Consider the Oyster

By M.F.K. Fisher and Felicity Cloake

‘Her writing makes your mouth water.’ -- Financial Times

'Fisher created a cultural legacy that spreads far beyond oysters.’ -- Ruby Tandoh, VICE

‘An oyster leads a dreadful but exciting life.’

The celebrated American food writer M. F. K. Fisher pays tribute to that most delicate and enigmatic of foods: the oyster. She tells of oysters found in stews and soups, roasted, baked, fried, prepared à la Rockefeller or au naturel – and of the pearls sometimes found therein.

As she describes each dish, Fisher recalls her own initiation into the ‘strange cold succulence’ of raw oysters as a young woman in Marseille and Dijon, and explores both the bivalve’s famed aphrodisiac properties and its equally notorious gut-wrenching powers.

Plumbing the ‘dreadful but exciting’ life of the oyster, Fisher invites readers to share in the comforts and delights that this delicate edible evokes, and enchants us along the way with her characteristically wise and witty prose.

‘Her fans include Yotam Ottolenghi, Ruth Reichl, and Bee Wilson. Her voice finds an echo in the writings of Nigella Lawson, Samin Nosrat and more.’ -- Ruby Tandoh, VICE

‘Many authors whisper, as though to a diary, or chat, as though to a friend, but Fisher communicates with the heady directness of a lover.’ -- Bee Wilson, author of The Way We Eat Now

‘She is not just a great a great food writer. She is a great writer, full stop.’ -- Rachel Cooke, Observer

‘The greatest food writer who has ever lived.’ -- Simon Schama

‘Poet of the appetites.’ -- John Updike

• Language: English
• Publisher: Daunt Books
• Release date: Nov 15, 2018
• ISBN: 9781911547280

M.F.K. Fisher

Mary Frances Kennedy Fisher (1908–1992) was one of the greatest American writers of the twentieth century. At the age of twenty-one she moved from America to France, where she tasted real French cooking for the first time, and it inspired a prolific writing career centred on a new way of thinking about food and travel. She was a regular contributor to the New Yorker, Gourmet and Vogue, and is the author of twenty-seven books of food, memoir and travel, many of which have become classics. These include Consider the Oyster, How to Cook a Wolf and The Gastronomical Me.

Reviews for Consider the Oyster

[anamuk_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I was looking up some information about oyster preparation and this little book kept cropping up. Something I'm very glad about as this elongated essay or perhaps pean to the oyster is fantastic. We learn about the tricky life of the oyster the best ways to stew & fry it. How to make it grow pearls and how the author once found one herself. Scattered through out are recipes several of which require a reasonae purse and a good measure of gastranomic bravey. Finally we are given advice about what to drink with our oysters.

[carioca_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This book is an epicurean classic. Fisher mixes tales of the bivalve delicacy with food advice, food history, recipes and so on - all the while engaging in charming, elegant and witty prose. I consider this to be one of the most unexpectedly surprising books in my little library.

[laytonwoman3rd · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Quite a gem; part natural history, part cookbook, part social commentary. The writing is elegant, witty, and seductive. This book whets the appetite for oysters, and other pleasures as well.

[lycomayflower · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Fisher talks about oysters--how to cook them, what people think of them, her own memories of where and when she's eaten them (or only imagined doing so). And the result is somehow wonderful, charming, and insightful. Also, I could stare at the picture on the front of my copy for approximately forever. Something about the posture, the poise. Recommended.