My Place at the Table: A Recipe for a Delicious Life in Paris by Alexander Lobrano

“A flat-out wonderful read, full of the stories and secrets that make eating in Paris what we want to be doing right now. Lobrano has a genius for finding characters at every level of the food chain—the peasant chef, or the grande dame home cook, or the bistro revolutionary with his simple, perfect dishes—and for owning up to tasting foods for the first time and describing them with surprising poetic flair. Reading My Place at the Table on a New York subway, I did something I have never done: I missed my stop.”
—Bill Buford, best-selling author of Heat and Dirt

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Greetings from France, and it’s my pleasure to announce the publication of my new book, MY PLACE AT THE TABLE: A Recipe for a Delicious Life in Paris by Houghton-Mifflin-Harcourt.

Though the book is officially released on June 1, 2021, we’ve already had some wonderful reactions from early readers and reviewers, including The New Yorker food writer Bill Buford, above.

“A redoubtable restaurant critic and 30-year resident of Paris sets the table with an enticing menu of memories…Lobrano writes with mouthwatering elan, dash, and feeling.”—Kirkus

“Lobrano’s story is inspiring, and his prose lush and inviting. Readers will savor every last page.”—Publishers Weekly (Starred review)

“Rest assured, there’s never a dull moment in My Place at the Table. It’s a veritable feast of humility, humor and emotion.”—BookPage

“Like so many food-lovers, Alec Lobrano dreamed of a life in Paris. Unlike the rest of us, he made the dream come true. In this warm, delicious, and extremely candid book, he lets us in on all his secrets. Everyone who loves French food will want to read this memoir.”
—Ruth Reichl

“In this coming-of-age tale, Alec Lobrano chronicles his discovery of taste during a challenging youth, which led him to emerge as one of the most astute and brilliant writers on French cuisine. Few understand France, and its cuisine, as deeply as Alec, and readers will devour My Place at the Table, which is seasoned by his sharp humor, a soupçon of heartbreak, and the satisfaction of triumph, all framed by his reminiscences of delicious dining at Paris’s most lauded tables. This book is truly a recipe for pleasure!
—David Lebovitz, author of My Paris Kitchen and French Drinks

It’s peony time in France

“Alexander Lobrano’s beautiful memoir about finding himself through writing about food is charming, wise, and often very funny. An American who has lived in Paris for more than thirty years, he offers fresh insights into French culinary culture.”
—Alice Waters

“A long-lasting love story with the French food scene told with wit, verve, and great expertise.”
—Chef Alain Ducasse

“Lobrano excels in weaving a full and timeless human story with bits of mouthwatering epicureanism. He elevates food to an essential anchor of memory in a rich and dynamic human story and shows us that deliciousness, in food and in writing, is achieved through authenticity, clarity, and vulnerability. This book is another example of why Alec Lobrano’s voice is so important: His writing is a meticulous, generous, and joyful affirmation of life.”
—Daniel Rose, chef, New York City (Le Coucou) and Paris (Chez la Vieille. La Bourse et La Vie)

“All I really wanted to do was go to different places to eat, and then write it all down,” says a young Alexander Lobrano in My Place at the Table. Thank goodness he followed his appetites, which eventually led him to Paris, renown as a food critic and now, the author of a memoir that’s by turns poignant, hilarious, wise, and bravely honest. Mouth-watering, too. Lobrano writes beautifully about food. But he’s just as adept at mining life’s truths. Lobrano’s debut book is a lovely feast.”
—Tom Sietsema, food critic, Washington Post

So what is My Place at the Table: A Recipe for a Delicious Life in Paris about? And why did I write it?

The short answer is that it’s a coming of age story about how a shy kid from suburban Connecticut ends up daring to chase his dream of living in Paris and eventually becomes one of the most respected and important restaurant critics and food writers in the French capital.

More good news! Restaurants have reopened to serve on outdoor terraces in France, which means pleasures like this green-pea-and-asparagus risotto by chef Krishna Leger at Volver, a delightful restaurants in Serviers-et-Labaume near Uzes in the south.

The longer answer is that if I speak four languages, including my native English and the French and Italian I learned at school, the one I like best is food. I’ve loved the language of food for as long as my mind has been minting memories, because it’s so direct, emotional, intimate, sensual, historical and cultural.

As a shy boy growing up in the Connecticut suburbs of New York City, I was instantly attracted this language beyond all others, because it soothed as much as it excited and was as honest as it was mysterious. Deciphering this almost infinitely vast and varied language became an obsession for me as a child, which is how I discovered what I wanted to do when I grew up during a two-month cross-country traveling camp as a twelve-year-old-boy. I kept a little diary during this trip in which I recorded everything I ate every day, in minute detail and with great enthusiasm. So a few weeks after my anticlimactic return home, it struck me that what I really wanted to do was travel to eat and then write it all down.

Eventually this vague but urgent desire sort of inevitably found its most natural home during my first trip to Paris as a teenager. If the beauty and elegance of the city stunned me anew every morning when we left our hotel, it was the food I fell in love with, the runny cheeses whose names I didn’t know, the invisible veil of the buttery scents of baking while walking down a street, the taunting perfume of sauteing onions drifting out from an alley, and the endless temptations of shop windows and street markets where food was presented with the most astonishing pride and beauty with the goal of delivering you pleasure.

And then we left. On a scorching August morning, the train hissed, and we jolted forward, which hardened the knot in my throat. A week in Paris had left me so smitten that as we left the soaring glass-and-steel shed of the Gare du Nord for the port on the English Channel from which we’d take a ferry to Dover, I knew I’d do whatever I had to do to come back, and that one day I’d return and stay for good. And I did.

I recently wrote a little essay about all of this for the Wall Street Journal.

And why did I decide to write this book now? I think the answer I gave to chef, blogger and writer David Lebovitz during an interview he recently posted on substack sums it all up best. This is what I told him:

The desire to write this book just sort of dropped in my lap – like a ripe peach – but I’d been mulling it over subconsciously for a long time. I love writing about restaurants, food, and chefs, but I also just plain love writing and storytelling. My voice has developed a lot through the years, so I was drawn to doing a non-fiction project with two main characters—me and food, that would tell the story of how I became a writer who chose to make food his subject.

My book is also the answer to many people, but most of all my late father, who had asked me, “But why food?” That’s what my father said asked me the last time I ever saw him. He complimented me on my writing but found my primary subject matter incomprehensible because it didn’t seem important to him. I disagreed, of course, because for me there is no subject that’s more important than food.

Writing My Place at the Table is also the expression of my desire to push out the walls on my relationship with food and writing. Because the internet has set off an era of iconoclasm, the formal expertise I’ve acquired over more than thirty years of eating in France needs to be expressed differently in today’s food and media world, to remain valued and relevant.

On June 3, 2021, I’ll be in conversation with David Lebovitz a Zoom event run by the excellent Book Larder bookstore in Seattle to discuss my book, Paris, France, French food and the fact that we’re both from Connecticut, among other things. Please join us. You can register for the event here: https://www.booklarder.com/events/info/my-place-at-the-table

I very much hope you’ll enjoy my book, and please share this post with friends, colleagues and family who also love Paris, France, good food, and a good story or three.

Please order my book using one of the three click-buttons in the right-hand column of this page or from your local independent bookseller.

If you’d like a signed copy of the book, Book Larder in Seattle has signed copies for sale, which you can order online. If you’d like a specially signed or dedicated book plate to place inside of your copy of my book, please contact me view this website, and I’d be happy to send you a signed and/or dedicated Houghton Mifflin Harcourt book plate to place inside of your book.