Provence, 1970 - 9780307718358

"Luke Barr has inherited the clear and inimitable voice of his great aunt M. F. K. Fisher, and deftly portrays a crucial turning point in the history of food in America with humor, intimacy, and deep perception. Provence, 1970 is beautifully written and totally fascinating." ---Alice Waters

Provence, 1970 is about a singular historic moment when six iconic culinary figures---including Julia Child, James Beard, and M. F. K. Fisher---found themselves together in the South of France. They cooked and ate and talked late into the night about the future of food in America, the meaning of taste, and the limits of snobbery. Drawing in large part from M. F. K. Fisher's detailed journals and letters, her grandnephew Luke Barr has recreated what was in retrospect a key turning point---when the democratization of cooking and taste became part of the national conversation in America. His dramatic retelling of those weeks in the scenic hills above the Cote D'Azur traces the beginnings of a modern American food culture and how, without quite realizing it, these players changed the course of culinary history to reshape the way we eat now