, reporter, and humorist who opens Spring’s narrative by sweeping into Paris with the French and Allied forces in August 1944; Toklas was Gertrude Stein’s life partner who reinvented herself at age seventy-five as a cookbook author; Fisher was a sensualist storyteller and fabulist; Child was a cookbook author, America’s greatest television food celebrity, and the reinventor of the dinner party; Lichine was an ambitious wine merchant who, through an astounding series of risk-taking ventures, became the leading importer of French wines in America; and Olney was a reclusive but freewheeling artist who reluctantly evolved into one of the foremost American writers on French cuisine and French wine.
Justin Spring focuses on the most joyful, exciting, formative, and dramatic moments of these six lives, many of which were intimately connected to the exploration and discovery of fine French food and drink―whether they experienced it at top Michelin-starred restaurants or straight from a hot plate in an artist’s garret. The Gourmands’ Way leads us through both the fabled world of haute cuisine and the vibrant bohemian and artistic haunts of the Left Bank during the 1950s. Intimate, anecdotal, and beautifully researched, The Gourmands’ Way is an eye-opening exploration of the rich, storied annals of mid-twentieth-century Franco-American culinary history.
"The broad outline of Spring's thesis is so persuasive, the details so evocative (not to mention mouth watering), that anyone interested in the evolution of cooking in America will find The Gourmands' Way informative and indispensable." ―Wendy Smith, The Boston Globe
A biography of six writers on food and wine whose lives and careers intersected in mid-twentieth-century France.
During the thirty-year boom in France following World War II― les Trente Glorieuses ―Paris was not only the world’s most stylish tourist destination, it was also the world capital of gastronomic genius. In The Gourmands’ Way , Justin Spring tells the story of six American writer-adventurers having the time of their lives in the City of Light during this period and, in doing so, transforming the way Americans talk and think about food―and the way they eat.
The six are A. J. Liebling, Alice B. Toklas, M.F.K. Fisher, Julia Child, Alexis Lichine, and Richard Olney. The Gourmands’ Way is the first book ever to look at these unforgettable figures as a group. It is also the first to focus specifically on their Paris-based adventures. Liebling was a great war correspondent, reporter, and humorist who opens Spring’s narrative by sweeping into Paris with the French and Allied forces in August 1944; Toklas was Gertrude Stein’s life partner who reinvented herself at age seventy-five as a cookbook author; Fisher was a sensualist storyteller and fabulist; Child was a cookbook author, America’s greatest television food celebrity, and the reinventor of the dinner party; Lichine was an ambitious wine merchant who, through an astounding series of risk-taking ventures, became the leading importer of French wines in America; and Olney was a reclusive but freewheeling artist who reluctantly evolved into one of the foremost American writers on French cuisine and French wine.
Justin Spring focuses on the most joyful, exciting, formative, and dramatic moments of these six lives, many of which were intimately connected to the exploration and discovery of fine French food and drink―whether they experienced it at top Michelin-starred restaurants or straight from a hot plate in an artist’s garret. The Gourmands’ Way leads us through both the fabled world of haute cuisine and the vibrant bohemian and artistic haunts of the Left Bank during the 1950s. Intimate, anecdotal, and beautifully researched, The Gourmands’ Way is an eye-opening exploration of the rich, storied annals of mid-twentieth-century Franco-American culinary history.
448 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2017
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609 people want to read
About the author
Justin Spring
43 books31 followersJustin Spring is a New York based writer specializing in twentieth-century American art and culture. He is the author of many monographs, catalogs, museum publications, and books, including the biography Fairfield Porter: A Life in Art (Yale University Press, 2000) and Paul Cadmus: The Male Nude (Universe, 2002). He has been the recipient of a number of grants, fellowships, and awards, including a Guggenheim Fellowship and the International Association of Art Critics Best Show Award. He has held research fellowships from Yale University, Brown University, Radcliffe College and Amherst College. His monograph on Paul Cadmus was a finalist for the Lamda Literary Award in Art History.
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couldn-t-finish
September 20, 2025First section on AJ Leibling was good. Then I rapidly lost interest.
November 16, 2017
This was fantastic, and I think it would be getting a lot more attention if it didn't have that truly awful title and cover. Really--could the title be more off-putting? And the cover does not represent the content of the book at all. If you can get past all of that, though, this is a great group biography. I was particularly interested in Richard Olney and M.F.K. Fisher (and happy that the author also thinks that she is completely overrated).
December 4, 2023
Oh this was fun and gossipy and I just hear this back and forth “how fun would it be if we make a proust joke for the title” “you sure, you can’t change it later?” “yes, I know this is what I want” anyways relate so hard to committing to something erudite and unreachable and unchangeable (naming my cat) but also this was a spirited group biography which generally is more my bag as with a solo biography I get boooored of just one persons life so way to go I felt inspired to eat more French food and the drive to develop a very expensive wine hobby grows stronger day by day
June 11, 2018
Presumably the title is a takeoff on “ The Guermantes Way.” Spring has done his research and has revelations about each of his six subjects. He doesn’t waffle and hide his judgment of his subjects. But one wonders why he treats them quite differently.
As a quote from the dust jacket says, Spring seems to take great pleasure in the “desacralization of M.F.K. Fisher.” Given his snide belittling of her work, it is a wonder Spring included her at all. Damning with faint praise, Spring says no one had ever written about food as romantically as Fisher; but he gives no examples that show her skill, but repeatedly (and admittedly) questions her veracity, integrity, and life choices.
At the other end of the spectrum, Spring enshrines Richard Olney as the epitome of French cooking, living, as well as a writing genius; he gives telling instances to back up his assertions.
Spring seems to be schizophrenic about Julia Child, criticizing her both for writing at length about the proper and painstaking way to create French classics and then for selling out and embracing short cuts, inferior substitutions and labor-saving methods.
In general, I enjoyed reading The Gourmands’ Way, despite Spring’s less than neutral treatment of his subjects. As previously I was not aware of Alexis Lichine, A.J. Liebling, Richard Olney, and Alice B. Toklas’s influence on introducing French food to Americans, I learned a lot and am spurred to read their writing.
As a quote from the dust jacket says, Spring seems to take great pleasure in the “desacralization of M.F.K. Fisher.” Given his snide belittling of her work, it is a wonder Spring included her at all. Damning with faint praise, Spring says no one had ever written about food as romantically as Fisher; but he gives no examples that show her skill, but repeatedly (and admittedly) questions her veracity, integrity, and life choices.
At the other end of the spectrum, Spring enshrines Richard Olney as the epitome of French cooking, living, as well as a writing genius; he gives telling instances to back up his assertions.
Spring seems to be schizophrenic about Julia Child, criticizing her both for writing at length about the proper and painstaking way to create French classics and then for selling out and embracing short cuts, inferior substitutions and labor-saving methods.
In general, I enjoyed reading The Gourmands’ Way, despite Spring’s less than neutral treatment of his subjects. As previously I was not aware of Alexis Lichine, A.J. Liebling, Richard Olney, and Alice B. Toklas’s influence on introducing French food to Americans, I learned a lot and am spurred to read their writing.
December 31, 2018
Terrific book that peels back the curtain to reveal the life and times of six Americans who championed French food from after WW2 through the late 60s. What I loved most about this histo/biography is the way it demystifies French cooking and culture, making it clear that there are 2 kinds of good French food - the simplicity of the "bonne femme" and the complex "haute cuisine." Highly recommend.
March 1, 2019
I did not finish this book because the author’s misogyny got to me. Life’s too short. He clearly is disgusted by MFK Fisher—not sure why he included her in this book—and believes Julia Child only came into her own purely b/c of her husband Paul’s support. I didn’t need to read beyond that.
July 9, 2022
I am an unabashed francophile from a long line of francophiles so I was already set up to enjoy this books. About 22 years ago I read Justin Spring's excellent biography of the painter Fairfield Porter--and, coincidentally, encountered his mom in the cafe of the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum in Madrid a few days later. Moreover, food and drink are chief among my delights. I bought a copy of the book for my husband as a Christmas gift anticipating I would get it later--and indeed I did.
The books focuses on "Les Trentes Glorieuses," "the Thirty Glorious Years," the epoch from the end of World War II in 1945 to the beginning of the post-modern era which one can recognize in 1975. There's a good retrospective view of the history, not least of which was the moment of World War 1 (1914-1918) and 1920s, as well as the Belle Epoque culture of the turn-of-the-century. Spring concentrates on "Six Americans in Paris and the Birth of a New Gastronomy," as the subtitle says. The Six Americans are, alphabetically, Julia child, M.F.K. Fisher, Alexis Lichine, A.J. Liebling, Richard Olney and Alice B. Toklas. And what a gang they are!
The book is a tour-de-force of organization. These characters have complicated back stories and their lives intersect on many levels. This is hardly one great "moveable feast." While the Six play the leading roles, there are an enormous number of supporting cast--The Englishwomen Elizabeth David and Sybille Bedford, the canny marketers of French food and wine in America, including James Beard, Craig Claiborne, Philippe of the Waldorf, magazine and cookbook publishers and an assortment of hucksters and individuals consumed by ambition.
Certainly one of the great delights for me was encountering the names I already knew. Chief among these was Samuel Chamberlain and his wife Narcissa. Sam, a masterful printmaker, writer and advertising executive, met my maternal grandfather in World War I, in 1917. Both were drivers in the fledgling American Ambulance Field Service, Sam in Section Sanitaire Etats-Unis 13 and Pop in SSU 15. Both Pop and Sam began their dedication to French wines and fine foods as hungry young lads for whom every meal was positively the last.
The book is just larded with names famous and less well known and Spring does a magnificent job keeping all identities clear. The facts in the book are meticulously cited and the French phrases and historical allusions efficiently translated and explained in footnotes. The front papers provide a map of Paris with homes and restaurants identified. I love maps. When I teach Modern Art, I use a lot of maps to show in literal terms the smallness of the neighborhoods artists called home. Of course this didn't stop me hauling out Google Maps and pinpointing locations more exactly. And how thrilling it was to realize that Richard Olney's home in Sollies-Toucas in the Var was only half an hour west of Collobrieres where we stayed some years back. Now I have such an urge to go and visit--as the house is maintained as a destination by Olney's friends the Peyrauds.
What is particularly wonderful is the frequently harsh light this book about Paris and French gastronomy ends up shedding on the evolution of American society during the same period, and post especially during the 1950s and 1960s--my era, as a boomer born in 1952. It suggests the world that I knew as a child and teen, where French wines were routinely served at the table (and even my sister and I got our own portion in miniaturized-wine-glass liqueur glasses, was not the norm. We grew up following eating our salad after the main course and not as a starter. Of course, we also grew of with Pop reciting "Peter Rabbit" to us in French, during with he gleefully named the bunnies: "Flopson, Mopson, Queue-de-Coton et Pierre."
If you are a partisan of travel writing, culinary writing or history of the 20th century in France and the United States, this book is just what you wanted. Along with a lovely glass of wine.
The books focuses on "Les Trentes Glorieuses," "the Thirty Glorious Years," the epoch from the end of World War II in 1945 to the beginning of the post-modern era which one can recognize in 1975. There's a good retrospective view of the history, not least of which was the moment of World War 1 (1914-1918) and 1920s, as well as the Belle Epoque culture of the turn-of-the-century. Spring concentrates on "Six Americans in Paris and the Birth of a New Gastronomy," as the subtitle says. The Six Americans are, alphabetically, Julia child, M.F.K. Fisher, Alexis Lichine, A.J. Liebling, Richard Olney and Alice B. Toklas. And what a gang they are!
The book is a tour-de-force of organization. These characters have complicated back stories and their lives intersect on many levels. This is hardly one great "moveable feast." While the Six play the leading roles, there are an enormous number of supporting cast--The Englishwomen Elizabeth David and Sybille Bedford, the canny marketers of French food and wine in America, including James Beard, Craig Claiborne, Philippe of the Waldorf, magazine and cookbook publishers and an assortment of hucksters and individuals consumed by ambition.
Certainly one of the great delights for me was encountering the names I already knew. Chief among these was Samuel Chamberlain and his wife Narcissa. Sam, a masterful printmaker, writer and advertising executive, met my maternal grandfather in World War I, in 1917. Both were drivers in the fledgling American Ambulance Field Service, Sam in Section Sanitaire Etats-Unis 13 and Pop in SSU 15. Both Pop and Sam began their dedication to French wines and fine foods as hungry young lads for whom every meal was positively the last.
The book is just larded with names famous and less well known and Spring does a magnificent job keeping all identities clear. The facts in the book are meticulously cited and the French phrases and historical allusions efficiently translated and explained in footnotes. The front papers provide a map of Paris with homes and restaurants identified. I love maps. When I teach Modern Art, I use a lot of maps to show in literal terms the smallness of the neighborhoods artists called home. Of course this didn't stop me hauling out Google Maps and pinpointing locations more exactly. And how thrilling it was to realize that Richard Olney's home in Sollies-Toucas in the Var was only half an hour west of Collobrieres where we stayed some years back. Now I have such an urge to go and visit--as the house is maintained as a destination by Olney's friends the Peyrauds.
What is particularly wonderful is the frequently harsh light this book about Paris and French gastronomy ends up shedding on the evolution of American society during the same period, and post especially during the 1950s and 1960s--my era, as a boomer born in 1952. It suggests the world that I knew as a child and teen, where French wines were routinely served at the table (and even my sister and I got our own portion in miniaturized-wine-glass liqueur glasses, was not the norm. We grew up following eating our salad after the main course and not as a starter. Of course, we also grew of with Pop reciting "Peter Rabbit" to us in French, during with he gleefully named the bunnies: "Flopson, Mopson, Queue-de-Coton et Pierre."
If you are a partisan of travel writing, culinary writing or history of the 20th century in France and the United States, this book is just what you wanted. Along with a lovely glass of wine.
May 3, 2019
Oh, Paris. Upon my return from my trip there last year, I told my dad I'm super annoyed we're not French. Paris had already been slowly creeping to consume a big slice of the pie chart of my interests since my first trip there in 2015. After my 2018 trip, it's become a full-on obsession.
This is a meticulously researched, generous, delicious portion of American history set in France. The three men and three women highlighted in this book were the tastemakers that had a hand in shaping the American gastronomic landscape to be what it is today. Some sections were a bit tedious, though, as at times it was so dense with an endless parade of footnotes and names. I had to keep flipping back and forth because I couldn't keep everyone straight. It was a bit like going to a party and meeting 50 new people within the span of a few hours.
Naturally, my favorite parts were the gossipy, dishy tidbits. I (perhaps naively) was completely unaware that M.F.K. Fisher "'found' her distinctive voice by crafting elaborate counternarratives to sort through her own indecorous life choices, failures, and tragedies." Part of the flair in her writing came from embroidering the truth and making it more romantic by setting the scenes in France. But did I love the revelation that she was a bit of a liar? YES. And the story of the wine merchant and connoisseur, Alexis Lichine, being out-lawyered and unable to use his own name for any wine business venture was heartbreaking. Even his son couldn't use the Lichine name for a new wine-exporting company many years after his death!
"In retrospect, [A.J. Liebling] felt the impecuniousness of his 1926 to 1927 year at the Sorbonne actually helped him understand French cooking, because, as he later wrote, 'the first requisite for writing well about food is a good appetite, [and] the second is to put in your apprenticeship as a feeder when you have enough money to pay the check but not enough to produce indifference to the size of the total.'" p. 17
"If [Claudius Charles] Philippe was a key player in the movement to popularize French wines in America during the 1940s and 1950s, his success was based, in no small degree, on swagger: the world of luxury wine collecting is a masculine arena in which big sales are often accomplished through an adroit combination of flattery and intimidation, bullying and reassurance." p. 32
"The paintings, furniture, and objets d'art at the rue de Fleurus had, in a sense, helped establish [Gertrude] Stein's credentials in Paris as a woman of taste and brilliance many years before her writings found their way into print, and certainly before any of those writings were recognized as significant." p. 49
"[Earle] MacAusland would continue to promote French luxe, calme, et volupté throughout his forty-year tenure at Gourmet, simultaneously enjoining his readership to think of French-style luxury dining not as gluttony, or even self-indulgence, but rather as a connoisseur's way of transcending everyday life and achieving a higher plane of being." p. 66
"[M.F.K.] Fisher actively revised and reshaped her past life to suit the needs of a compelling fantasy narrative; in doing so, she ultimately transformed its far more prosaic sorrows into something memorable and moving." p. 75
"During these years of glorified secretarial work, [Julia] Child had come to realize that she had 'the kind of orderly mind that was good at categorizing things,' and that she took real pleasure in 'trying to design and idiot-proof system' through which any ordinary person could easily gain access to information." p. 162
This is a meticulously researched, generous, delicious portion of American history set in France. The three men and three women highlighted in this book were the tastemakers that had a hand in shaping the American gastronomic landscape to be what it is today. Some sections were a bit tedious, though, as at times it was so dense with an endless parade of footnotes and names. I had to keep flipping back and forth because I couldn't keep everyone straight. It was a bit like going to a party and meeting 50 new people within the span of a few hours.
Naturally, my favorite parts were the gossipy, dishy tidbits. I (perhaps naively) was completely unaware that M.F.K. Fisher "'found' her distinctive voice by crafting elaborate counternarratives to sort through her own indecorous life choices, failures, and tragedies." Part of the flair in her writing came from embroidering the truth and making it more romantic by setting the scenes in France. But did I love the revelation that she was a bit of a liar? YES. And the story of the wine merchant and connoisseur, Alexis Lichine, being out-lawyered and unable to use his own name for any wine business venture was heartbreaking. Even his son couldn't use the Lichine name for a new wine-exporting company many years after his death!
"In retrospect, [A.J. Liebling] felt the impecuniousness of his 1926 to 1927 year at the Sorbonne actually helped him understand French cooking, because, as he later wrote, 'the first requisite for writing well about food is a good appetite, [and] the second is to put in your apprenticeship as a feeder when you have enough money to pay the check but not enough to produce indifference to the size of the total.'" p. 17
"If [Claudius Charles] Philippe was a key player in the movement to popularize French wines in America during the 1940s and 1950s, his success was based, in no small degree, on swagger: the world of luxury wine collecting is a masculine arena in which big sales are often accomplished through an adroit combination of flattery and intimidation, bullying and reassurance." p. 32
"The paintings, furniture, and objets d'art at the rue de Fleurus had, in a sense, helped establish [Gertrude] Stein's credentials in Paris as a woman of taste and brilliance many years before her writings found their way into print, and certainly before any of those writings were recognized as significant." p. 49
"[Earle] MacAusland would continue to promote French luxe, calme, et volupté throughout his forty-year tenure at Gourmet, simultaneously enjoining his readership to think of French-style luxury dining not as gluttony, or even self-indulgence, but rather as a connoisseur's way of transcending everyday life and achieving a higher plane of being." p. 66
"[M.F.K.] Fisher actively revised and reshaped her past life to suit the needs of a compelling fantasy narrative; in doing so, she ultimately transformed its far more prosaic sorrows into something memorable and moving." p. 75
"During these years of glorified secretarial work, [Julia] Child had come to realize that she had 'the kind of orderly mind that was good at categorizing things,' and that she took real pleasure in 'trying to design and idiot-proof system' through which any ordinary person could easily gain access to information." p. 162
December 16, 2023
While listening to Justin Spring's "The Gourmand's Way: Six Americans in Paris and the Birth of a New Gastronomy" I was simultaneously very hungry and in need of a Tums. Two courses with wine pairings from any French menu is enough to do me in, and there are many, many courses described in this book. Not only is my stomach sensitive to rich foods, but also to feelings, and there were quite a few moments during multi-biography of AJ Liebling, Julia Child, Alice B. Toklas, Alexis Lichine, MFK Fisher, and Richard Olney, all who helped popularize French food and wine among the American public, when my stomach hurt. I was drawn to this book because I love Paris, and I have read and enjoyed the writing of his subjects. However, for as much as Spring seems to revere these writers, he also seemed to delight in sharing salacious details about their lives that I couldn't decide if this was a tell-all or a serious discussion of how each influenced American's views on French food. The tell-all seemed to win out and took the shine off them. Many of the details were so incredibly sad, and at times it felt like Spring delighted in spilling the tea, especially in regard to Child and Fisher.
Even though the book was not what I expected, I did learn a lot about how French food was popularized, and the most interesting parts were about how Toklas had to reinvent herself as a cookbook author after Stein's death and how Lichine reimagined the wine industry, making it into what know of today. I listened to the audiobook, narrated by Bronson Pinchot (Balki!), and the reading was uneven. He read the footnotes and quotes from women sotto vocce and used a French accent whenever a French person was quoted. It was very hard to understand.
Not sure if I recommend this. Pick up AJ Liebling's "An Appetite for Paris" or any of the other authors' works and let them work their magic on you instead.
Even though the book was not what I expected, I did learn a lot about how French food was popularized, and the most interesting parts were about how Toklas had to reinvent herself as a cookbook author after Stein's death and how Lichine reimagined the wine industry, making it into what know of today. I listened to the audiobook, narrated by Bronson Pinchot (Balki!), and the reading was uneven. He read the footnotes and quotes from women sotto vocce and used a French accent whenever a French person was quoted. It was very hard to understand.
Not sure if I recommend this. Pick up AJ Liebling's "An Appetite for Paris" or any of the other authors' works and let them work their magic on you instead.
March 27, 2019
Very well written, incredibly well researched. That being said, I almost stopped reading this book in the middle of the first MFK Fisher chapter because he is SO harsh on her. I found him to be very judgmental at times. He has very strong opinions about all six subjects and he does not try to hide it. In a way, I appreciate this as a reader, because it allows me to more clearly understand and even question my own opinions. However, it was hard for me to get through the book at times and it made me question the author's point of view. As much as he puts down MFK Fisher, he puts Richard Olney on a pedestal. I did not come to the book with much knowledge about Richard Olney and I look forward to reading some of his work, and seeing what I think myself.
That was what kept me reading this book, despite the author's harsh light on Fisher and Julia Child. I was constantly adding to my "Want to read" list and looking things up and thinking "I want to go there! I want to try that! I want to know more about that!"
I wanted to give the book a lower rating because it made me so angry at times, but I also found it captivating, intriguing and enriching. It was worth the time and the bother.
That was what kept me reading this book, despite the author's harsh light on Fisher and Julia Child. I was constantly adding to my "Want to read" list and looking things up and thinking "I want to go there! I want to try that! I want to know more about that!"
I wanted to give the book a lower rating because it made me so angry at times, but I also found it captivating, intriguing and enriching. It was worth the time and the bother.
December 16, 2017
Whenever you hear authors on podcasts selling their books, you aren't sure if the really interesting ones can write as well as they sound. The author was so interesting and so engaging on the random podcast I caught him on that I searched him out on other book and food-related shows. He was engaging and smart and funny and all those things you want in anything that's taking up your attention while you're exercising.
And the book is just as engaging. His friendly and excited-about-his-subject tone is addictive. Some of the subjects of this book were people that I actively avoided reading about, but with this quirky perspective, I have learned so much about people who have made such a difference in the world and gave us so much sometimes with so little. There's plenty of triumph over tragedy to keep your interest - that's mainly what I read for - with wartime shortages and other hardships both personal and national to overcome.
This is what happens when a marvelous, gifted, talented, friendly, positive storyteller gets together with a subject matter that is equally fascinating and engaging. At least to a food memoir-loving reader like me.
And the book is just as engaging. His friendly and excited-about-his-subject tone is addictive. Some of the subjects of this book were people that I actively avoided reading about, but with this quirky perspective, I have learned so much about people who have made such a difference in the world and gave us so much sometimes with so little. There's plenty of triumph over tragedy to keep your interest - that's mainly what I read for - with wartime shortages and other hardships both personal and national to overcome.
This is what happens when a marvelous, gifted, talented, friendly, positive storyteller gets together with a subject matter that is equally fascinating and engaging. At least to a food memoir-loving reader like me.
January 28, 2018
Sort of a cross between an article from "Gourmet" and a gossip column, I enjoyed this book very much. The six Americans are A.J. Liebling, Julia Child, M.F.K. Fisher, Alexis Lichine, Richard Olney, and Alice B. Toklas, all of whom have lived and written about their passion for the food and wine of France. Honestly, I really only knew about Julia Child. I was familiar with the name Alexis Lichine from drinking wine, but I'd only heard of Alice B. Toklas "brownies" - they are actually fudge it seems. I had the most fun discovering the five I knew very little or nothing about. I believe Justin Spring was addressing the birth of a new gastronomy in America, but after all, I think some of the same changes have occurred in Paris, too, or rather now the demand for regional simple cooking in France is appreciated as much as haut cuisine. The only down side is all the name dropping and my lack of knowledge about the movers and shakers of 1920-50 in Paris. I just decided to skip over those parts and enjoy the story of each individual's life and work. Very fun.
July 23, 2018
Absolutely fascinating book filled with juicy details about the discovery of French cuisine and wine by Americans, James Beard, A.J. Liebling, Julia and Paul Child, M.F.K. Fisher, Alexis Lichine, Richard Olney, Alice B. Toklas and Poppy Cannon who lived and wrote about their passion for the food and wine of France. The book takes us through France pre WWII, immediately post WWII and into the 1950’s. Excellent journey through time, the creation of Gourmet magazine, the writing of cookbooks, writing guides and articles for naive Americans on the art and protocol of fine French dining, the digestive woes of Paul and Julia Child, love lives and trysts, the scandal surrounding Toklas’ hashish fudge 🤣, Cannon wrote the cookbook “Can Opener Cookbook” 🤣 as Americans focused on convenience foods, gossip and relationships of the movers and shakers during these time periods. It was a grand and magical time to experience France and its cuisines and wines. Bon appétit and à votre santé.
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/22/bo...
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/22/bo...
February 10, 2018
Compelling read that pieced together culinary, cultural and even political history to explain the influence of a relatively small clique of gourmands who helped popularize French cooking and wine in America. The biographical sketches were sufficiently detailed without being tangential and were woven into the wider narrative. The author's judgments were usually fair, sometimes perhaps not, but generally identified as such and broadly sympathetic to their subjects. His descriptions of dishes and meals left me hungry and longing to travel. He also managed to explain the progression and the end of the movement quite well, weaving them into the beginning of America's more recent, more cosmopolitan food tastes. Long enough for detail, short enough to sustain interest. Enjoyable book.
June 30, 2019
I enjoyed this book for the thoughtful way the author wove together the stories of 6 lovers of France, French food, and French wine—Julia Child, MFK Fisher, Alexis Lichine, AJ Liebling, Richard Olney, and Alice B Toklas—and wrote about that love. The author explored their lives starting just after WWII, uncovered their quirks, considered their motives, and critiqued their writings, exposing them all as unique, articulate Francophiles. As I read, I could feel France all around me. Although I had no idea who most of them were when I began the reading, by the end I’d fallen in love with each of them and now find myself wondering how I’m ever going to find time read everything these folks have written.
January 17, 2019
I loved the unexpected and detailed analysis of food literature by writers people I've never read before. I've never read any of Alice B. Toklas's food writing or how much she loved her vegetable garden and what happened after she didn't have it anymore. I'd never read AJ Liebling's way of looking at food, either. Food and life from the angle of these historic figures that I'd not yet heard of gave me a whole new way to look at food. Some of the imperfections of these people are also analyzed, as well as having a diet that makes one unwell.
January 13, 2019
Foodies in mid century Paris
I found this book to be fascinating because I love cooking and writing. someone with no particular interest in food (beyond getting something to eat) may not be so excited. I was introduced tp food writers I had not known previously, and renewed acquaintance with 'old friends' like M.F.K. Fisher and Julia Child. One of the results of reading The Gourmands is an expanded "to be read" list.
I found this book to be fascinating because I love cooking and writing. someone with no particular interest in food (beyond getting something to eat) may not be so excited. I was introduced tp food writers I had not known previously, and renewed acquaintance with 'old friends' like M.F.K. Fisher and Julia Child. One of the results of reading The Gourmands is an expanded "to be read" list.
May 6, 2018
I had a strong interest in the topic and have read most of the other books about these people. But the author's writing style was bizarrely off-putting—pseudo-academic, dull, and leaving no cliché unturned—and I confess I couldn't make it all the way through the book.
How was it possible to make such interesting people so dull?
How was it possible to make such interesting people so dull?
June 4, 2018
The book was interesting --if you are particularly interested in food history, great details and history. however I found it a little dense and frequently had to take breaks or refer back to earlier chapters to remind myself who I was reading about.
Well researched with lot's of details-- reading like a history text book in my opinion.
Well researched with lot's of details-- reading like a history text book in my opinion.
May 28, 2020
I am both a Francophile and a food appreciator and cook.
This evokes a lovely era in Paris and elsewhere in France, some of which still exists and other parts of which are long lost to modern methods and ingredients.
I did not want it to end, so now I'm looking at the writings and publications of the main characters.
This evokes a lovely era in Paris and elsewhere in France, some of which still exists and other parts of which are long lost to modern methods and ingredients.
I did not want it to end, so now I'm looking at the writings and publications of the main characters.
February 9, 2022
One would only read this book if you're a foodie. The name dropping, meal descriptions, lifestyles of the gourmands are very detailed. While the book does transport you to a different time and era, it was a little too much at times. You could skip paragraphs and not miss anything. How amazing it would have been to be one of these Americans in Paris then.
June 1, 2022
I learned a lot! While I knew quite a bit about Julia Child, (some not true!) I enjoyed his in-depth "foot-noted" accuracy to detail. I especially like Paul Child even more. MK Fisher, not so much. What will really make you jealous is the price they paid for food and wine! So jealous! Just 6 fascinating Americans in Paris, to say the least!
November 29, 2017
This describes how six Americans (Alice B. Toklas, Julia Child, M.F.K. Fisher, Richard Olney, Alexis Lichine, and A.J. Liebling), in his/her own way, introduced Americans to the many varieties of French cuisines and wines. Anyone interested in food history will find this fascinating.
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December 1, 2017A careful, detailed revisionist account. Julia Child, M. F. K. Fisher, and Alexis Lichine lose their luster, and, surprise, the real stars are A. J. Liebling, Richard Olney, and Alice B. Toklas. The portrait of Olney is particularly penetrating. —Dennis J. Hutchinson
December 9, 2017
Plenty of fascinating tidbits and morsels, however the mean-spirited tone threw me out of the story all too often. I appreciated the attempt to interweave the stories instead of six distinct biographies, but it felt too disjointed to really get deeply into any of them in the end.
April 17, 2018
I felt the authors preferences and prejudices were so clear the book felt unbalanced. The vitriol aimed at M.F.K. Fisher was shocking while the praise of Richard Olney was often overly romantic and gushing.
May 31, 2018
Justin Spring's "The Gourmands' Way:" is remarkable not only for his knowledge but also his execution.
There is not one part of this book that is a slog to read. The profiles of Richard Olney and M.F.K. Fisher standout but all are of the profiles are truly enjoyable. His passages on the English food writer Elizabeth David is so good her works are now on my list of books to be purchase and as for M.F.K Fisher - well I'm not in a rush to read her writings.
There is not one part of this book that is a slog to read. The profiles of Richard Olney and M.F.K. Fisher standout but all are of the profiles are truly enjoyable. His passages on the English food writer Elizabeth David is so good her works are now on my list of books to be purchase and as for M.F.K Fisher - well I'm not in a rush to read her writings.
June 12, 2018
I really did enjoy most of this book on audio and if you are a foodie, the book offers insights as to how French cuisine and cooking were brought to America by the 6 characters highlighted by the author.
July 7, 2018
A gift from my cousin Melanie Moon= she knows how to pick them. This is the story of six Americans in France- Julia Child, MFK Fisher, Alexis Lichine, Alice B Toklas, Richard Olney and AJ Liebling- does not get better and lots on the wine too
February 14, 2020
This was super dense and I dont know that I would have been able to read the physical book (listened to the audiobook). Really fascinating to learn more about Toklas and Fischer and wine history, and the progression of parisian/american food.
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