A cookbook with a difference, The Gastronomical Tourist combines easy-to-prepare bistro recipes with an elegant and witty remembrance of things past. Author Arthur Bloomfield serves up culinary adventures abroad, without forgetting the edible treasures in his own backyard.
Tales of rich, rewarding, and sometimes hilarious dining and life experiences transport the reader and diner to gastronomic hotspots from Corsica to California, Tuscany to Manhattan, Strasbourg to Santa Fe. Bloomfield discovers "Trouffade Auvergnate" in the idyllic pastureland of Central France, "Chocolate Souffle Caruso" on Italy's Amalfi Coast, and many more epicurial delights.
Review: "[Bloomfield's] recollection of restaurants and dishes from the 1950's and even earlier is quite fresh-a history lesson made enjoyable by the instructor's communicable enthusiasm…"
--Paul Reidinger, The San Francisco Bay Guardian
"With humor and irrepressible enthusiasm, Arthur Bloomfield shares a lifetime of food and travel memories in this utterly engaging cookbook."
-Alice Waters, Chez Panisse
"A thoroughly delightful read, chock full of whimsy, sweetness, culinary wisdom, and transporting evocations of places, people, and repasts."
-Jean Galeazzi
"The writing is fun and energetic, the recipes exhuberant and inviting."
-Carlo Middione
"...very enjoyble reading. It has the feeling and tempo of cookbooks in an earlier era."
-Joyce Goldstein
Bio: ARTHUR BLOOMFIELD has been an enthusiastic home chef for forty years and a frequent client of French and Italian country inns and bistros. He is the author of two books of restaurant criticism, one of best-selling guide to San Francisco restaurants, the other a far-ranging journal/memoir, as well as a history of the San Francisco Opera. Currently writing freelance, the author makes his home in San Francisco.
