OP: With Bold Knife and Fork

The name Mary Frances Kennedy Fisher (1908–1992) is inescapable in our world of chefs, writers, and food-enthusiasts of all kinds. Her writing has been enormously influential on the generations that have followed. Indeed, she founded the food memoir genre, seamlessly weaving together personal experience, place, time, and the food that was on the table throughout. 

Her earliest writing was clearly shaped by periods of rationing, economy, and making do—namely through the Great Depression and WWII—during which they were written and published. With Bold Knife and Fork (1969), which we offer here, however, appears mid-career with the tone of a lightened load and someone experiencing more comfortable circumstances and confidence.

With Fisher’s signature wit and snark, we enjoy life and food vicariously through a collection of essays: The Trouble with Tripe, One Way to Stay Young, Questionable Crumpets and Such, and Some Ways to Laugh, to name a few. Graciously, recipes are interspersed throughout.

Fifty-odd years later, the stories remain relatable. Who among us wouldn’t recognize ourselves or a loved one in the retelling of “the greatest’ curry” Fisher ever ate, which she confidently ordered “hot” rather than “mild”: “One of my attendants noticed that tears were silently running down my cheeks, for I was too young to admit that I had been both cocksure and ignorant.”