That Don't Impress Me Much

I could get into Michael Pollen's writing in the Omnivore’s Dilemma but this is was too much. Every dining out section from Secret Ingredients made me want to give the bird to the next pretentious person I came across. The writing was aimed toward an audience that, of course, has been to France or knows the French language. It seems that you can’t be a true "foodie" unless you make it your life's passion or have enough money to make it a secondary one. I did enjoy the first story, All You Can Hold for Five Bucks, because of its history, though I didn't particularly appreciate the attention to sexism. I also liked the nostalgia and the attention to detail.

That same attention to detail however was exhausting and confusing in the subsequent chapters.

I was so surprised by how much I disliked reading the works of A.J. Liebling (A Good Appetite and The Afterglow) that I wasn’t even sure how to pin point all the reasons why. What appeared to be precise detail, I realized with the help of Anthony Lane’s piece, Look Back in Hunger from the dining in section was actually annoying and distracting trains of thought—well thought out and complexly presented trains of thought but confusing nonetheless. 

In the chapter on M. Point, The Finest Better and Lots of Time, he says, “you can’t think of money, or you’re licked from the start” (23). I have trouble with this statement, as well as with the assumption that people have the time in their lives to make cooking such a priority. I agree that cooking is an art form. However, it seemed in the first few chapters of the dining out section the authors expected that every one should want to partake in the creation and admiration of cooking as an art. I felt condescension and pretention as I read Mitchell, Wechsberg, Liebling, Gopnik, Bourdain and Harrison—especially Harrison, his telling of the 50 course meal he partook of seemed unconscionable to me.

The section I appreciated the most was Anthony Lane’s, Look Back in Hunger, from the dining in section. I felt that this author and this story was actually on my side while the others from dining out seemed to be attacking me. I think Lane’s piece reads the most honestly. I enjoyed his characterization of Martha Stewart and his reference to David Cronenberg! Like Liebling he covered a lot of ground in his article but he did so without making me feel overwhelmed. I had never considered cookbooks before but now that I have I think Lane gets it mostly right.