Has anybody read this? I came across it mentioned in The Everlasting Meal, which I found moving and profound, and interlibrary loaned it. It’s quite similar in that it’s theoretically a cookbook (lamb for eight persons four times) but also meditations on food, cooking, existence, god, etc., from an Episcopalian priest. I’m very much enjoying it so far although I’ve only read about halfway through the first meal (he stops for quite some time to discuss tools, the nature of water, and the moral burden of killing meat).
I’m not a huge fan of lamb, although I do like a rack every so often, but I’m halfway considering dropping the change on a leg of lamb for my birthday next week and cooking my way through this. I dunno, $50 of lamb is a lot for a weirdo not-cookbook, but I’m trying to learn better how to wing it in the kitchen (I’m quite a good home cook but pretty recipe-bound) and use leftovers much better. We waste a ton of food and I’d like to get better at that.
Can I ask, what’s the author’s name? I Googled the title you give, and seemed only to get An Everlasting Meal, by a lady called Tamar Adler – described as an editor / cook / restaurateur, and seemingly not a priest of any kind (and you refer to the author as “he”).
Never heard of it, but was intrigued by the thread title.
The only book I can think of like this comes from a very different place. John Lanchester’s The Debt to Pleasure is a book which speaks to cooking and includes recipes, but as the narrator takes us along, we start to wonder about who he is and just what is going on - in a good, fun “what if Nabokov wrote a murder-mystery?” sort of way. He is a brilliant writer who has gone on to great acclaim and this is a great first book.
I also heartily recommend the Adler book as well; it is also a cookbook in the nontraditional mold, but more of “essays on cooking” that have some actual recipes.
I read the free preview on Googlebooks after seeing Zsofia start this thread and I was so entranced by his musings on the onion, I bought the book. Check back with me in a week.
Didn’t see this until today. Yes, I have read this book, but a long time ago. A prolific fellow-- Amazon lists over 20 books by him. I’ve read others of his, too, but it was well over 30 years ago. I remember liking the man personally very much.