‘An oyster leads a dreadful but exciting life.’ M. F. K. Fisher, Consider the Oyster
In Consider the Oyster, the celebrated American food writer M. F. K. Fisher pays tribute to that most delicate and enigmatic of foods: the oyster. She tells of oysters found in stews and soups, roasted, baked, fried, prepared à la Rockefeller or au naturel – and of the pearls sometimes found therein.
As she describes each dish, Fisher recalls her own initiation into the ‘strange cold succulence’ of raw oysters as a young woman in Marseille and Dijon, and explores both the bivalve’s famed aphrodisiac properties and its equally notorious gut-wrenching powers. Consider the Oyster plumbs the ‘dreadful but exciting’ life of this particular mollusc, and Fisher invites readers to share in the comforts and delights that this delicate edible evokes while she enchants us along the way with her characteristically wise and witty prose.
‘She is not just a great a great food writer. She is a great writer, full stop.’ Rachel Cooke, Observer
Pure Arcadia
I don’t really consider M. F. a cookery writer per se. She is a sort of food alchemist and is positively sensual about the pleasure of food. ‘I just wish my fellow countrymen were more relaxed....
Read moreWith Bold Knife and Fork
Mary Frances Kennedy Fisher did write exquisitely. She also wrote a vast amount, and one might fear indigestion on so hefty a diet of opinion, scathing contempt and passion for the many and varied...
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