Fork It Over: The Intrepid Adventures of a Professional Eater

From Publishers Weekly
As GQ’s longtime food critic and an 11-time James Beard Award winner, Richman has eaten a lot of fancy food. But the best essays in this collection—culled mainly from his work for magazines—don’t speak of foie gras or truffles. The accounts of Richman’s escapades eating at places like Alain Ducasse’s three Michelin–starred Le Louis XV, and even his reminiscences of meals at dives like the Pantry in Los Angeles, become repetitive when grouped together. The two standouts are the essays about Richman’s parents. In "A Mother’s Knishes," he achieves the quasi-miraculous feat of finding something fresh to say about a food-crazed Jewish mother, in this case by recounting her loss of identity as she descends into senility and loses her culinary skills. The second, the hilarious "Miami Weiss," investigates the "Early Bird" tradition of South Florida. When the doors open at 5 p.m. at the Fort Lauderdale restaurant Fifteenth Street Fisheries, Richman writes, "It’s a sort of Geriatric Olympics." The essays are arranged in menu-like fashion under such headings as "Appetizers," "Entrees," etc. The "Palate Cleansers" are unsatisfactory, brief pieces, with titles like "Ten Commandments for Diners," which come off as condescending. Also, Richman’s attitude toward women is archaic to say the least ("she was a woman who knew how to eat like a man"), which may turn off a good number of readers. Agent, Kathy Robbins. Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.


From Booklist
A compilation of Richman's magazine columns across the last decade, this volume brings together critic Richman's deftly worded ruminations on food and restaurants. Richman's storytelling ability serves him well, especially in such essays as his description of a historic New York City Jewish deli, whose waiters' Yiddishisms constituted a form of theater, bestowing insults on all comers, foreign and domestic. Typical of restaurant critics everywhere, Richman's dislikes make for the most striking and most memorable reading: bad pizza in Naples, inedible Chinese food in Shanghai, overpriced sushi in Los Angeles, dreadful service in the Hamptons. In an original, clever, courageous, and well-reported piece, Richman delves into both food and culture at Louis Farrakhan's Nation of Islam restaurant and mosque, surviving the experience intact despite his Jewish origins. A survey of cuisine in Montreal says as much about the region's politics as about the food. As with most anthologies of food criticism, the book lacks immediacy, since restaurants tend to be ephemeral, passing all too quickly into history. Mark Knoblauch
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved


Food & Wine
More than an extraordinary food writer, Richman is an extraordinary writer, period...reflexively entertaining.


Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
"Richman’s ... funny sentences both engage and surprise."


Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
"A sharp, rollicking collection of articles documenting Richman’s most memorable culinary experiences…. An enjoyable treat full of gastronomic guffaws."


Book Description

Alan Richman has dined inmore unlikely locations and devoured more tasting menus than any three other food critics combined. Over the decades, his editors have complained incessantly about his expense accounts but never about his appetite. He has reviewed restaurants in all the best Communist countries (China, Vietnam, Cuba) and supped heartily all over the free world. Wherever he's gone, GQ magazine's acclaimed food, wine, and restaurant critic has brought along his impeccable palate, Herculean constitution, and biting humor.

In this globe-trotting literary smorgasbord, the eleven-time winner of the James Beard Foundation Award for food writing retraces his most savory culinary adventures. Richman's inexhaustible hunger and unquenchable curiosity take him to the best restaurants and most irresistible meals, from Monte Carlo to Corona, Queens. He seeks out the finest barbecue in America -- it's in Ayden, North Carolina, by the way -- the costliest sushi in Los Angeles, and the most perfumed black truffles in France. Along the way he has studied at Paul Bocuse's cooking school in Lyon (and failed), moonlighted as a sommelier in New York (and failed), and charmed his way through a candlelight dinner with actress Sharon Stone (and failed big time).

FROM THE PUBLISHER

Alan Richman has dined inmore unlikely locations and devoured more tasting menus than any three other food critics combined. Over the decades, his editors have complained incessantly about his expense accounts but never about his appetite. He has reviewed restaurants in all the best Communist countries (China, Vietnam, Cuba) and supped heartily all over the free world. Wherever he's gone, GQ magazine's acclaimed food, wine, and restaurant critic has brought along his impeccable palate, Herculean constitution, and biting humor.

In this globe-trotting literary smorgasbord, the eleven-time winner of the James Beard Foundation Award for food writing retraces his most savory culinary adventures. Richman's inexhaustible hunger and unquenchable curiosity take him to the best restaurants and most irresistible meals, from Monte Carlo to Corona, Queens. He seeks out the finest barbecue in America—it's in Ayden, North Carolina, by the way—the costliest sushi in Los Angeles, and the most perfumed black truffles in France. Along the way he has studied at Paul Bocuse's cooking school in Lyon (and failed), moonlighted as a sommelier in New York (and failed), and charmed his way through a candlelight dinner with actress Sharon Stone (and failed big time).

Through it all—roughly 50,000 meals and still counting—one thing is certain: Alan Richman has never come to a fork in the road without a fork in his hand.

About the Author:

Alan Richman is a contributing writer for GQ, Condé Nast Traveler, and Bon Appétit, as well as the newly appointed Dean of Food Journalism at the French Culinary Institute.He lives in Westchester County, New York, with his wife, Lettie Teague, a wine columnist and editor, and their two dogs, Sophie and Rudy. The dogs love Alan's cooking.

FROM THE CRITICS

Library Journal

Eating for a living isn't quite as easy as it sounds, at least not when you're reading this collection of deliciously humorous essays from James Beard Award-winning food critic Richman. From his less-than-satisfactory experiences in some of France's finest restaurants to his musings on the since-faded glories of dining in Montreal, he takes readers on a culinary journey around the world with entertaining detours in China, Naples, and Los Angeles. Whether enrolling in cooking school or exploring the mysteries of truffles, Richman's dry, witty prose will delight readers who crave good culinary writing. Many will recognize him from GQ magazine, in which several of these piece originally ran. Recommended for larger public libraries, especially those where other culinary collections such as James Villas's Stalking the Green Fairy: And Other Fantastic Adventures in Food and Drink are popular with readers.-John Charles, Scottsdale P.L., AZ Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.

Kirkus Reviews