In An Extravagant Hunger, time slows and is relished, and the turning points and casual strolls of M.F.K. Fisher's life are unwrapped and savored. From the Berengaria that washed her across the sea to France in 1929, to Le Paquis, the Swiss estate that later provided a backdrop for some of the most idyllic and fleeting moments of her life, Zimmerman exquisitely captures the breadth and stories of Fisher's love for food and her love for family and men. Exploring Fisher's lonely and formative time in Europe with her first husband; her subsequent divorce and re-marriage to her...

Whether the subject of her fancy is the lowly, unassuming potato or the love life of that aphrodisiac mollusk the oyster, Mary Frances Kennedy Fisher writes with a simplicity that belies the complexities of the life she often muses on. She is hailed as one of America's preeminent writers about gastronomy, but limiting her to that genre would be a disservice. A passionate and well-traveled woman, her narratives fill over two dozen highly acclaimed books. In this collection of some of her finest works, Fisher demonstrates a palette well-trained not only in gastronomical masterpieces, but in...