Fisher, M. F. K.

Fisher, M. F. K. (Mary Frances Kennedy Fisher), 1908–92, American culinary writer, b. Albion, Mich. Raised in California, Fisher lived in France for three years, where she was inspired by Brillat-Savarin's philosophy of life and translated his The Physiology of Taste (1949). Her writings are more than just recipes; they are culinary essays written in a distinctively graceful literary style that also offer philosophical reflections, reminiscences, and anecdotes. Her books include Serve It Forth (1937), How to Cook a Wolf (1942), The Gastronomical Me (1943), Time-Life's The Cooking of Provincial France (1968), and With Bold Knife and Fork (1979). Fisher's posthumously published trilogy of reminiscences are To Begin Again (1992), Stay Me, Oh Comfort Me (1993), and Last House (1995).

Bibliography

See her letters ed. by N. K. Barr, M. Moran, and P. Moran (1997); autobiographical writings ed. by D. Gioia (1997); biography by J. Reardon (2004).

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Fisher, M. F. K. (Mary Frances Kennedy) (1908–92) food writer; born in Albion, Mich. She grew up in Whittier, Calif., where her father owned the local newspaper. She attended several colleges—Illinois, Whittier, and Occidental Colleges, and the University of California: Los Angeles. She married a graduate student, Alfred Fisher, and moved to Dijon, France. In the course of three marriages, she lived in California, Switzerland, and France. She created a new literary genre with 18 volumes of witty, erudite essays evoking the pleasures of food and places. Her 1949 translation of Brillat-Savarin's Physiology of Taste is considered a classic. She also wrote a novel, a screenplay, and travelogues.