Table Talk » The Tenth Muse

If you love food and cookbooks, The Tenth Muse: My Life in Food by Judith Jones is a must-read. Who is Judith Jones? She is a legendary editor at Alfred A. Knopf who introduced us to, among many others, The Diary of Anne Frank and Julia Child. Judith Jones helped shape modern cookbook publishing.

The Tenth Muse is a memoir that tells the stories of how she discovered such gems as The Diary of Anne Frank and Julia Child. Along the way, we learn about her relationships and work with her husband Evan, James Beard, Claudia Roden, Madhur Jaffrey, Irene Kuo, Lidia Bastianich, Edna Lewis, Marion Cunningham, and many others.

I know of the work of many of these great cooks, but I don't own any of their books. Although I grew up watching and adoring Julia Child, I've never owned any of her cookbooks. But reading about the process of creating books such as Mastering the Art of French Cooking made me want to read Julia' Child's books. I'm not sure that I want to cook from them, but I do want to read them.

The Tenth Muse is a journey through Judith Jones' life. The writing is captivating and I felt like I was there on the journey with her. The book is sprinkled with photographs from her life: Judith with her family, Judith with Evan, Judith working with Julia Child, Judith with Edna Lewis, Judith's and Evan's home and life in Vermont.

Here is one of my favorite passages from the book.

When I attended Madrid Fusion, the food conference held is Spain in 2006, I couldn't help but think that there was a disturbing amount of manipulation of food going on these days on the part of the new, highly applauded star chefs. Obviously their goal in the interest of high art is to heighten the flavor of food so that its natural attributes are enhanced--not to distort its flavor. Nevertheless, as I watched some of the demonstrations, I felt as though I were looking at an operating table, the chef with the skill of a surgeon wielding injectors and dehydrators and bandaging the product in Cryovac. There was no smell of cooking filling the air, and when the poor, overworked piece of flesh was finally arranged on a plate, it was surrounded by three different foams. I thought a foam was a foam, but evidently you can steam it and bake it, too, if you want to. I admit to having an aversion to foam, particularly when it is pale green. It reminds me all too vividly of what happens when one's dog has deliberately eaten a large dose of grass to purge himself.
It seems to me that with all this experiment, high-tech cooking we are creating more distance between what goes into to the professional kitchen and what we do at home. And I feel passionately that we need to lure more young people into the kitchen, so that it becomes a way of life for them.

Judith Jones has devoted her life to making the recipes of great cooks accessible to home cooks. I had no idea how much influence she had on modern cookbook publishing until I read her memoir. Every word of it was delicious.

Posted January 19, 2008 9:28 PM in Food Writing

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3 Comment(s)

Cindy Barnard said… (on January 20, 2008 at 13:19 PM #)

Patti,
It is my firm belief that "a girl" can never have enough book titles to choose from.
"The Tenth Muse" sounds great. I've added it to my little black notebook that I carry with me.
This blog of yours is just the best.

MarcyK said… (on January 20, 2008 at 19:15 PM #)

I loved meeting her and now I can't wait to read her memoirs. She is a most fascinating woman.

Lisa said… (on January 20, 2008 at 19:59 PM #)

This sounds fantastic, Patti! So glad to know about it!


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