On today's date, June 22 in 1992, prolific food writer M.F.K Fisher died. While Fisher was a well-respected figure in the food industry, I don't know much about her. To learn more about her work and life, I thought it would be fun to put together a quiz that celebrates the author who enjoyed and practiced the art of simple eating.
How well do you know her? Find out now and take the quiz!
Take the Quiz
The genre of food-based autobiographies might not exist if it wasn't for MFK Fisher. In 1932 MFK (Mary Frances Kennedy) was inspired by an Elizabethan cookbook and set out writing essays about her own cooking. At the urging of a friend (who later became her second husband), she published her first book, Serve it Forth, in 1937. It was well received and unlike other women writers, many critics assumed it was written by a man.
Once her first tome was published, her career as a food-writer began. During her life she wrote over 20 books and essays, most of which are primarily about food, food prep, history and culture.
When I first became interested in the world of food, everyone highly recommended books by MFK Fisher. Her prose moves so smoothly and her ability to spin tales about food, travel and life is often considered unmatched. So whether you begin with Serve it Forth, her classic The Art of Eating, or her autobiography The Gastronomical Me, you should really take time out of your busy schedule to savor as many of her words as you can.
Today would have marked the 99th birthday of prolific writer Mary Frances Kennedy Fisher (most commonly known as M.F.K. Fisher). She was a prominent food critic and one of the great culinary writers of the 20th century. To commemorate her birthday I thought I'd share my favorite M.F.K. Fisher quote with you:
"It seems to me that our three basic needs, for food and security and love, are so mixed and mingled and entwined that we cannot straightly think of one without the others.
So it happens that when I write of hunger, I am really writing about love and the hunger for it, and warmth and the love of it and the hunger for it; and then the warmth and richness and fine reality of hunger satisfied; and it is all one." - M.F.K. Fisher, from The Art of Eating
