John Thorne

“Dry toast, let me start by saying, is not—at least in its ideal form—merely unbuttered toast. To the uninitiated the two may look the same, even seem to taste the same, but for the aficionado there is between them all the difference in the world. Unbuttered toast is a substance half complete, and to be forced to eat it in that state is necessarily to feel deprived. Dry toast, from the moment it is sliced, has a destiny wholly its own.”

“Rice and peas,” he writes, “fit into that category of dishes where two ordinary foods, combined together, ignite a pleasure far beyond the capacity of either of its parts alone. Like rhubarb and strawberries, apple pie and cheese, roast pork and sage, the two tastes and textures meld together into the sort of subtle transcendental oneness that we once fantasized would be our experience when we finally found the ideal mate.” After reading that it’s hard to believe anyone else wouldn’t be interested as well.

Why Food Writing Matters: A Profile of John Thorne by Sandy Ebner
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