The Kitch Lit Series: The City of Light

There is such comfort that comes with a return to the familiar. For me, that has been a recent return to the culinary world. I’m deep into watching Top Chef for the hundredth time. Currently blowing through the hot mess that was Top Chef :Texas. And to coincide, a return to food-centric text. 

The Man Who Ate Everything was a slog. Some interesting culinary tidbits lie within Jeffrey Steingarten’s tome, but for someone with minimal interest the true science of cooking and baking, it was a lot of information for my little Kraft Mac and Cheese brain. From Steingarten’s New York City apartment, I now find myself in the culinary mecca of France. 

David Lebovitz’s The Sweet Life in Paris is delightful. Part guidebook, part cookbook, completely charming. Lebovitz spent decades as a pastry chef in San Francisco before relocating to Paris. Sprinkled in between pastry recipes, Lebovitz documents his time working in a fish market and a chocolate shop and expounds on the unique traits of Paris and its’ inhabitants, including, a strange acceptance – at one time – of public urination. Lebovitz has a breezy and descriptive writing style. He vividly paints a picture of his tiny Paris apartment overflowing with sweet treats. Baking chocolate piled high and shelves stuffed with bags of flour and sugar. Lebovitz makes inroads with locals by off loading his pastries and batches of ice cream, in part because there is literally no space to store them. Paris marked a new chapter for Lebovitz and hopefully, for his readers, there are more culinary chapters yet to come. 

From Paris we head south to Lyon with Bill Buford. Buford wrote about Italian culinary culture and the restaurant industry in Heat, which documented his time spent in Mario Batali’s kitchen at Babbo. Thus far, I’ve only just begun reading Dirt, Buford’s recent exploration of French cooking. From New York, Buford, his wife and two young twin boys embark on an adventure, with the ultimate goal being Buford’s true understanding of French cooking. I relish the thought of diving into his journey of cultural immersion through food in Lyon, France, the city which most consider the true home of French cuisine.

One day, my interest in all things cuisine may translate to real deal cooking on my part. As it stands, I just requested someone send me a recipe for pizza beans. No, that is not a typo. Google pizza beans, it’s a thing.