John Birdsall

I checked The Man Who Ate Too Much out of the Greece(NY)Public Library as an e-book. I noticed it because a James Beard cookbook got a lot of use in the first few years of our marriage. His recipe's for Salad Nicoise, several kinds of quiche and soufles and Risotto Alla Milanese were the pages of that paperback cookbook that fell out of the binding. I was a fan of James Beard's cookbooks while he was still alive though I didn't know anything about the man he was.

John Birdsall's biography of Beard takes us back to the story of his parents before James was born in Portland, Oregon in 1903. Beard became known as a proponent of a cuisine that was truly American. Though he was a huge fan(pun intended he weighted 300 lbs. or more) of French or Continental food traditions he realized that those didn't always translate to North American grown items. He made good food approachable and doable for millions. At the same time James Beard live a very careful and secret life as a gay man in a world that was still very hostile to him and other men like him. The author shows the reader a part of his life that Beard keep guardedly secret for most of his life. Only at the very end of his life did Beard become more open about his sexuality. Perhaps by the time he died in 1985 most people didn't really care if a person was gay.

Other food writers of the period are also mentioned in this book. Among them were Julia Child, Alice Waters and Helen Evans Brown. Beard knew all of them and many others too. The book thouched on some foods that are no longer seen. Beard was concerned that some of the fish that were a big part of his early cooking and eating were no longer available due to overfishing and other causes. One fish, Sand Dabs, were a poplular West Coast fish often featured on breakfast menus. I only remember having them once in the 1970s. Now few have heard of Sand Dabs something that I lament as much as Beard did. Now I think I will go find my copy of Beard's How to Eat Better for Less Money and make a Salad Nicoise.… (more)

From the man who wrote “America, Your Food is So Gay” that won a James Beard Award in 2014, comes a biography of the bigger-than-life James Beard. There were a lot of gay men who helped create the American cuisine after World War II. Unfortunately, they may have been gay, but Americans weren’t ready to accept the sexual preference these men, including New York Times food editor Craig Claiborne, had. Closeted for all but his best friends, Beard had to pretend to live a lifestyle he didn’t. He grew up in Portland Oregon and was quietly kicked out of Reed College because of a relationship he had with a professor. In 1922, he headed for London where he planned to train in operatic stage and landed some parts back in Hollywood. But his theater career took a nosedive in New York City and he turned to food, organizing dinner parties for friends. Soon cookbook editors wanted his recipes. And, yes, he happily stole recipes from others, never bothering to included them in the credits. He had the first TV cooking show, NBC’s “I Love to Eat.” He didn’t come out until 1990. A reader can look at this book as a biography and as a peek at what gay life was like in the mid-twentieth century.… (more)