What do You think about An Omelette And A Glass Of Wine (1997)?
I hate to say it, but sometimes my like/dislike of book is based on the typeset and formatting of the text. This book's font, spacing, et al. reminded me too much of college texts to be anything of literary meat, and so I started reading with an unfair bias. However, I tried to literally read through the lines, but this book felt "British": formal, structured, within its boundaries. I felt that Elizabeth David was an extreme Francophile who looked down her nose at her own countrymen. Granted, I highly regard her contributions to modern gastronomy and wanted to really appreciate her essays in this book, but I couldn't get past a sort of stodginess. I expected someone who is truly in love with food to express that passion for it rather than rattling off a list of its accolades. There were some great moments in the book, but I found myself skimming over some essays despite my strange commitment to usually having to read every word. In the end, I still think I didn't give it a fair shake because of the typeset, but it didn't win me over either.
—Melissa
I have a food-centric book club going with a group of Seattle food friends, and we wanted to read one of the classic food writers of the 20th century. We chose Elizabeth David. She's an excellent writer, but this one didn't speak to me as I expected. I suspect it suffers from something we've talked about in my Favorite Book Club -- she's such an icon (and mimicked by latter writers) that her works almost seemed derivative. She was likely the original voice, so I feel a tad guilty finding her essays stale. Out of the whole collection, there were probably 3 essays I truly enjoyed.
—Rachel
