The (Extensive) Pleasures of Eating;
Or, Why Did This Meal Suddenly Become Less Delicious
When I Found Out My Server Has No Health Insurance,
the Cook Worked Ninety Hours Last Week, and the
Recipes Were Published in a Cookbook Whose Author
Collected Them from the Women of South India, Whom
She Fails to Credit, Even in Her Acknowledgements?
LISA HELDKE
In a review of vegetarian cookbooks for his magazine Cook’s Illustrated, in 2000, editor Christopher Kimball writes:
Vegetarianism as a lifestyle ain’t what it used to be. Debo-
rah Madison, the reigning queen of this culinary niche and
author of Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone (Broadway Books,
1997), admits to a taste for red meat and has, on occasion,
been seen consuming a sizzling steak in public. Mollie Kat-
zen, author of The Moosewood Cookbook (Ten Speed Press,
1977), espouses wholesome cooking, “whether that contains
meat or not.” And Madhur Jaffrey has now turned her con-
siderable talents to the subject of vegetarian cooking, but
from an international perspective, bringing numerous ethnic
specialties together in one giant tome. Vegetarian cooking is
growing up, shedding tie-dye for L.L. Bean and taking on a
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