Fasting and Feasting: The Life of Visionary Food Writer Patience Gray
Written by Adam Federman
Narrated by Naomi Frederick
4.5/5
()
About this audiobook
For more than thirty years, Patience Gray—author of the celebrated cookbook Honey from a Weed—lived in a remote area of Puglia in southernmost Italy. She lived without electricity, modern plumbing, or a telephone, grew much of her own food, and gathered and ate wild plants alongside her neighbors in this economically impoverished region. She was fond of saying that she wrote only for herself and her friends, yet her growing reputation brought a steady stream of international visitors to her door. This simple and isolated life she chose for herself may help explain her relative obscurity when compared to the other great food writers of her time: M. F. K. Fisher, Elizabeth David, and Julia Child.
So it is not surprising that when Gray died in 2005, the BBC described her as an “almost forgotten culinary star.” Yet her influence, particularly among chefs and other food writers, has had a lasting and profound effect on the way we view and celebrate good food and regional cuisines. Gray’s prescience was unrivaled: She wrote about what today we would call the Slow Food movement—from foraging to eating locally—long before it became part of the cultural mainstream. Imagine if Michael Pollan or Barbara Kingsolver had spent several decades living among Italian, Greek, and Catalan peasants, recording their recipes and the significance of food and food gathering to their way of life.
In Fasting and Feasting, biographer Adam Federman tells the remarkable—and until now untold—life story of Patience Gray: from her privileged and intellectual upbringing in England, to her trials as a single mother during World War II, to her career working as a designer, editor, translator, and author, and describing her travels and culinary adventures in later years. A fascinating and spirited woman, Patience Gray was very much a part of her times but very clearly ahead of them.
Adam Federman
Adam Federman is a reporting fellow with the Investigative Fund at the Nation Institute covering energy and the environment. He has written for the Nation magazine, the Guardian, Columbia Journalism Review, Gastronomica, Petits Propos Culinaires, Earth Island Journal, Adirondack Life, and other publications. He has been a Russia Fulbright fellow, a Middlebury fellow in environmental journalism, and the recipient of a Polk grant for investigative reporting. A former line cook, bread baker, and pastry chef, he lives in Vermont.
Related to Fasting and Feasting
Related audiobooks
Women in the Kitchen: Twelve Essential Cookbook Writers Who Defined the Way We Eat, from 1661 to Today Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Alice B. Toklas Cook Book Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5On the Noodle Road Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Fermentation as Metaphor: Follow Up to the Bestselling "The Art of Fermentation" Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5In Winter's Kitchen: Growing Roots and Breaking Bread in the Northern Heartland Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5On Spice: Advice, Wisdom, and History with a Grain of Saltiness Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Hippie Food: How Back-to-the-Landers, Longhairs, and Revolutionaries Changed the Way We Eat Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5An Everlasting Meal: Cooking with Economy and Grace Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Cheese, Wine, and Bread: Discovering the Magic of Fermentation in England, Italy, and France Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Kitchen Whisperers: Cooking with the Wisdom of Our Friends Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Thalia Book Club: Mastering the Art of Writing About Cooking Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Shucked: Life on a New England Oyster Farm Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Eat More Better: How to Make Every Bite More Delicious Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Bread, Wine, Chocolate: The Slow Loss of Foods We Love Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5How Michael Pollan Fell in Love With Cooking Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Missing Ingredient: The Curious Role of Time in Food and Flavor Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Pinot Rocks: A Winding Journey through Intense Elegance Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Lost Feast: Culinary Extinction and the Future of Food Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Flavor of Wood: In Search of the Wild Taste of Trees, from Smoke and Sap to Root and Bark Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Bad Food Bible: How and Why to Eat Sinfully Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Hidden Kitchens: Stories, Recipes, and More from NPR's The Kitchen Sisters Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsAlice Waters and the Trip to Delicious Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Take Back the Tray: Revolutionizing Food in Hospitals, Schools, and Other Institutions Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Artisan Sourdough Made Simple: A Beginner's Guide to Delicious Handcrafted Bread with Minimal Kneading Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5NPR Kitchen Moments: Celebrating Food: Radio Stories That Cook Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Fermented Man: A Year on the Front Lines of a Food Revolution Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Fed, White, and Blue: Finding America with My Fork Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Kitchen Yarns: Notes on Life, Love, and Food Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Infused: Adventures in Tea Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5
Biography & Memoir For You
Twisted Love Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5I'll Be Gone in the Dark: One Woman's Obsessive Search for the Golden State Killer Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5If He Had Been with Me Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Child Called It: One Child's Courage to Survive Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The House in the Cerulean Sea Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Divine Rivals: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5From Blood and Ash Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5And Then There Were None Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5When No One Is Watching: A Thriller Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Fairy Tale Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Dead Zone Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Bell Jar Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Local Woman Missing Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas: A Savage Journey to the Heart of the American Dream Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Paris Apartment: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5See You on the Way Down: Catch You on the Way Back Up! Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Series of Unfortunate Events #1 Multi-Voice, A: The Bad Beginning Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Sorry I'm Late, I Didn't Want to Come: One Introvert's Year of Saying Yes Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Later Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Overstory Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Good Neighbor: The Life and Work of Fred Rogers Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Nothing to See Here Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Born Standing Up: A Comic's Life Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5In Five Years: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Elon Musk Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Year of Magical Thinking Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Dutch House: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Good Girls Don't Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Reviews for Fasting and Feasting
2 ratings0 reviews