Book: Delights and Prejudices, by James Beard

By James Beard

James Beard lived what sounds like an idyllic life, from the perspective of a food lover, at least. In his food-focused memoir, Delights and Prejudices, he writes about his cooking-obsessed mother, who owned and operated a successful hotel in Portland, in the United States, before selling up and giving birth to her only son, in 1903, at the age of 42.

Mrs Beard and the Chinese cook, Let, who left the hotel to work with her, fed the chubby child a varied and prolific diet of home-made baked goods, top-quality meats and cheeses, fresh seafood and plenty of produce, much of it grown locally.

As Beard grew up, he aspired to be a singer or stage actor, and he travelled widely. Although the cuisines he tasted abroad influenced him, he is best remembered for being an ardent promoter of American food - in its finest form, not the fast food and packaged products we associate with the country's cuisine today.