[Sca-cooks] Larousse gastronomique?

[johnna holloway]

[Sca-cooks] Re:Larousse
I submitted this in August---
Sun, 05 Aug 2001 10:29:16 -0400
Johnnae llyn Lewis sends greetings.

Actually Larousse has other errors as well, but
people actually never sit down and read it from
cover to cover. I did a very comprehensive project
for a graduate advanced reference course
on sci/tech literature back in 1982 and did a major
investigation of Larousse then for that project.
It's always been one of those works that was an
accepted reference source that Librarians never
questioned when answering queries from the public.
My argument then as now was that it was questionable
in a lot of cases. I just pulled up the three reviews
from 1988 that were in major newspapers. It got 2
short reviews and a longer one from the LA Times that
noted that the wording even in the new edition was
quaint and arbritrary. That some definitions read
like they were still written for the UK although this
was a US edition. That the "tandoori" entry focused
on the wrong meat, etc. It also noted that the 8500
recipes had been reduced to 4000. There are of course
other editions than this 1988 American one, inc. one
that Books In Print lists for $350.00.
I have not seen anything about the new edition except
that it was slated for publication.
Of course, if you picked it up at a remaindered $10.
then buy it. It makes a nice bookend.
Speaking about the Oxford Companion, you ought to
also take a look at the Cambridge World History
of Food which went Oxford one better by making
theirs a two volume set and twice the price.In very
odd ways they really compliment each other in coverage.
Johnna Holloway

I really think that the earlier editions were stronger
on classic French cuisine... 19th and 20th centuries than they
were on the historical aspects of the medieval and
renaissance eras. I still have not seen any reviews of the
new edition but they should be out this month. It's $75.00,
but they are discounting it already.

Johnnae llyn Lewis  Johnna Holloway




Gorgeous Muiredach wrote:
>
> I remember seeing on this list a while back some rather strong dislike
> expressed about the Larousse Gastronomique.  Now that I have finally put my
> hands on mine again, after 5 years in storage (the book, not me!), I'd be
> interested to know why you believe it is not such a good reference
> book.  Also, do your objections hold true for the French version as well as
> the English one?
> Thx
>
> Gorgeous Muiredach
> Rokkehealden Shire
> Middle Kingdom
> aka
> Nicolas Steenhout
> "You must deal with me as I think of myself" J. Hockenberry
>
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