In the first portrait of James Beard in twenty-five years, John Birdsall accomplishes what no prior telling of Beard’s life and work has done: He looks beyond the public image of the “Dean of American Cookery” to give voice to the gourmet’s complex, life as a queer man. In the process, he illuminates the history of American food in the twentieth century. This definitive biography of America’s best-known and least-understood food personality gives great depth to the modern culinary landscape he shaped.
