Chef, author, culinary educator, television personality and artist Jacques Pépin at M.F.K. Fisher's Last House on March 26, 2022.
New York Times Style Magazine
November 15, 2024
"Despite its millions of recipes, the internet hasn’t killed cookbooks. Instead, the genre’s fans seem more motivated than ever to collect and use them — and not just for making dinner. For some, they’re bedside reading. For others, they’re design objects. A cookbook can be a work of cultural anthropology, a historical record, an instruction manual and a vehicle for armchair travel. But what makes a cookbook great? In trying to compile T’s list of the 25 most essential examples written in English over the past 100 years, we prioritized influence — how has a book affected the way we eat, cook, think, talk, photograph and write about food?"
M.F.K. Fisher's How to Cook a Wolf is included at number eight on the list.
Gregory Bezat's wonderful documentary, The Art of Eating: The Life of M.F.K. Fisher, will be screened twice as a part of the Leticia Jarvis Art Film Series at the Jarvis Conservatory in Napa, California.
Filmmakers Gregory Bezat and Gary Meyer will hold a discussion after each screening. Participating in the discussion will also be Kennedy Friede Golden (M.F.K. Fisher's daughter, Administrator of the M.F.K. Fisher Literary Trust) and Jerry Anne DiVecchio (author, long-time Fisher friend, Former Food & Wine Editor, Sunset Publishing).
More information can be found at https://www.mfkfisherfilm.com/mfk/
Two screenings: 4 p.m. and 7 p.m.
Saturday, September 21, 2024
Tickets are $15
July 3, 2024: Sunrises, dark woods, ocean swims, skeletons, crickets, owls, ponds…the main characters in this year’s Last House Writing Contest submissions — spanning generations and the globe — were nearly all animal or elemental. Now in its fifth year, the contest called on emerging writers to explore belonging in nature.
Adults:
First place & grand: Scott McMorrow, “Bird People”
Second place: Eva Parr, “Land Intimacy”
Third place: Sara Alexander, “Le Fave”
Youth:
First place: Isabella Guglielmetti, “Cricket, Cricket”
Second place: Biana Toussaint, “Shadow Cliffs”
Third place: Katie Kim, “Treasure Hunt”
Children:
First place: Annika Thakarar (grand prize winner 2022), “The Pond”
Second place: Kellie Howie, “Untitled”
Third place: Siaansh Bhadaurie, “Givers and Takers”
June 8, 2024: The James Beard Foundation® is proud to announce the winners of the
2024 James Beard Media Awards presented by Capital One, honoring the nation’s top food authors,
broadcast producers, hosts, journalists, podcasters, and social media content creators. The recipient of the M.F.K. Fisher Distinguished Writing Award is Hannah Dreier for "The Kids on the Night Shift" published in The New York Times.
April 30, 2024: Having just learned that Joan Reardon completed her life journey in December 2023, it seems only right to honor her memory here, given her extensive study and work writing three books and many articles about M.F.K. Fisher.
Joan and I became good friends over the years she spent researching my mother’s long and complex life. We shared stories as she accessed every piece of information available to her to gain information that might inform the life story she and my mother agreed she could write. She visited the extensive collection curated at the Schlesinger Library on the History of Women in America on the Harvard University campus. She spoke with numerous colleagues, friends, and family members who shared stories and information- all fascinating, some printable. She gave over 12 years of her life to telling the best version of M.F.K. Fisher’s life possible. Her biography, Poet of the Appetites: The Lives and Loves of M.F.K. Fisher, was published by North Point Press in 2004. She then created a delightful little book, M.F.K. Fisher among the Pots and Pans: Celebrating Her Kitchens. This book was published by the University of California Press in 2008, and was dedicated to “Mary Frances in honor of the hundredth anniversary of her birth, July 3, 1908.” Joan had previously published M.F.K. Fisher, Julia Child & Alice Waters: Celebrating the Pleasures of the Table in 1994. She also wrote numerous Introductions and Prefaces to important books including M.F.K. Fisher: An Annotated Bibliography by Donald Zealand and Randall Tarpey-Schwed and even to M.F.K. Fisher’s The Art of Eating: 50th Anniversary Edition, in continuous print since 1954.
In addition to her extensive writing about M.F.K. Fisher, she had a long and wonderful marriage to Historian John Reardon, she was a professor and chair of the English department at what was then Barat College in Lake Forest, IL, and she spent many years as Dame of Distinction of the Chicago Chapter of Les Dames D’Escoffier. She was an accomplished and celebrated author and a culinary historian. Her friendship was cherished by many.
Joan knew more about my family than I ever will. She cheerfully answered questions I had, and engaged with me regularly as she learned new and interesting pieces of the story. We spent hours looking through dusty boxes of papers, photographs, and mementos that my mother had collected, and I came to consider her a good and cherished friend.
Thank you, Joan, for doing some hard work, for digging deeply to make someone else’s life come alive, for sharing your own fascinating journey and life with so many, and for leaving behind words and memories that will be enjoyed long into the future. You are missed by many, and I hope that you are aware of the large part you have played in many lives.
Kennedy Golden, M.F.K. Fisher’s daughter
March 12, 2024: The Fifth Annual Last House Writing Contest is here!
The contest celebrates author M.F.K. Fisher, who resided in her “Last House” on the Bouverie Preserve in Sonoma Valley. This year’s theme is “Belonging in Nature.” How does your culture and/or life experience influence how you view nature and yourself in nature?
Entries are accepted from children, youth, and adults who do not currently write professionally. It is FREE for children and youth under 18 to enter. $500.00 will be awarded to the grand prize winner.
Entries will be accepted from Monday, March 11 through Friday, May 17.
October 1, 2023: There will be two screenings of Gregory Bezat's film, The Art of Eating: The Life of M.F.K. Fisher, at the Vogue Theatre in San Francisco on October 1. Each screening will be followed by a conversation and Q&A with Bezat and Fisher's daughter Kennedy Friede Golden, moderated by Celia Sack of Omnivore Books. A VIP reception will be held between screenings at Thos. Moser Furniture.
September 8, 2023: Les Dames d’Escoffier International (LDEI) is pleased to announce the winners of the 17th annual Les Dames d’Escoffier International M.F.K. Fisher Prize, which awards creative works by women, in any media format, that broaden understanding of the intersection of food and culture. This year’s award recipients are accomplished creators whose submissions were published in 2022.
Frog's Leap Winery
Rutherford, CA
September, 9, 2023
Presented in association with the Napa Valley Wine Library Association, join Frog's Leap Winery and local filmmaker Gregory Bezat for a presentation of the documentary The Art of Eating: The Life of M.F.K. Fisher. Bezat's film examines the dramatic life and lasting impact of the legendary California food writer.
Following the screening, exceptional wine writer and editor Bob Thompson will moderate a panel discussion with Kennedy Golden, Mary Frances’s daughter and estate trustee; Greg Bezat, filmmaker; Antoni Allegra, food and wine writer, editor, author and symposia founder; Jerry Anne DiVecchio, food writer and editor.
Wine and popcorn accompany the program; small bites are on sale throughout the evening.
The fourth annual Last House Writing Contest drew 84 entries from all over the world, including India and the United Kingdom. The contest celebrates author M.F.K. Fisher, who resided in her “Last House” at Bouverie Preserve in Sonoma Valley.
Readers and critics have often remarked that much of the writings of M.F.K. Fisher focus on hunger: for life, love, nature in all its forms, pleasure, companionship, and much, much more. This year’s contest invited emerging writers to explore hunger’s many forms and how we satisfy, ignore, or otherwise address this most basic and fundamental force of human existence.
Please join us in celebrating not only the winners of this year's writing contest, but all of those who entered and were inspired by M.F.K. Fisher's work and her lasting legacy of encouraging creativity in writers of all ages.
Winning essays may be read at the link below.
Support connecting nature, people, and science for a more resilient world
Audubon Canyon Ranch is thrilled to announce an exclusive fundraising event at M.F.K. Fisher’s Last House on Bouverie Preserve: An Afternoon with Alice on Saturday, July 29, 2023.
In celebration of food and community and to support its programs, Audubon Canyon Ranch has partnered with Alice Waters to create a delicious, seasonal, and locally sourced meal prepared by Chez Panisse staff.
During this intimate luncheon with Alice Waters and only thirty guests, you will enjoy the serene environs of Fisher’s Last House while taking in sweeping views of Bouverie Preserve and the Sonoma Valley. The program includes a conversation with Alice moderated by Clark Wolf, where she’ll discuss her friendship with acclaimed writer M.F.K. Fisher, her connection to the work at Bouverie Preserve, how Fisher inspired her own career and Fisher’s legacy.
An American chef, restaurateur, author, and pioneer for California cuisine, Alice is a leader in the farm-to-table movement and an advocate for sustainable and regenerative agricultural practices.
Join us for this special affair! Tickets are $2,000 per person ($1,800 tax deductible).
Through your generous ticket purchase, you will support the mission of Audubon Canyon Ranch: connecting nature, people, and science for a more resilient world.