Before The Joy of Cooking, there was The Boston Cooking School Cookbook. Written by Fannie Farmer, principal of the school, and published in 1896, it was the bestselling cookbook of its age. 400,000 copies were sold by Farmer's death in 1915 — and more than 4 million were sold by the 1960s. It perfectly encapsulates the late Victorian era, but it's also surprisingly modern; in short, it's ripe for reevaluation. And who better to conduct such an experiment than Chris Kimball, founder of Cook's Illustrated and host of PBS's America's Test Kitchen? Fannie's Last Supper is the result. In it, Kimball assembles an extravagant 12-course Christmas dinner from Farmer's cookbook and serves it in an 1859 Boston townhouse, complete with an authentic Victorian home kitchen, uniformed maids, and a distinguished guest list. The menu includes Roast Goose with Potato Stuffing, Canton Punch, Three Moulded Victorian Jellies, and Mandarin Cake. But Kimball includes more than just the dinner party's dishes — Fannie's Last Supper is a working cookbook with tested, rewritten, updated recipes drawn from Farmer's opus. It's a culinary thriller of sorts, travelling back in time to reexamine something most of us take for granted: the North American table.

クリス・キンバルが挑んだ本作は、単なる歴史の再現を超え、食文化の深淵に触れる知的な冒険です。伝説の料理家ファニー・ファーマーの思想を紐解き、ヴィクトリア朝の晩餐会を蘇らせる過程は、ミステリーのような緊張感に満ちています。計量の概念を確立した彼女の革新性が、著者の執念を通じて現代へ続く壮大なドラマとして昇華されています。 当時の調理環境を再現した緻密な描写は、家庭の味が近代化する瞬間の煌めきを映し出します。自らの食卓のルーツを探る探究心に火をつける、情熱と文化人類学的な深みが凝縮された一冊です。