Craig Claiborne Biography Reveals Culinary Icon's Sad Life

New York Times:

Long before chefs were made of iron and "barefoot" brought to mind "contessa" and a cultured 9-year-old could tell farfalle from fusilli at 10 feet, an anxious Southern man named Craig Claiborne sat on a remote island in the Pacific and plotted to turn the American culinary world on its head.

Read the whole story: New York Times

Comments

[SimonBao]

05:56 PM on 04/11/2012

Author neglected to mention that Claiborne was also (often) an insufferably effete snob, and his being effete had nothing to do with his sexual orientation. Nor anything to do with how and where he'd grown up.

Claiborne *adopted* that effete and snobbish attitude, by choice, and that's what makes reading him an insufferable experience.

[gbrooks]

10:16 AM on 04/10/2012

Wow. Takes me back to my childhood...his "The Chinese Cookbook" authored by Claiborne and Virginia Lee was my first cookbook.

I looked it up and it now sells on Amazon for $113--and I only have about half of the cookbook anymore. :(