The Food Life: Inside the World of Food with the Grocer Extraordinaire at Fairway

by Steven Jenkins, Mitchel London

Overview

From Fairway Market's master buyer and author of the hugely successful Cheese Primer comes a celebration of the store's extravagant food collection and the stories surrounding its culture.

Fairway, a local institution in New York City for more than fifty years, is the busiest food store in the world. There shoppers can find innumerable artisanal food products, which, for three decades, Steven Jenkins has traveled the world to find. With a wonderful narrative and anecdotes from the man who personally brought so many of the world's greatest foods to New York and the United States, readers will become more enthusiastic shoppers and better cooks. Jenkins's longtime associate, Mitchel London, provides recipes that will attract not only Fairway customers but any home cook who has access to great ingredients.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780061843303
Publisher:	HarperCollins Publishers
Publication date:	10/13/2009
Sold by:	HARPERCOLLINS
Format:	eBook
Pages:	256
File size:	11 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.

About the Author

Steven Jenkins is the author of Cheese Primer, which won the James Beard Award and is in its tenth printing. Currently a vice president and the chief specialty foods buyer at Fairway, he has written for numerous food publications and appears regularly on television and radio. He lives in New York City with his wife and two children.

Mitchel London runs the Fairway Café and Steakhouse, and is its chef de cuisine. He was Mayor Ed Koch's official chef at Gracie Mansion for seven years and is the coauthor of The Mitchel London Gracie Mansion Cookbook.

Editorial Reviews

Starred Review.

This enormously enjoyable meditation on subjects like Spanish olive oil, bagels "boiled in city tap water" and the varieties of Italian pork products was penned by the cheese guru behind New York City's Fairway Market, who published in 1996 a definitive cheese encyclopedia (Cheese Primer). Less didactic, but written in the same hard-bitten but friendly style, Jenkins brings wry good humor to his chronicle of the Fairway grocery empire, following his progress from a single, smallish outlet on Manhattan's Upper West Side to a four-warehouses-and-counting institution. Along the way, he introduces readers to the countless characters, headaches and small pleasures that constitute life in the grocery business. Who knew how much work went into creating the perfect olive display? Or how much aggravation is involved in importing raw-milk cheese? Or how hard it is to maneuver cases of dairy products, especially at four in the morning? A handful of terrifically appealing recipes accompany the text, nailing just about every specialty a food lover could crave: Sauteed Veal Chop with Arugula Salad, Classic Creamy Mashed Potatoes, Lentils with Garlic Sausage, and a heavenly Rustic Apple Tart with Crème Fraiche. Among the recipes, the charming photographs, and the detailed Fairway lore, this book may convince some foodies to move to New York City-or least to do all their grocery shopping there.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Publishers Weekly

Jenkins is the author of the authoritative Cheese Primer, now a classic, and is well known as "the cheese guy" of Fairway Market, the always-crowded gourmet market on Manhattan's Upper West Side. He started working there in 1980, and from the beginning, his cheese counter was more like a French fromagerie than anything ever seen in other markets here. Jenkins's passion for cheese remains, but he has acquired other food passions as well, and he is now a partner in Fairway. His latest book presents Fairway's story as well as his own, in chapters such as "The Deli and Appetizing Counter: A Grand Old New York Tradition" and "Olives Are Beautiful," along with appealing recipes from the chef of the market's café/steakhouse. Jenkins is opinionated but knowledgeable, and his behind-the-scenes account of the market is both informative and entertaining. Recommended for all area libraries (there are now Fairways in New York in Harlem, Plainview, and Brooklyn) and most other collections.

—86

Library Journal

Steven Jenkins and Mitchel London have teamed up to write a book on food. Steven writes well and Mitchel cooks superbly. Believe me, you are in for a treat.” — Ed Koch, former Mayor of New York City

“Steve’s a walking catalogue of his own life, much of which has been spent inside of Fairway, which makes this book invaluable.” — Tim Blake Nelson, actor

“To have the Fairway Market and Cafe in our midst is a blessing…We are now Fairway veterans.” — Frances McDormand, actress, and Joel Coen, director

From the Publisher

Steven Jenkins and Mitchel London have teamed up to write a book on food. Steven writes well and Mitchel cooks superbly. Believe me, you are in for a treat.

Ed Koch

To have the Fairway Market and Cafe in our midst is a blessing…We are now Fairway veterans.

Frances McDormand

Steve’s a walking catalogue of his own life, much of which has been spent inside of Fairway, which makes this book invaluable.

Tim Blake Nelson