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The Gentleman's Companion: Complete Edition

by Charles Henry Baker

Travel, food, and drink in two volumes

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AlbakiReads Editorial

Travel, food, and drink in two volumes

Charles Henry Baker’s travelogue brings together accounts of journeys abroad with recipes drawn from the foods and cocktails he encountered. This complete edition combines the original The Exotic Cookery Book and The Exotic Drinking Book, pairing culinary material with memoir and travel writing. Baker’s episodes include encounters with figures such as Hemingway and Faulkner, placing the book’s food-and-drink focus within a portrait of travel culture in the 1920s and 1930s. First published in 1939, the work offers a historical view of the tastes, social settings, and travel experiences Baker records.

Good fit for readers who enjoy

  • For readers interested in culinary travel writing and food history.
  • For cooks and cocktail enthusiasts curious about recipes described as unusual in the 1920s and 1930s.
  • For readers exploring memoirs of travel and social life in the mid-twentieth century.

Themes

Culinary travelFood and cocktail recipesMemoir and travel cultureFood history

Based on publisher information and book metadata.

Book overview

Charles Baker traveled the world in search of exotic food and drink in addition to interesting people with whom he could share them. Both drink travelogue and cookbook, The Gentleman's Companion is the summation of Baker's culinary and drinking experiences abroad. Baker accents his tales of high adventure with recipes for foods and cocktails that were considered unusual specimens in the 1920s and 30s.

Baker, a captivating storyteller, wrote about food and drink for a number of well-known magazines. In this travelogue he relates how notorious figures, including Hemmingway and Faulkner, numbered among his drinking companions.

At once a culinary guidebook and haughty memoir, The Gentleman's Companion, initially published in 1939, provides a one-of-a-kind glimpse into the bombastic and glamorous world of travel in the mid-twentieth century. This edition combines both volumes of the original work: The Exotic Cookery Book and The Exotic Drinking Book.

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