Raymond Sokolov ate his first meal in Detroit in 1941 and dined with tenacious curiosity in France as a correspondent for Newsweek. He went on to sustain himself writing about food at The New York Times and Natural History magazine, and, most recently, by covering restaurants worldwide for The Wall Street Journal. He is the author of The Saucier's Apprentice, the novel Native Intelligence, and a biography of A. J. Liebling, Wayward Reporter. He lives in New York's Hudson Valley.
“[Sokolov] has had ‘a front seat’ at the worldwide revolution in
cooking and eating. . . . Watching his formidable mind at work
deconstructing nouvelle cuisine or creating a taxonomy of French
sauces, it becomes clear just how he has kept that seat for so
long.”
—The New York Times Book Review
“Peppered with reflections on culinary history and tales of
extraordinary journalistic adventures . . . a thought-provoking and
delightful read.”
—Fuchsia Dunlop, author of Every Grain of Rice: Simple Chinese
Home Cooking
“Mouthwatering. . . . [Sokolov] gives the food scene an often
fascinating historical context.” —Daily Beast
“[A] ranging history of American food, and the sociopolitical
events that shaped it. . . . [Sokolov is] a down-home guy at heart,
happiest when correcting assumptions about everyday foods . . . and
remembering treks through the heartland in search of the country’s
best barbecue. . . . A pleasure.” —New York Observer
“As gastronomic guides go, you can’t do much better than former New
York Times and Wall Street Journal restaurant critic Raymond
Sokolov, whose jaunty prose in Steal the Menu gets you a tableside
seat everywhere from Tennessee barbeque pits to French haute
cuisine temples.”
—Entertainment Weekly
“A knowledgeable look at the transformation of fine dining over the
past half-century, viewed through the prism of the author’s
personal history…foodies will find this book refreshingly
different.”
—Kirkus Reviews
“Reading Raymond Sokolov’s wonderful Steal the Menu is like having
dinner with one’s wittiest, most erudite and charming friend,
someone who knows everything worth knowing about food, its
history and culture, about chefs and
restaurants, about how our cuisine and our kitchens
have changed over forty years—and about how to tell an authentic
key lime pie from an imitation. Bon appétit!”
—Francine Prose
“Steal the Menu is a lively insider’s account of goings-on in the
American food scene over the last forty years. And who better to
tell this story than Raymond Sokolov, one of America’s best food
writers? With his keen ear for language, Sokolov is by turns
authoritative and funny, deeply informed and irreverent. This book
offers up a feast for the senses as well as the mind!”
—Darra Goldstein, founding editor, Gastronomica: The Journal of
Food and Culture
“Ray Sokolov dines out delightfully on a life of dining out
in the Western world’s most ambitious restaurants. His wit seasons
his learning, which is considerable on a vast array of subjects,
from classical French cuisine, to where to find the best hamburger
in the Midwest, to barbecue in Texas. The result is a zesty stew, a
chronicle of movements in cuisine across the decades and oceans. As
an entertainment, Steal the Menu rates a full complement of
stars.”
—Joseph Lelyveld, author of Great Soul
“I read Steal the Menu straight through with pleasure. The writing
is stylish, sometimes provocative, always informative, with a
balanced perspective on the tumultuous changes at the table we’ve
all lived through.”
—Dr. Andrew Weil, coauthor of The Healthy Kitchen
“Raymond Sokolov is very good company on the page. Steal the Menu
is proof of that. His writing is witty and engaging, but what sets
this book apart is its appreciativeness: food is food for thought,
something to be curious about, as well as a huge
pleasure.”
—Naomi Duguid, author of Burma: Rivers of Flavor
“This is an indispensable book for anyone and everyone who
takes cooking seriously.”
—Jason Epstein, author of Eating
“[Sokolov] is a good traveling companion. Reading his writing is
like being driven in an old, comfortable roadster, top down,
evening falling, balmy…with the promise—because Sokolov always does
his homework—of something really good to eat just down the
road.”
—The Christian Science Monitor
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