What We're Reading: Dan Philippon

The current Director of Undergraduate Studies is writing (and reading) about food these days. And what food: He recently returned from a short stint in France, where he was Visiting Professor at the Ecole Normale Supérieure de Lyon and did research on food writing and the sustainable food movement. "The highlight of my stay was the Lyonnaise cuisine," he recalls, "Saint-Marcellin and Comté cheeses, Beaujolais and Côtes du Rhône wines, quenelles de brochet and saucisson de Lyon." Yep, the book he recommends includes recipes.

Associate Professor Dan Philippon has written or edited five books about American environmental literature, including Conserving Words: How American Nature Writers Shaped the Environmental Movement (2004). Intrigued by locavores and slow food proponents, he began exploring the connections between American food writers--Alice Waters, Wendell Berry, Julia Child--and the global sustainable food movement since World War II. His research has taken him to Germany, Italy, and, most recently, France. For more about the project (as well as his views on the benefits of majoring in English!), see our interview here.

What are you reading, Professor Philippon?
David Lebovitz, The Sweet Life in Paris. Lebovitz was a pastry chef at Chez Panisse, Alice Waters' restaurant in Berkeley, before he moved to Paris in 2002 to live full-time. The book is based on his blog, which is an increasingly common strategy for food memoirs these days, and it features the same funny, conversational tone Lebovitz displays online. Every chapter ends with a recipe--of which I've made a few, with good results--and Lebovitz is an amusing guide to the expat experience. Plus his favorite chocolate shop, Bernachon, was right around the corner from my flat in Lyon.