It is increasingly rare for Blank to find what he considers well written books of living authors who approach meals from the table rather than from the stove because of shifts in what the populus regards as good writing. “The bulk of modern culinary literature,” says the chef, “is no fun to read. The current crop of writers may be good, but they are so curtailed by editors—who can tell?” 

Of favorites who write from the table, three essayists leap from his list; Joseph Wechsberg, Ludwig Bemelmans, and Mary Frances Kennedy Fisher.