Villas, James 1938–

PERSONAL: Born February 10, 1938, in Charlotte, NC; son of Harold and Martha Pearl (a cook and writer; maiden name Pierson) Villas. Ethnicity: "American." Education: University of North Carolina, B.A. (with honors), 1960, M.A., 1961, Ph.D., 1966; also attended University of Grenoble and Middlebury College.

ADDRESSES: Home and office—118 Mulford Ave., East Hampton, NY 11937. Agent—Dystel & Goderich Literary Management, 1 Union Square W., New York, NY 10003. E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER: Worked as professor of Romance languages at University of Missouri, Columbia, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ, and Hunter College of the City University of New York, New York, NY, between 1966 and 1972; Town and Country, New York, NY, food and wine editor, 1972–99; food journalist, novelist, and cookbook writer.

AWARDS, HONORS: Fulbright scholar, 1961–62; named food writer of the year, Bon Appetít, 2003; James Beard Award, James Beard Foundation, for Biscuit Bliss: 101 Foolproof Recipes for Fresh and Fluffy Biscuits in Just Minutes,

WRITINGS:

Gérard de Nerval: A Critical Bibliography, 1900 to 1967, University of Missouri Press (Columbia, MO), 1967.

American Taste: A Celebration of Gastronomy Coast-to-Coast, Arbor House (New York, NY), 1982.

The Town & Country Cookbook, illustrated by Catherine Kanner, Little, Brown (Boston, MA), 1985.

James Villas' Country Cooking, Little, Brown (Boston, MA), 1988.

Villas at Table: A Passion for Food and Drink, Harper & Row (New York, NY), 1988.

The French Country Kitchen: The Undiscovered Glories of French Regional Cuisine, Bantam Books (New York, NY), 1992.

(With mother, Martha Pearl Villas) My Mother's Southern Kitchen: Recipes and Reminiscences, Macmillan (New York, NY), 1994.

Stews, Bogs, and Burgoos: Recipes from the Great American Stewpot, Morrow (New York, NY), 1997.

(With Martha Pearl Villas) My Mother's Southern Desserts: More than 200 Treasured Family Recipes for Holiday and Everyday Celebrations, Morrow (New York, NY), 1998.

(With Martha Pearl Villas) My Mother's Southern Entertaining, Morrow (New York, NY), 2000.

Between Bites: Memoirs of a Hungry Hedonist, John Wiley (New York, NY), 2002.

Crazy for Casseroles: 275 All-American Hot-Dish Classics, Harvard Common Press (Boston, MA), 2003.

Biscuit Bliss: 101 Foolproof Recipes for Fresh and Fluffy Biscuits in Just Minutes, Harvard Common Press (Boston, MA), 2004.

Stalking the Green Fairy and Other Fantastic Adventures in Food and Drink, John Wiley (Hoboken, NJ), 2004.

The Glory of Southern Cooking, John Wiley (Hoboken, NJ), 2006.

Also contributor to periodicals, including Food and Wine, New York Times, Gourmet, Esquire, Bon Appetít, Travel and Leisure, and Cuisine.

WORK IN PROGRESS: The Bacon Cookbook, for John Wiley (Hoboken, NJ), completion expected in 2007.

SIDELIGHTS: James Villas, food and wine editor of Town and Country magazine for more than twenty-five years, has expressed his enthusiasm for American and French cuisine in several books of essays and recipes. His broad knowledge of food traditions and his personable prose have led him to be favorably compared, in such periodicals as Publishers Weekly, to such noted food writers as James Beard and Evan Jones.

American Taste: A Celebration of Gastronomy Coast-to-Coast was considered by a Publishers Weekly contributor to be "refreshingly well-written," with diverse articles covering such seemingly mundane items as southern barbecues, hamburgers, and fried chicken. The personal touch Villas brings to this material prompted mixed reviews. "Villas is witty and highly opinionated," commented Genevieve Stuttaford in Publisher Weekly, offering "a lively, freewheeling account" of native American cooking. Library Journal contributor Johanna Ezell found American Taste informative, but noted that the book was "not so much fun as sardonic." Ezell wrote about Villas's "less-than-exciting style" and his "dull" commentary.

The Town & Country Cookbook drew more consistent praise. This volume includes almost 600 recipes, many from the magazine but some from Villas's personal files, for foods that reflect the author's wide-ranging cosmopolitan tastes, from peanut butter sandwiches to fiddle-head ferns with mushrooms. Even the most everyday dishes in the collection, noted Karen Gray in Publishers Weekly, contained a distinctive elegance, and the recipes avoided fussiness or elaborate cooking skills. Ruth Die-bold commented in the Library Journal that, though some of Villas's material here was chic, "generally his recipes show a nice balance between classics and well-conceived newer ideas."

Such "literate coherence and acerbic wit," as Florence Fabricant put it in the New York Times Book Review, quickly became trademark features of Villas's books. Also characteristic is Villas's unabashed enthusiasm for two particular gastronomic traditions: American Southern country cooking and French country cooking. A native of rural North Carolina, Villas grew up in a family with Greek, Swedish, and southern roots as the son of a renowned country cook. He developed a soft spot for such homey masterpieces as his mother's flaky biscuits, Southern fried chicken, and cholesterol-rich desserts. Villas pays homage to some of these dishes in Villas at Table: A Passion for Food and Drink, a collection of forty-three essays that, like those in his first collection, run the gamut from the mundane to the more exotic. But he began to focus increasingly on the southern country table. My Mother's Southern Kitchen: Recipes and Reminiscences, which Villas wrote with his mother, Martha Pearl Villas, presents not only Mrs. Vil-las's recipes, but also a spirited reminiscence of her approach to food. "Villas … pays homage to his mother with such intensity—sometimes bordering on defensiveness—that you have to pay attention," wrote New York Times Book Review contributor Richard Flaste, who vacillated between finding the mother-and-son banter either "cute or dysfunctional." Noting that the book is filled with recipes calling for such health-conscious taboos as lard, bacon grease, and heavy cream, Flaste also found lighter alternatives included, and pointed out that several recipes sounded quite appealing.

Even heavier on the rich ingredients is My Mother's Southern Desserts: More than 200 Treasured Family Recipes for Holiday and Everyday Celebration. A reviewer for Publishers Weekly found the book a "winsome repertoire" of calorie-laden delights, enhanced by Villas's entertaining anecdotes about such subjects as "Cuddin' Berta's Georgia Kiss Pudding" or the origins of Blueberry Flummery. Mrs. Villas, noted Judith C. Sutton in the Library Journal, "really knows her sweets."

Villas's other passion, French country cuisine, serves as the focus for The French Country Kitchen: The Undiscovered Glories of French Regional Cuisine, a book that Barbara Jacobs, in her Booklist review, found "as informative as it is mouthwatering." In this volume, Villas presents 175 recipes from several regions of France and tackles such subjects as authentic French bread and "la salade verte." Many recipes, reviewers found, were based on everyday ingredients and are easy to follow. A Publishers Weekly reviewer appreciated the "loving commentary" with which Villas describes each region's traditions.

In Crazy for Casseroles: 257 All-American Hot-Dish Classics, Villas offers a wide range of recipes that celebrate what he describes as original and genuine American regional cooking. Biscuit Bliss: 101 Foolproof Recipes for Fresh and Fluffy Biscuits in Just Minutes also collects recipes from one end of America to the other, ranging from the basic (scones) to the sublime (blue cheese and walnut cocktail biscuits). In both collections the recipes are enhanced by Villas's commentary, which Library Journal contributor Judith C. Sutton dubbed "opinionated, witty, and a pleasure to read."

Stalking the Green Fairy and Other Fantastic Adventures in Food and Drink also offers recipes, but the focus is a collection of essays on food topics of interest to the author, ranging from the high and mighty (the "green fairy" absinthe, chic dining venues at home and abroad) to the humble and meek (peanut butter, iceberg lettuce, discount grocery stores). Even here in this wide-ranging collection, his critics observed, Villas's enthusiasm for American (especially southern) fare shines bright, "displaying the humor, intelligence and strong-mindedness" that have made him popular, as a Publishers Weekly contributor commented. Kevin Can-field noted in Gastronomica that "Villas is most engaging when he turns skeptical toward some of the foolishness that occasionally accompanies contemporary high-end dining." But, as Canfield concluded, "his enthusiasm for food and drink is this fine book's defining quality."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

BOOKS

Villas, James, Between Bites: Memoirs of a Hungry Hedonist, John Wiley (New York, NY), 2002.

PERIODICALS

Bestsellers, October, 1982, review of American Taste: A Celebration of Gastronomy Coast-to-Coast, p. 275.

Booklist, September 1, 1982, review of American Taste, p. 15; October 1, 1985, review of The Town & Country Cookbook, p. 180; November 15, 1988, review of Villas at Table: A Passion for Food and Drink, p. 527; April 1, 1992, Barbara Jacobs, review of The French Country Kitchen: The Undiscovered Glories of French Regional Cuisine, p. 1421; October 15, 1994, Barbara Jacobs, review of My Mother's Southern Kitchen: Recipes and Reminiscences, p. 387; July, 1998, Mark Knoblauch, review of My Mother's Southern Desserts: More than 200 Treasured Family Recipes for Holiday and Everyday Celebration, p. 1847; February 15, 2003, review of Crazy for Casseroles: 275 All-American Hot-Dish Classics, p. 1028.

Bookwatch, December, 2003, review of Crazy for Casseroles, p. 9; April, 2004, James A. Cox and Diane C. Donovan, review of Biscuit Bliss: 101 Foolproof Recipes for Fresh and Fluffy Biscuits in Just Minutes, p. 11.

Choice, June, 1969, review of Gérard de Nerval: A Critical Bibliography, 1900 to 1967, p. 488.

Christian Science Monitor, November 9, 1995, Chester E. Finn, Jr., review of The French Country Kitchen, p. 14.

Cuisine, September, 1980, p. 20; October, 1982, Richard Sax, review of American Taste, pp. 10-11.

Fortune, September 16, 2002, review of Between Bites: Memoirs of a Hungry Hedonist, p. 208.

Gastonomica, summer, 2005, Kevin Canfield, review of Stalking the Green Fairy and Other Fantastic Adventures in Food and Drink, pp. 133-134.

Gourmet, February, 2005, Cynthia Zarin, review of Stalking the Green Fairy and Other Fantastic Adventures in Food and Drink, p. 46.

Kirkus Reviews, October 1, 1985, review of The Town & Country Cookbook, p. 1086; October 15, 1988, review of Villas at Table, p. 1522; March 15, 1992, review of The French Country Kitchen, p. 388; October 1, 1994, review of My Mother's Southern Kitchen, p. 1357.

Library Bookwatch, March, 2005, review of Biscuit Bliss.

Library Journal, July, 1982, Johanna Ezell, review of American Taste, p. 1326; September 15, 1985, Ruth Diebold, review of The Town & Country Cookbook, p. 81; September 15, 1994, Judith C. Sutton, review of My Mother's Southern Kitchen, p. 87; December, 1997, Judith C. Sutton, review of Stews, Bogs, and Burgoos: Recipes from the Great American Stewpot, p. 140; October 15, 1998, Judith C. Sutton, review of My Mother's Southern Desserts, p. 92; December, 2002, Judith C. Sutton, review of Crazy for Casseroles, p. 166; December, 2003, Judith C. Sutton, review of Biscuit Bliss, p. 154; June 1, 2004, John Charles, review of Stalking the Green Fairy and Other Fantastic Adventures in Food and Drink, p. 170.

Los Angeles Times, July 18, 1982, review of American Taste, p. 14.

Modern Language Review, January, 1969, review of Gérard de Nerval, p. 179; July, 1970, review of Gérard de Nerval, p. 637.

Nation's Restaurant News, March 3, 2003, Michael Schrader, review of Crazy for Casseroles, p. 46.

New York, May 11, 1992, review of The French Country Kitchen, p. 28.

New York Times, December 8, 1985, Marian Burros, review of The Town he Town & Country Cookbook, p. 21; November 21, 1994, Florence Fabricant, review of My Mother's Southern Kitchen, p. C4.

New York Times Book Review, December 4, 1985, p. 85; December 8, 1985, Marian Burros, review of The Town & Country Cookbook, p. 21; December 4, 1988, Florence Fabricant, review of James Villa' Country Cooking and Villas at Table, p. 85; December 4, 1994, Richard Flaste, review of My Mother's Southern Kitchen, p. 24.

Publishers Weekly, May 21, 1982, Genevieve Stuttaford, review of American Taste, pp. 67-68; August 12, 1983, review of American Taste, p. 64; September 20, 1985, Karen Gray, review of The Town & Country Cookbook, p. 97; October 21, 1988, Molly McQuade, review of Villas at Table, p. 57; March 30, 1992, review of The French Country Kitchen, p. 102; September 26, 1994, review of My Mother's Southern Kitchen, p. 66; August 17, 1998, review of My Mother's Southern Desserts, p. 67; November 18, 2002, review of Crazy for Casseroles, p. 56; April 12, 2004, review of Stalking the Green Fairy and Other Fantastic Adventures in Food and Drink, p. 57.

Town and Country, November, 1988, p. 207.

Travel-Holiday, September, 1992, review of The French Country Kitchen, p. 105.

Washington Post Book World, July 11, 1982, review of American Taste, p. 3; December 15, 1985, review of The Town & Country Cookbook, p. 8.