My Usual Table: A Life in Restaurants

My Usual Table is a love letter to the great restaurants that have changed the way we eat— from Trader Vic’s to Chez Panisse and Spago to elBulli—and a vivid memoir of a life lived in food, from a founding editor of Saveur and James Beard Award winning writer Colman Andrews.

For reviewer, writer, and editor Colman Andrews, restaurants have been his playground, his theater, his university, his church, his refuge. The establishments he has loved have not only influenced culinary trends at home and abroad, but represent the changing history and culture of food in America and Western Europe. From his usual table, he has watched the growth of Nouvelle Cuisine and fusion cuisine; the organic and locavore movements; nose-to-tail eating; and so-called “molecular gastronomy.”

In My Usual Table, Andrews interweaves his own story—from growing up in the sunset years of Hollywood’s golden age to traveling the world in pursuit of great food—with tales of the restaurants, chefs, and restaurateurs who are emblematic of the revolutions great and small that have forever changed the way we eat, cook, and think about food.

Now out in paperback, a vivid portrait of a life lived in food from renowned food writer and critic Colman Andrews, a founding editor of Saveur and multiple James Beard Award winner

For food writer and magazine editor Colman Andrews, restaurants have long served as a playground, a theater, a university, a refuge. In My Usual Table, Andrews interweaves his own story with tales of the seminal restaurants and the great restaurateurs of our time who are emblematic of the revolutions that have transformed the way we eat, cook, and feel about food.

Tracing the evolution of our food culture from glamourous Old Hollywood's Chasen's to the "ethnic" food movement of the psychedelic '60s to the influence of family-run cafés and trattorias in Europe, Andrews arrives at the rise of game-changing restaurants like Eleven Madison Park and elBulli.

Andrews has watched the growth of nouvelle and fusion cuisine; the explosion of the organic and locavore movements; and the rise of nose-to-tail eating and so-called molecular gastronomy. The restaurants he has loved have not only influenced culinary trends at home and abroad, but represent the changing culture of food in America and Western Europe. And all along, Andrews has been there right there in the dining room, menu in one hand and notebook in the other.

“A fond salute to many of his favorite culinary haunts marks this charming autobiographical omnibus by accomplished cookbook author, longtime reviewer, and cofounder of Saveur, Andrews. In his lively, frank prose, Andrews unfurls a lifetime of intuitive restaurant searching… Since many of these restaurants have vanished in the fumes of time, Andrews offers no less than a veritable historical trove.” - Publishers Weekly (starred review)

“A fond salute to many of his favorite culinary haunts marks this charming autobiographical omnibus by accomplished cookbook author, longtime reviewer, and cofounder of Saveur, [Colman] Andrews.” - Publishers Weekly (starred review)

“In the hands of a less adept writer, Andrews’ narratives of movie stars cavorting in their favorite restaurant haunts or dining at his parents’ house might seem mere name-dropping, but his respect and affection for these celebrities make for enjoyable storytelling.” - Booklist

“A throwback to the early days of our food fascination when a handful of passionate geeks set out to explore this wide new world… A pleasure to read… But there’s more to life - and to restaurants - than foie gras, great vintages and gold fixtures. And Andrews gets that exactly right, giving full respect to great places where the food may have been merely good but where he was, for a time, happy…. It’s this ability to appreciate food in a larger context that makes Andrews’ book so appealing - and such a welcome antidote to so much of the food discussion today, which seems to oscillate between show business puffery and hyper-critical instant analysis.” - Los Angeles Times

“Andrews gets [it] exactly right…. It’s this ability to appreciate food in a larger context that makes Andrews’ book so appealing - and such a welcome antidote to so much of the food discussion today.” - Los Angeles Times

“Mr. Andrews writes delightfully about his earliest experiences dining out in Los Angeles at Chasen’s.” - Wall Street Journal

“Andrews is a compelling writer, and so his descriptions of restaurants past will lead readers who chronicle their own days in Instagrammed meals on an adventure in armchair time travel.” - San Francisco Chronicle

“Andrews’ eloquent food writing might as well be its own romance language.. the relationship Andrews has with restaurants and the comfort and thrill he experiences each time he sits down at the table - akin to an actor taking the stage - will make you want to join him.” -LA Weekly - LA Weekly

“The book is a fun read and covers hot spots such as El Bulli, Trader Vic’s and Chasen’s that are now shuttered but not forgotten.” - San Francisco Weekly

“[Andrews] has that food writer’s trick of imbuing long blocks of food description with a poet’s rhythm, lending a chewiness to the words that makes you want to lick the page.” - NPR Books

“It is scarcely possible to imagine a landscape of American food in the last thirty years without Colman Andrews smack in the middle of it, brandishing a half-empty bottle of ’70 Smith Haut Lafitte and heading straight for the foie gras.” - Jonathan Gold

“Reading this book, you want to be there, every moment, sharing Colman?s adven- tures. The truth is, I did share some of them—but I always thought he was having a better time. Now I know it’s true. - Ruth Reichl

“Colman Andrews seems to understand more than anyone else that the fundamental reason we go to restaurants is the definition of the term ‘to restore our spirit.’ He easily makes us hungry and thirsty, and by embracing our favorite joints, he explains that restaurants can truly be transformative.” - Jonathan Waxman

“I have come across very few people in my lifetime who know restaurants as well as Colman Andrews?so, throughout my career, I have always looked to him for advice on where to eat. In his new memoir, he beautifully describes how restaurants have shaped his life and career; accordingly, the reader learns how Colman has shaped the way we think about food.” - Alice Waters