by Laurie McAndish King
Elizabeth Gilbert’s Eat Pray, Love was at the top of my reading list when I planned a trip to Bali last year. The memoir so impressed me that upon arriving in Ubud, I followed Gilbert’s path to meet healer Wayan Nuriasih in person, and tried her herbal jamu (traditional Indonesian medicinal concoctions).
And when I heard Gilbert and her latest book—a cookbook called At Home on the Range —would be the subject of one of the famous Book Passage Cooks with Books events at Left Bank restaurant in Larkspur, California, I looked forward to meeting Gilbert herself.
At Home on the Range was first published in 1947 by Gilbert’s great-grandmother, Margaret Yardley Potter, an early food columnist, beloved hostess, and reckless bon vivant. Gilbert characterizes Potter as a woman ahead of her time, “a dogged food reporter, an intrepid food explorer, and a curious food historian” at that “unfortunate moment in American culinary history when our country was embarking on its regrettable lover affair with…easy-breezy marshmallow salads.” Continue reading at The Women's Eye
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