REFLEXIONS Paperback – Illustrated, August 31, 2001

This is a wonderful, deeply moving, highly informative, chronicle and gastronomic autobiography, based mainly on letters and menus, supplemented by personal memories. It will not find a large audience, but for those interested in French food and wine, and especially in Olney himself, it should be owned and will be treasured.Richard Olney was a highly sensitive Iowa boy who intended to be an expatriot portrait painter in France, but became instead one of the world's most authoritative tasters, writers and thinkers about French cuisine and wines. He had, simply, the best palate on the planet; he wrote beautifully and precisely about taste, cooking, and winemaking; he lived eccentrically in the south of France all his adult life; he was slowly discovered by the French, British, and American food establishments, knew everyone therein and was clearly loved and admired by the best of them; thus he gained a devoted following and immense influence through his many books. This book is unfinished; Olney died suddenly of a heart attack in August, 1999.Olney's critiques of Julia Child, James Beard, M.F.K. Fisher, and even Craig Claiborne; and his adoring friendships with Simone Beck, Elizabeth David, Kermit Lynch, Lulu Peyraud and many others; are carefully and reliably described, always on the basis of evidence. The exhaustive details of memorable meals--e.g., pairings of food and wine--are richly informative and edifying for knowledgeable and experienced readers (which his cookbook readers are). People who are not already interested in these subjects probably will not find enough other material to justify buying this book.

One of the most influential but under-rated food and wine sages of recent times. He is - was - also a gifted writer and raconteur. Forthright, a little naughty, but always stylish and unfailingly honest. James Beard and Julia Child are revealed for what they were. And Elizabeth David and Alice Waters, Paul Bertolli. Lulu, Simca and Kermit shine through. As do his many other friends. You need to understand a little about food and wine to really get into this book but you will be amply rewarded. And go and but The Good Cook series. I have all of them

Egads, here by his own hand we see for ourselves what a nasty, petty, vindictive man Mr. Olney was. On and on and on we read of "friendships" with people he can't stand, yet who stay in his life year after year after year. Why, we wonder?Mr. Olney reveals himself to be a loner, probably not very happy in the world, who lived off a family allowance or inheritance (we're never quite sure) until the early 1970s when his reputation for being someone who knows food and wine launches him into cookbook writing (generally successfully, though not a real "name" like, say, Julia Child or M.F.K. Fisher -- both of whom he detests).What we're left with here is a self-portrait of a man who didn't fit in, who was elitist, and petty, and mean-spirited; and the one pleasure of this book is that he's SO nasty we can't look away until the end -- like watching a car accident.The early part of the book works well as a portrait of a young homosexual painter with a trust fund "struggling" as he eeks out a Bohemian living before finding and moving into a house in the countryside. Again and again we are told of people trying to seduce him and yet he never takes anyone up on this. What, are we to believe he never had sex after his first black lover and he part ways?This functions well as a look into the catty inner circle of the food world, but in the end, all I felt was pity for Mr. Olney; a man of rarefied (and elitist) tastes who never fit in, and who seemed to take pleasure only in the superficial and strength only in his own feeling of innate superiority.Perhaps, I'm wrong, but that's the way it reads in this book -- which by the way starts out like a book and then becomes mostly a collection of diary entries and letter excerpts.Glad I read it. You may find it interesting, as I did. But I did not LIKE Mr. Olney at all reading between the lines, and I suspect that's why he has so much antipathy toward seemingly everyone, because they didn't like him either.

Not an autobiography in any sense other than being [almost] a day-by-day chronology about what was served for dinner, accompanied by what wine and who was there. There is no discussion or development of any ideas or the basis to Olney’s cooking, simply what was served. There is also the seemingly unending name dropping of persons with whom he dined, as well as a few bitchy comments. It reads like a transcription of his personal diary which must have been religiously kept for fifty years and transcribed into book form. Granted, Olney died before it was completed and it should be considered as a rough draft at best, but there is precious little in this book.Additionally, in the hardback edition the photographs are very poorly printed and show-up mostly as dark squares in the page. Very disappointed in content of this book and its printing. Olney's cookbooks, on the other hand, are masterpieces.

Definately shows what a complicated man he was. Itt answered a lot of questions I had.

Lovely compendium from a sometimes cooking curmudgeon. Olney does not suffer fools gladly & it shows throughout this book. He assumes one has at least a working knowledge of the kitchen, it's appliances & hardware & their uses. Thoroughly enjoyable from a consummate professional.

Olney’s life told in his own words. Interesting to fans of food, wine, and French culture through the lens of an American.

Richard Olney's cookery books are superb, albeit most of his dishes and menus are too cheffy for most of us. A steady progression of "friends" names runs through the book, likes and rather more dislikes abound in the gay set in which he moved. Lists of dishes served, fabulous wines drunk are interspersed. Very few of the people mentioned mean anything in the UK, apart from those of the Julia Child/Elizabeth David/Lulu Peyraud level. It does round out the picture of the man, but rather for the worse, I'm afraid.

This book fills in so much background on so many interconnected people and events. Olney's honesty brings a sharp focus on the interactions of some of the giants of the food world of the period. I read it voraciously, unable to put it down until the end

This is a critical work in the gastronomic history of the food-world which explains how it was that one American gastronome established the reputations of some of France's most famous vineyards, ingredients and culinary assets in the USA and globally in a classic act of insider marketing. Fascinating and moving at times. Also a tad repetitive but this is inevitable in memoirs that have been so little edited and served raw for a very honest form of consumption.