Over the past few months, we’ve been sharing collections of classic New Yorker stories from our archive, including some of our favorite Profiles and love stories, as well as selections on leading actresses and artists. Now we turn to the culinary arts, with a collection of six pieces about the lives of chefs, from Julia Child’s early days as a cookbook author to Mario Batali’s dream of cooking pasta like his Italian grandmother’s.
“Good Cooking” (1974): Calvin Tomkins examines how Julia Child revolutionized the way Americans approach French cuisine, and subsequently pioneered the role of the celebrity chef.
“Chef on the Edge” (2008): Larissa MacFarquhar follows David Chang as he opens his third restaurant and pursues his dream of elevating humble street food into four-star cuisine.
“The Secret of Excess” (2002): Bill Buford profiles the larger-than-life Mario Batali, and finds that his inventive cuisine has almost single-handedly transformed the way we think about Italian cooking.
“The Millennial Restaurant” (1998): Adam Gopnik accompanies the Berkeley chef Alice Waters through the vegetable markets of Paris as she explains her culinary philosophy.
“A Man of Taste” (2008): D. T. Max chronicles Grant Achatz’s battle with tongue cancer and his perseverance after temporarily losing his ability to taste.
“Don’t Eat Before Reading This” (1999): Anthony Bourdain spills the trade secrets of some of Manhattan’s top restaurants.
We hope that you enjoy these pieces, as well as the stories we’ve already shared in previous collections, and that you’ll follow us on Facebook and Twitter, where our contributors continue to recommend their favorite articles from the archive.
