Eating With Peter (Arcade Press 2018) is a tasty valentine to Peter Buckley, who started out as a photographer as well as a writer He grew up in France with his soignee mother Elinor Hays Buckley, known in her own right as a socialite.,There Peter picked up his undying love for all things French , especially the food and wine. Along the way he caught the eye of Susan Washburn, who worked at her publishing company, Holt, Rinehart and Winston. They eventually married and their union led to some amazing gastronomic adventures. To be honest, I usually don't like the new hybrid of memoir/cookbook. The stories leading up to a promised dish can be tedious, but not with this book, I absolutely loved it!!!!.I couldn;t wait to see what the next exciting chapter held . Ms. Washburn is famous for writing Young Adult books on American history She should definitely write more for adults. Her chapters are so well crafted that I felt like I was standing in the warm waters of the Caribbean with them as they dived for fresh sea urchins to eat or breathing in the exotic spices of a Fez market. I also loved how Ernest Hemingway and his wife Mary, especially the last, weave in and out of the chapters. Peter and Hemingway were friends, sharing a love of bull fighting. Ms. Washburn's style can only be described as sparkling - as sparkling as the champagne she and her husband sipped.It is never boring , always fresh with a crisp wryness to it.
Each chapter has a recipe or a few at the end of it. Even the one featuring transporting their Bernese mountain dog, Nora to France has a toothsome recipe for dog biscuits. The recipes excited me,I definitely want to try the gazpacho recipe this summer. (I would love to try it now but somehow it's not the dish to have in chilly late winter). Many of the French recipes come from French and Northern Italian chefs. Thanks to the Buckleys and their recipe for the heavenly sounding Gratin Dauphinois a l Ermitarge, a scalloped potato recipe taken from the kitchen of the famed Maurice Tuccinardi.The well known Troigrois, brothers Jean and Pierre, make an appearance as does their recipe for viand glace. It is a leaf taken from their actual cookbook so the recipe is entirely in Frenc.h Mary Hemingway's recipe is here also for her seviche, a delightful union of lime juice , onions and red peppers used to "cook" seafood. Peter Buckley was also a writer too and he wrote a cookbook just on raw food, thirty years before it became de rigueur. His recipe for couscous salad is a refreshing mix of couscous cooked with lemon juice and spiked with cherry tomatoes , chopped peppers and almonds. Both Buckleys were consummate New Yorkers and there is a chapter on the city's Union Square market as well as on the European ones . Any home chef can recreate Peter's transcendental beans recipe.There is only one dessert dish and that is Ms. Buckley's blueberry one made with a buttery French influenced crust.
Eating With Peter is a delicious romp through the world of food and adventure. Susan Washburn brings us into that world with her amazing descriptive chapters and recipes. it is the ultimate foodie book.
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