This sumptuous blend of recipes with cultural history is a dinner invitation you won't want to pass up. Chances are you weren't invited to the wedding of Grace Kelley and Prince Ranier, or to Truman Capote's famous "Black and White" ball at the Plaza Hotel. But now you can experience those and other legendary celebrations in your own home, as well as learn about the historic and cultural moments they embodied. This beautifully designed book brings together twenty menus--both authentic and imagined--along with instructions for preparing each dish and recreating the dinners in your home. Each event is represented in multi-page spreads that feature contemporary photographs to help you recreate the meals in your kitchen, while archival images and entertaining essays provide important historical context. You may not live on the Cote d'Azur like Coco Chanel, but why not pretend with the perfect salade niçoise? Join the con artist Henry Gerguson and serve up some fabulous mid-century Noodles Romanoff. Feeling artistic? Serve your guests some roast chicken and borscht, the way Jackson Pollock and Lee Krasner did, with vegetables fresh from their Long Island garden. From JFK's triumphant visit to Berlin to the White House reception for the Apollo 11 crew; from a Bloomsbury high tea to dinner with the famously private Audrey Hepburn, this fun and sophisticated mixture of culture and food will reside as happily on your coffee table as it will on your cookbook shelf.

This is not a cookbook per se, but a memoir written for my children and grandchildren, recording what they have eaten under my roof, as well as the whys and wherefores that colored their existence before they were old enough to control their own destinies. It covers what I learned from a lot of people who influenced me, starting with my father, and consequently had a bearing on everyone I have cared for and influenced since. This has been something like a daisy chain; you help me and I’ll help somebody else, because there’s no way to repay you. It has been complied from scraps written down through the years because I did not want to forget. What has been joyous or painful, or strange or commonplace, seems to be significant today only because it was unusual in what turned out to be the last half of a millennium. It has been my lot to have been interested in a great many things: art, food, architecture, history, plants, travel, men, and my family. I’ve had ups and downs, survived and been a personal witness to the ability of the human spirit to overcome all sorts of unexpected blows. This book is for people who love to read about cooking, who know a little bit about it, and truly enjoy it as an indoor sport. It’s for people like my children and their spouses, who cook together, not always looking for the shortcuts, but always looking for the best. As Virginia Woolf so succinctly put it, “One cannot think well, love well, sleep well, if one has not dined well.” I have led a wonderful life, enjoyed the best of this continent and Europe, never having been a star, a celebrity or wealthy, but claim only to have been a keen observer in a very interesting and unusual period in history. I’ve learned what is truly important in life, what is transitory, and I’ve tried to convey these discoveries to make other’s lives a little more productive and satisfying. The secret, the essence of the good life, in a nutshell, is productivity, and much satisfaction lies in serving one’s family. Children, especially the most promising, must be nurtured as only a mother can. Many mothers don’t see how important their roles are, and perhaps by talking about food enthusiastically, even romantically, I can get them to look on one aspect of housekeeping with new eyes, and find satisfaction where there was once drudgery. Enjoy.

L.A.’s Legendary Restaurants is an illustrated history of dozens of landmark eateries from throughout the City of Angels. From such classics as Musso & Frank and The Brown Derby in the 1920s to the see-and-be-seen crowds at Chasen’s, Romanoffs, and Ciro’s in the mid-20th century to the dawn of California cuisine at Ma Maison and Spago Sunset in the 1970s and ’80s, L.A.’s Legendary Restaurants celebrates the famous locations where Hollywood ate, drank, and played. Author George Geary leads you into the glamorous restaurants inhabited by the stars through a lively narrative filled with colorful anecdotes and illustrated with vintage photographs, historic menus, and timeless ephemera. Over 100 iconic recipes for entrees, appetizers, desserts, and drinks are included. But L.A.’s Legendary Restaurants contains much more than the fancy, high-priced restaurants favored by the Hollywood cognoscenti. The glamour of the golden age of drive-ins, drugstores, nightclubs, and hotels are also honored. What book on L.A. restaurants would be complete without tales of ice cream sundaes at C.C. Brown’s, cafeteria-style meals at Clifton’s, or a mai tai at Don the Beachcomber? Most of the locations in L.A.’s Legendary Restaurants no longer exist, but thanks to George Geary, the memories are still with us.

A journey through over 2000 years of culinary history and the final repasts of famous figures—with recipes included. Part historical narrative and part grilling guide and cookbook, Andrew Caldwell’s Their Last Suppers guides history buffs and gourmands alike through gastronomically inspired biographical accounts of more than twenty legendary personalities. Recipes are included (though the author has decided to skip the pork blood beverages drunk by the Spartans). Unearthing recipes as far back as 323 B.C., Caldwell, aka the History Chef, provides insight into two thousand years of culinary lore. Each historical figure’s profile includes a brief description of pursuits and accomplishments as well as little-known anecdotes, popular foods of his or her time period, recipes for the figure’s actual last meal, and cooking tips. Because the kitchens of Montezuma, Caesar, and other notables profiled within the book were often very basic, Caldwell brings their fare into modern kitchens, although he strongly believes that, whenever possible, grills and open fires should be used for most dishes and therefore provides specific preparation tips throughout. From the Titanic’s twelve-course tasting menu to personal recipes for Princess Diana’s Favorite Watercress Soup, Elvis Presley’s Fried Peanut Butter and Banana Sandwich, Julius Caesar’s Ambrosia, Cleopatra’s Hummus, and Stone Crab a la Kennedy, historians and foodies alike will relish the trivia and tastings paired within this unique and entertaining book.

All aboard for a delicious ride on nine legendary railway journeys! Meals associated with train travel have been an important ingredient of railway history for more than a century—from dinners in dining cars to lunches at station buffets and foods purchased from platform vendors. For many travelers, the experience of eating on a railway journey is often a highlight of the trip, a major part of the “romance of the rails.” A delight for rail enthusiasts, foodies, and armchair travelers alike, Food on the Move serves up the culinary history of these famous journeys on five continents, from the earliest days of rail travel to the present. Chapters invite us to table for the haute cuisine of the elegant dining carriages on the Orient Express; the classic American feast of steak-and-eggs on the Santa Fe Super Chief; and home-cooked regional foods along the Trans-Siberian tracks. We eat our way across Canada’s vast interior and Australia’s spectacular and colorful Outback; grab an infamous “British railway sandwich” to munch on the Flying Scotsman; snack on spicy samosas on the Darjeeling Himalayan Toy Train; dine at high speed on Japan’s bullet train, the Shinkansen; and sip South African wines in a Blue Train—a luxury lounge-car featuring windows of glass fused with gold dust. Written by eight authors who have traveled on those legendary lines, these chapters include recipes from the dining cars and station eateries, taken from historical menus and contributed by contemporary chefs, as well as a bounty of illustrations. A toothsome commingling of dinner triangles and train whistles, this collection is a veritable feast of meals on the move.

Bold. Majestic. Storied. Texas. The Lone Star State has many traditions, among them its homegrown cuisine, which Texans have always been justly proud of, and which has been gaining followers--and respect--all over the country. The Reata restaurants have an honored place in this emerging culinary story. Reata: Legendary Texas Cuisine tells the tale of one American family that, against the breathtaking backdrop of Texas, took risks, worked hard, and dreamed big. Today the pride of the Micallef family are its two Reata restaurants, the original location in the tiny West Texas town of Alpine, and its much larger sibling in Fort Worth. Reata pays homage to America’s cowboys and the values they have come to symbolize by promoting the traditional ideals of integrity, generosity, and hospitality with an easy ambience, exciting dishes, and exceptional service. The Reata menus combine familiar Texas fare with fresh culinary trends, including signature favorites, like the pepper-crusted tenderloin, the golden chicken-fried steaks, and the tenderloin tamales. Adventurous cooks will want to try the buffalo rib eye and the smoked quail, as well as some of the more surprising pairings, such as the boar ribs with a Thai-inspired spicy peanut dipping sauce. And no Reata cookbook would be complete without the fiery jalapeño cheese grits or the unrivaled “Giant” onion rings. So if you can’t drop by one of the restaurants and set a spell, Reata: Legendary Texas Cuisine will give you a taste of Reata that’s as big and bold as the state of Texas itself.

Collection of recipes suitable for a dinner party. Includes recipes for soups, main courses and desserts.