In conjunction with The New Yorker’s launch of its new Food & Travel Issue this week, the magazine’s online Archive spotlights eight classic New Yorker “culinary journey” pieces: Susan Orlean’s "The Homesick Restaurant" (January 15, 1996); Calvin Trillin’s "Where's Chang?" (March 1, 2010); Adam Gopnik’s "Sweet Revolution" (January 3, 2011); Elif Batuman’s "The Memory Kitchen" (April 9, 2010); Bill Buford’s "Extreme Chocolate" (October 29, 2007); Kelefa Sanneh’s "Sacred Grounds" (November 21, 2011); Jane Kramer’s "Spice Routes" (September 3, 2007); and Dana Goodyear’s "The Missionary" (January 30, 2012).
I relish “culinary journey” writing, particularly a
subcategory I call “culinary quests,” in which the writer searches for, say, the
perfect pumpernickel bagel (Calvin Trillin’s "The Magic Bagel," March 20, 2000),
or a golden-brown Baumkuchen baked
the traditional way (Mimi Sheraton’s "Spit Cake," November 23, 2009). My
favorite New Yorker “culinary quest”
piece is Molly O’Neill’s wonderful "Home For Dinner" (July 23, 2001), a “Letter
From Cambodia,” in which O’Neill superbly describes Le Cirque chef Sottha
Khunn’s return to his hometown, Siem Reap, to learn how to make the one
quintessential Cambodian dish – “sea bass steamed over a broth of lemongrass
and galangal (a gingerlike root),
thickened with butter and enlivened with chopped tomatoes, chives, and basil” –
that has always frustrated him (“He worked and reworked the dish, and it earned
him critical praise, but he felt that some minute calibration between sweet and
sour continued to elude him. ‘Not yet the perfect balance, the sensation that
lets the customer taste the world as I taste it,’ he said”).
“Home For Dinner” ’s tagline (“A leading chef tries to
reconcile himself to the past with one perfect meal”) neatly captures the
story’s essence. If you enjoy culinary quests, as I do, you’ll likely devour
Molly O’Neill’s great “Home For Dinner.”
Credit: The above photo by Hans Gissinger is from Mimi Sheraton’s "Spit Cake" (The New Yorker, November 23, 2009).
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