FEASTS AND FRIENDS: Recipes from a Lifetime

Thompson's celebration of feasts and friends is one of those gastronomic autobiographies in the tradition of her godmother, MFK Fisher (who provides a one-page introduction here), and resembling Nika Hazelton's recent Ups and Downs (1988) in its appreciative but less-than-vivid memories of the international assortment of family, friends, neighbors, hired cooks, and boarding hostesses who introduced her to the featured dishes and cuisines. (Thompson grew up among celebrities in Hollywood, where Groucho was a family friend, and lived and dined in France, Italy, and England before establishing her own home in California.) But Thompson's memoirs stick closer to food than did Hazelton's, and Thompson includes many more recipes, all carefully honed versions of classic dishes as diverse as Breton potted rabbit, Mexican black beans, and brandied persimmon tea cakes adapted from James Beard. It's all good food, helpfully annotated and presented with enthusiam--though the context still comes across like someone else's family album.