Henry Allen hits the motherlode and reviews three intriguing books for the Wall Street Journal: Birdseye by Mark Kurlansky, The Man Who Changed the Way We Eat: Craig Claiborne and the American Food Renaissance by Thomas McNamee, and Colonel Sanders and the American Dream by Josh Ozersky.
I had always thought a book about Claiborne would be great to write and was surprised it hadn’t been done (there goes my bright idea). I’d been particularly fascinated by the infamous American Express dinner at Chez Denis in 1975 that cost a whopping $4,000 (largely because of the vintage wines, some of which were opened but deemed unworthy to drink).
Rather than go into the details of Allen’s lengthy writeup, I’ll just recommend you read it in its entirety, from soup to nuts.