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Archive for the ‘food’ Category

What would Woolf drink?

If Virginia Woolf stood in front of the counter at Manhattan’s 114th Street Starbuck’s, what would she order?

A recent post on the Spectrum blog of the Columbia Daily Spectator speculates that her drink of choice would be a green tea cream frappuccino.

The post is said to be inspired by the new Tumblr titled Literary Starbucks, which does not include a Woolf sighting.

However, Woolf does show up in a humorous rant on the torturous process of writing a final paper published by the Spectator last spring.

Woolf herself mentions coffee in The Waves. Here’s the quote:

How much better is silence; the coffee cup, the table. How much better to sit by myself like the solitary sea-bird that opens its wings on the stake. Let me sit here for ever with bare things, this coffee cup, this knife, this fork, things in themselves, myself being myself.

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“When there are fifteen people sitting down to dinner, one cannot keep things waiting for ever.” So starts a passage from To the Lighthouse that accompanies a photograph of a bowl of boeuf en daube—the solid brown chunks of meat accented by shiny black olives and bright orange carrot slices—accompanied by a dish of Brussels sprouts and a glass of claret, served on a green cloth scattered with seashells.

This is just one of the 50 extracts from novels included in Fictitious Dishes by Dinah Fried (“fried,” really—would I make it up?). The opulence of the elegant tea spread for Rebecca and the cocktail party fare—caviar, smoked salmon and more—to represent The Great Gatsby are balanced by a simple and sumptuous basket of strawberries for Emma and, of course, Proust’s tea and madeleine.

I can’t resist the juxtaposition of food and literature, food in literature, and especially Woolf and food. It was the topic of my paper at the 20th Annual International Conference on Virginia Woolf: “’A Certain Hold on Haddock and Sausage’: Dining Well in Virginia Woolf’s Life and Work,” which was published in the selected papers from that conference.

This collection was a delightful find. There’s a website too, but the book is a visual feast. Do what I did—buy it for a gift but read it first!

 

 

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Jans Ondaatje Rolls, author of The Bloomsbury‬ Cookbook will be giving talks at a number of festivals and venues this year, but you will have to be in England to attend.

  • May 24, noon – 1 p.m., Charleston Festival, Lewes, East Sussex
  • July 15, 2–3 p.m., Buxton Festival, Derbyshire
  • July 17, 7–8 p.m., National Portrait Gallery, London
  • Sept. 14, 3:30–4.30 p.m., Hampstead & Highgate Literary Fetitval, London
  • Sept. 27, TBA, Porlock Literary Festival, Somerset
  • Oct. 4, TBA, Ilkley Literary Festival, West Yorkshire
  • Oct. 6, TBA, Cheltenham Literary Festival, Gloucestershire
  • Oct. 16, 2:30 p.m., Knutsford Literary Festival, Cheshire

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Thanks to Chris Sullivan for sending Blogging Woolf this image of a recipe for Angelica Garnett’s Cherry Tart. It’s from Jans Ondaatje Rolls’  The Bloomsbury Cookbook: Recipes for Life, Love and Art, published this spring.

The book offers more than 180 recipes — some handwritten and never before published — from Frances Partridge, Helen Anrep and David and Angelica Garnett.

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A Bloomsbury cookbook promising a combination of food, life, love and art, will be available in hardcover on April 22.

The Bloomsbury Cookbook: Recipes for Life, Love and Art by Jans Ondaatje Rolls offers more than 180 recipes — some handwritten and never before published — from Frances Partridge, Helen Anrep and David and Angelica Garnett. The recipes, according to publisher Thames & Hudson, promise to “take us into the very heart” the world of the Bloomsbury Group by recreating mealtime atmospheres at locations such as Monk’s House, Charleston Farmhouse and Gordon Square.

The publisher is billing the book as more than a cookbook. Its photographs, letters, journals and paintings will contribute a social history angle as well. It is priced at £24.95.

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