An extremely pleasant and perfectly bright acquaintance surprised me by stating with his usual attractive confidence that food is a frivolity and cooking not part of our cultural life. His spouse, whose every meal gives the lie to such silliness, just smiled.
So I asked them if they knew that George Lang, best known as reinventor of New York’s Café des Artistes, had just died. His life, I said with my own brand of confidence, may be worth a look, because he personified and made public the need to feed as well as be fed. How can hospitality not be inherent to the world’s manifold cultures, a mythic boon everywhere?
Lang’s 1998 autobiography, slightly puffy and larded with “stars,” does have a frivolous title: Nobody Knows the Truffles I’ve Seen.Yet it tells a brave and even beautiful story of how a soul came into its own.
Here’s my Philadelphia Inquirer column about the book and Lang’s life.
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I had the best brunch of my life at Café des Artistes about ten years ago. The delicious food, lovely ambience (the murals. . .), and gracious hospitality all made this a memorable occasion. George Lang was a master.
“Lang’s 1998 autobiography … does have a frivolous title: Nobody Knows the Truffles I’ve Seen.”
Now, Jeffrey, a genuinely witty pun should never be dismissed as “frivolous.”
Matthew (MWnyc), I was just jealous.