The Larder Of The Wise

The Larder of the Wise: The Story of Vancouver's James Inglis Reid Ltd. traces the history of the iconic store whose traditional Scottish fare and well-remembered hallmarks of "We hae meat that ye can eat" and "Value always" earned the following of devoted customers from inside and outside of the city for almost eighty years. Founded in 1908 and situated for most of its history at 559 Granville Street, Reid's was a fixture in Vancouver's downtown shopping district. Customers were drawn by the store's cured and smoked hams and bacons, expertly prepared sausages and haggis, freshly baked meat pies and scones, and many other favourite items--almost all made on premises using recipes and artisanal techniques passed down for decades. When it closed in 1986 to make way for the Pacific Centre development, many thought an important part of Vancouver heritage was forever lost. But thanks to a treasure-trove of business records, letters, photos and objects preserved from the store, and drawing on her own personal memories and knowledge of the business as the granddaughter of company founder James Reid and the daughter of Gordon Wyness, who succeeded Reid as manager, author M. Anne Wyness brings this special store alive once again. Richly illustrated and engagingly told, this story of a unique family business is also a story of Vancouver itself. Through economic booms and declines, two world wars, shifts in consumer habits, the rise of the suburbs and the changing fortunes of the downtown Granville Street area, Reid's enjoyed prosperity and endured challenges in step with a changing city.

In this debut memoir, a James Beard Award-winning writer, whose childhood idea of fine dining was Howard Johnson's, tells how he became one of Paris's most influential food critics Until Alec Lobrano landed a job in the glamorous Paris office of Women's Wear Daily, his main experience of French cuisine was the occasional supermarket éclair. An interview with the owner of a renowned cheese shop for his first article nearly proves a disaster because he speaks no French. As he goes on to cover celebrities and couturiers and improves his mastery of the language, he gradually learns what it means to be truly French. He attends a cocktail party with Yves St. Laurent and has dinner with Giorgio Armani. Over a superb lunch, it's his landlady who ultimately provides him with a lasting touchstone for how to judge food: "you must understand the intentions of the cook." At the city's brasseries and bistros, he discovers real French cooking. Through a series of vivid encounters with culinary figures from Paul Bocuse to Julia Child to Ruth Reichl, Lobrano hones his palate and finds his voice. Soon the timid boy from Connecticut is at the epicenter of the Parisian dining revolution and the restaurant critic of one of the largest newspapers in the France. A mouthwatering testament to the healing power of food, My Place at the Table is a moving coming-of-age story of how a gay man emerges from a wounding childhood, discovers himself, and finds love. Published here for the first time is Lobrano's "little black book," an insider's guide to his thirty all-time-favorite Paris restaurants.

“[Stephen] offers fresh insight into the path a historic fur trading business took to become one of Canada’s most recognizable retailers.” —Literary Review of Canada In Masters and Servants, Scott P. Stephen reveals startling truths about Hudson’s Bay Company (HBC) workers. Rather than dedicating themselves body and soul to the Company’s interests, these men were hired like domestic servants, joining a “household” with its attendant norms of duty and loyalty. The household system produced a remarkably stable political-economic entity, connecting early North American resource extraction to larger trends in British imperialism. Through painstaking research, Stephen shines welcome light on the lives of these largely overlooked individuals. An essential book for labor historians, Masters and Servants will appeal to scholars of early modern Britain, the North American fur trade, Western social history, business history, and anyone intrigued by the reach of the HBC. “Blacksmiths, bookkeepers, loggers, tanners, coopers, cooks, sail-makers, interpreters, surveyors, clergy, the list goes on as Stephen marches us through the lives of the early Hudson’s Bay worker.” —The Ormsby Review “Overall, the book reflects the work of a historian comfortable with the hard work of archival research and with an eye for detail and insightful quotations. In many respects, it does for Hudson’s Bay Company employees what Carolyn Podruchny’s Making the Voyageur World did for employees of the Montreal-based fur trade companies in recreating their values, worldview, and distinctive work environment.” —Michael Payne, Prairie History

Following on the success of Tender and Ripe, this companion to the bestselling Kitchen Diaries is a beautiful, inspiring chronicle of a year in food from beloved food writer Nigel Slater. Britain’s foremost food writer returns with his quietly passionate, idiosyncratic musings on a year in the kitchen, alongside more than 250 simple and seasonal recipes. Based on Slater’s journal entries, Notes from the Larder is a collection of small kitchen celebrations, whether a casual supper of grilled lamb, or a quiet moment contemplating a bowl of cauliflower soup with toasted hazelnuts. Through this personal selection of recipes, Slater offers a glimpse into the daily inspiration behind his cooking and the pleasures of making food by hand, such as his thoughts on topics as various as the kitchen knife whose every nick and stain is familiar, how to make a little bit of cheese go a long way when the cupboards are bare, and his reluctance to share desserts.