Gust per París

No author has written more enthusiastically about food than A. J. Liebling. Appetite for Paris (1962), the last book by the great New York writer, is a suggestive account of his éducation sentimentale in French cuisine between 1926 and 1927, when characters of the stature of Ernest Hemingway and Gertrude Stein forged their legend in the Parisian cafes. What should have been a study trip soon became a mere pretext to drop everything and get down to what really mattered: the fine art of eating. The restaurants near the banks of the Seine became his Parisian home, the perfumed table wines his constant companions, the rich French cuisine a testament to his formidable appetite.