Recent Posts by David Downie

David Downie: some restaurants to add to the Food Wine Burgundy guidebook

Published by Wednesday, August 24, 2011 Permalink 0

by David Downie

Change is the nature of the edibles-and-potables business everywhere. In Burgundy the region’s symbol is the snail. Change comes slowly. But the snail, like the tortoise, defeats the hare in the long run—or the long slide.

Cuppa? Change-resistance is part of the Gallic gene pool

The down-slide first: reliable fellow gourmets who scour Burgundy for great food and wine confirm that Amaryllis, the discovery of a few years back, is being spoiled by success. Michelin rewarded this unlikely candidate with a star after only a few years of operation, and crowds and crowns of laurels soon followed. So too did a precipitous move from funky quarters in an unattractive highway-side location in a nowhere village – part of the discovery experience – to fancy-dancy, flower-filled premises: the former home of stuffy-but-likeable Le Moulin de Martorey. This reconverted millhouse complex is at San Remy, near Chalon-sur-Saone. Now Amaryllis and its still-very-young chef-owner Cédric Burtin is becoming staid, in a beautiful, mainstream setting… another one-star Michelin place serving elaborately plated, microscopic portions of France’s notorious silly haute food.

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News from David Downie: Paris, Paris on 3QD and The Little Book That Could

Published by Monday, August 8, 2011 Permalink 0

by David Downie

Writer-chef-explorer extraordinaire Elatia Harris — no relation to my wife Alison Harris — interviewed me for a great website I did not formerly know, the 3 Quarks Daily.

It’s always jarring to be on the other side of the mike — or keyboard. I’ve conducted hundreds of interviews over the last 20-odd years. I’ve given a few, too. Of them, this is outstandingly good (not because I’m such a fascinating person, but because Elatia is such a good interviewer and writer).

Here’s the opening paragraph:

In 1986, San Francisco-born David Downie, a scholar and multilingual translator, moved to Paris, into a real garret — a maid’s room, in fact — to write himself into another way of life. Fresh from Milan, his marriage to a Milanese finished, he was still young enough for years more of getting it right. A quarter century later, his authority on matters Parisian is acknowledged by Jan Morris, Diane Johnson, and Mavis Gallant, to name only a few illustrious admirers.

Happily the interview is also about Alison and includes many fine photos from Rome, Paris and elsewhere.

Photos such as this one:

Much to my surprise and delight, The New Yorker picked up the interview. The power of new media is startling.

Speaking of which, Paris, Paris is a surprise bestseller. It was released on April 5 and in under four months has gone through four print runs… This is astonishing, given the publicity budget (budget? what budget?) and the not-dumbed-down nature of the book.

Thanks to all of you for buying so many copies, and telling your friends! Merci mille fois…

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David Downie: Chartres: Sacred and Profane

Published by Wednesday, July 20, 2011 Permalink 0

by David Downie

Last weekend my travel feature on the cathedral and lively town of Chartres ran in the San Francisco Sunday Chronicle Travel section — the cover story. This was the first time I’d written anything for the Chron since 2007. I was a regular contributor from the late 1980s until then, but somehow, after John Flinn left as editor, things went quiet. I had 6 books to write — three Terroir Guides, a thriller, a history of the American Academy in Rome, a book about Rome’s quiet corners… and Hit the Road, Jacques, about our 750-mile trek across France… a book my agent is currently showing to editors in New York… So, there wasn’t much time for magazine and newspaper work.

I’m happy to say that the affable “new” travel editor, Spud Hilton, in the saddle for the last few years, was glad to have me contribute again to the section. I hope this is the first of many pieces.

Back to Chartres and a teaser, the first few lines of the story, and a link. Photos are included and, believe or not, I took them. The par-blind photographer.

The voices of vacationers partying at cafés faded as I left Chartres’ picture-postcard main square and entered the dusky nave of the cathedral. Blinking until my eyes adjusted, I stared up at dozens of jewel-like stained glass windows glowing an otherworldly blue. READ FULL ARTICLE

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David Downie and Alison Harris on Book Tour from April 20 to May 20 in NYC and SF Bay Area

Published by Wednesday, March 23, 2011 Permalink 0

by David Downie

Food and travel writer David Downie and photographer Alison Harris are gearing up for their U.S. book tour, to beat the drum about their pair of newborn books: Quiet Corners of Rome (April 25, 2011) and Paris, Paris: Journey into the City of Light (April 5, 2011). The covers, if you please!

Details about the books, book tours and links to their favorite book sellers are listed on David’s site, as well as on Twitter and Twitter.



Also featured on their tour and already available for purchase: Food Wine Burgundy, Food Wine Rome, Food Wine Italian Riviera & Genoa, and Cooking the Roman Way (the new e-book version).

What’s on the playbill? They’ll be showing slides (actually, Alison will do a PowerPoint presentation), talking, chatting, interacting via riveting Q&As, giving live radio interviews (most are still to be scheduled), and generally performing all the other tricks and great things writers and photographers do on book tours. Singing, dancing, walking tight ropes, jumping through hoops…

Crucial dates: They will be in New York from April 20-30.

NYC

Thursday, April 28, 5:30 – 7 pm
Rizzoli Bookstore, 31 West 57th St (5th-6th Ave.s)
Meet & Greet + Reading, Talk

They will be in the SF Bay Area/wine country May 1-18, and back home in Paris on May 19 and in operation on the 20th.

SF BAY AREA & Wine Country

Monday, May 2, 7 PM
Book Passage, 51 Tamal Vista Blvd, Corte Madera
Reading, Talk and slide show.

Tuesday, May 3, 7:30 PM
Readers’ Books, 130 E Napa St, Sonoma
National treasure Paula Wolfert introduces us.
Reading, Talk.

RADIO INTERVIEW
Saturday, May 7, 11:00 AM (Time may change but it will be between 10 am and 12:30 pm). KGO AM 810, “Dining Around with Gene Burns,” Live interview.

Saturday, May 7. 4:00 PM
Mrs. Dalloways Literary & Garden Arts, 2904 College Ave, Berkeley
Info: 510-704-8222
Reading, Talk.

Tuesday, May 11, 6:00 PM
Mechanics’ Institute Library, 57 Post Street, San Francisco
Info: 415-393-0114
Reading, Talk and slide show.

Wednesday, May 12, 6:00 – 7:00 pm
Omnivore Books, 3885A Cesar Chavez St, San Francisco
Info: 415-282-4712
Reading, Talk about food and travel writing in France and Italy.

Stay tuned, the above will evolve… And please spread the word…

Remember, if you can make it to one of our book events, and you can’t be in Paris this spring, you’ll always have Paris, Paris — the book!

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American Bomb, Focaccia al Formaggio and Fascists

Published by Thursday, January 27, 2011 Permalink 0

by David Downie, just back from the Italian Riviera, an opinion piece

There’s a reason “Wreck-Oh!” is the irreverent nickname for Recco, the Italian Riviera’s self-styled “culinary capital” and probable birthplace of the cheese-filled delicacy focaccia con formaggio.

This once-charming seaside village was flattened by RAF and USAF bombers in an 8-month period from summer 1943 to spring 1944. The goal: blow up the railroad viaduct spanning the Recco River. The Allies ran 20 bombing raids on Recco, a small place, smaller than an American shopping mall. The effects were devastating. Only a few buildings — and the railway viaduct — were left standing. Hundreds of people died.

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