Friday in Provence

Well, not really IN Provence, but since it is too hot to do much else, I am reading through and enjoying mightily this book:

Provence, 1970

Luke Barr is the grand-nephew of M.F.K. Fisher and writes here about an impromptu convocation in Provence of American food writers who had all, in their own way, introduced French cuisine to the average American table. Times were changing, and America's tastes in cooking and style were changing too. The conversation around their kitchens and tables in Provence was about the direction American cuisine might go and how they could help to shape that journey.

A fellow food writer and American ex-pat entered this scene and apparently the fireworks began!  I think, Richard Olney, you were a very naughty boy!

After Olney and M.F.K. were introduced and shared several wonderful meals with the group, a disgruntled M.F.K. left and went on her own to Arles to have a good hard think about the direction her writing would take going forward. Using M.F.K.'s journal of 1970, letters to and from those who gathered in Provence in December, and from M.F.K.'s own story of her time in Arles, "About Looking Alone At a Place:  Arles", Barr weaves the tale.

An introduction to Richard Olney:

Richard Olney: the quiet American who found his soul in Provence