In addition to outdoor fun and great eating, summer is a time to kick back with a good book, podcast, or video.  Between seasonal activities, Marsha and I have managed to delve into some enjoyable distractions. 

If you had an unfulfilled yen to go to France this summer, I can recommend a couple of books that may scratch that itch. 

In The Seine, The River That Made Paris Elaine Sciolino traces the route and the history of the river from the mountains in the north of Burgundy to the sea at Le Havre.  The emphasis is on Paris with an inside look at the role of the river over time.  The book includes the famous bridges that cross it and the lives of the people who live on and along it.

With vivid storytelling, this book is much more than a history and geography text. It’s a revealing insider’s understanding of the importance of the river to French culture and history. Food, central to French culture, doesn’t get much coverage here, but Sciolino touches on its role. She says at one point, “Food is important (this is France after all)” and describes the “full-service” kitchen that feeds the police River Brigade around the clock. Sciolino also manages to score an interview with chef Guy Savoy at his famous restaurant which happens to have a magnificent view of the river. 

For a more lighthearted but very authentic literary vacation in France, get The Granite Coast Murders by Jean-Luc Bannalec.  The book, well translated from French, follows Commissaire Georges Dupin on the Brittany Coast for a beach vacation he’d rather not take.  Fortunately, some crimes turn up that he investigates eagerly but discreetly since this is not his jurisdiction.

Equally fortunate, is the excellent restaurant at his hotel.  By page six the dinner menu and wine is described in enthusiastic detail. At the end of the first chapter the local food specialties are cataloged.  Further on, Dupin and his companion enjoy another water-side dinner accompanied by two bottles of wine and two after dinner whiskies each.  Trenchermen to be sure. 

As Dupin investigates, Bannalec delivers an enticing picture of a small French resort town complete with hotels, a boulangerie, a gossipy newspaper store, and a very well-informed hairdresser. Don’t worry too much about the crime. The pleasure here is in the daily life and routine of the town.  

You might need to put down the book and run out to the Rive Bistro in Westport for a French food fix of steak frites and chicken dijonnaise. 

For rainy afternoons or quiet evenings, tune into High on the Hog on Netflix.  Based on the book of the same name by Jessica B. Harris, the four-part series explores the little-known world of black cuisine and its impact on American culture. 

Photoshoot with Stephen Satterfield in Atlanta, Georgia on May 14, 2021. Photos by Lyric Lewin.

Starting in Africa at the slave port of Benin, Chef Stephen Satterfield tours the food markets with Harris. Yams and Okra, building blocks of Southern cuisine, are staples here. The story moves on to the foodways of the Carolina coast, where rice was king and the coastal Gullah culture maintains an oral history of slavery and the culinary traditions of that era. 

Satterfield then explores the role of chefs and cooks in the slave households. Both Jefferson and Washington, we now know, were fed by the notable enslaved chefs James Hemings and Hercules. Finally the story moves to Texas and the food history of black cowboys and barbecue.  

A trip to BobbyQ’s in Norwalk may be necessary to load up on hickory wood slow-smoked brisket or ribs. 

Although Satterfield is not a particularly charismatic presenter, his thoughtful way of interviewing and discussing this little-known and difficult history seems just right. By the end of the series the impact of African cooking and culture on American eating is unmistakable.  Like all good food journalism, it makes you hungry. 

On road trips this summer, we’ve tuned in to the podcast Books that Cook, Food and Fiction by Jennifer Cognard-Black.  It’s a new Audible exclusive from The Great Courses. Cognard-Black, a professor of English at St. Mary’s College in Maryland, discusses food in fiction, both contemporary and classic; cookbooks that tell stories though recipes; and novels where food and cooking are a main character.  Her articulate insights across ten episodes make the miles roll by.

Frank Whitman can be reached at NotBreadAloneFW@gmail.com.